Larry Hogan ditched the GOP convention but still had a presence

MILWAUKEE – While Maryland Republicans cheered J.D. Vance on the floor of the Republican National Convention this week, their former governor and current GOP U.S. Senate candidate was back home on TV, ducking questions about Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick.

“The two of us have pretty different views of the world,” Larry Hogan told a CBS interviewer.

Hogan’s decision to steer clear of the convention and his apparent unease with Vance hardly caused a stir among the Maryland RNC delegates. They’re embracing both Trump and Hogan – one of the former president’s sharpest GOP critics – who this year happens to be their best hope in a generation for sending a Republican to the Senate from the deep-blue state.

Like walking and chewing gum, Maryland Republicans have mastered the art of loving both men at the same time, knowing full well that a fervent fan of the 45th president has no shot at winning statewide office in a state that Trump himself is certain to lose. Again.

“Contrary to the mainstream media (reporting), the Republican Party of Maryland has always supported both President Trump and Governor Hogan,” said Dirk Haire, a convention delegate who was state GOP chairman while both men were in office. “We’ve always recognized the importance of supporting all of our Republican nominees.”

At least that’s the party line, despite behind-the-scenes skirmishes and efforts to sink some of Hogan’s most dramatic anti-Trump moves, like weighing a challenge to the sitting president in 2020. (Hogan also considered but abandoned a 2024 bid, this time saying he wanted to prevent “a multicar pileup” like the one that handed the nomination to Trump in 2016.)

There was no hint of intraparty tension Monday as Hogan got a shout-out on the convention floor – from none other than David Bossie, Maryland’s national committeeman and Trump’s deputy campaign manager for about half of 2016. That came during the state-by-state roll call to formally nominate Trump, a process that serves up a smorgasbord of local flavor. Doing the honors for the Old Line State, Bossie bragged to the crowd that Maryland was “home to Fort McHenry, the inspiration for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and the next United States senator from Maryland, Larry Hogan.”

Despite Hogan’s well-known criticisms of Trump, his name in absentia got a far better reception than some Republicans who were there in the flesh.

“He did not get booed like Mitch McConnell,” said state Del. Christopher Tomlinson (R-Carroll), referring to the Senate minority leader, who was jeered while presenting Kentucky’s delegate votes.

Aside from twice threatening to challenge him for the nomination, Hogan antagonized Trump throughout the pandemic while both men were in office. He provoked a fresh round of ire within Trump’s team at the end of May for calling on the public to “respect the verdict” in Trump’s hush money felony conviction.

“You just ended your campaign,” Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump strategist, wrote in response on X.

But by mid-June, Trump said he would support Hogan, noting the importance of taking the Senate majority and saying he would “like to see him win. … I know other people made some strong statements, but I can just say from my standpoint, I’m about the party and I’m about the country.”

Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci responded to Trump’s support at the time with a statement: “Governor Hogan has been clear he is not supporting Donald Trump just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020.”

Again this week, Hogan dismissed Trump’s support, saying “it wasn’t that helpful for me” and “it doesn’t have much impact at all.”

Given that history, Hogan would have raised eyebrows had he followed the lead of Maryland’s GOP faithful and schlepped to Wisconsin for the week. He instead held a string of campaign appearances that took him from the D.C. suburb of Prince George’s – home base to his Democratic Senate opponent, County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks – to Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore.

“Well, there aren’t a whole lot of undecided Maryland voters out there in Milwaukee, and you know, that’s what we’re focused on – trying to win votes,” Hogan told CBS on Monday when asked why he’d stay away. He told another interviewer, “Quite frankly, I haven’t looked at the Republican platform.”

Some of those celebrating Trump in the Fiserv Forum applaud that strategy, saying it makes little sense for blue-state Republicans in need of swing and moderate voters to spend time with fellow Republicans already inclined to vote for them.

“He can’t get any votes here that he wouldn’t already get,” Don Murphy, a former Maryland state legislator and convention delegate. “If he were here, I’d say, ‘Larry, go home.’”

Hogan wasn’t the only one staying home. Neil Parrott, a former Republican state delegate running in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, also remained in Maryland, though his stance on Trump is substantially softer than Hogan’s. Parrott, who defeated an election-denying Trump cheerleader for the GOP nomination, says he supports the former president but does not agree with him on every issue.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates both races “likely Democratic.”

Republican leaders are urging even the most die-hard Trump supporters to vote for Hogan, saying he could help advance Trump’s agenda even if he is not on board with it all of the time, members said.

“They’re telling all of us to send that message back to our Republican constituents to vote for Larry Hogan,” Tomlinson said. “This isn’t a Larry-versus-Trump thing. If Hogan gets in there, maybe Hogan votes 95 percent, 90 percent, even if he votes 50 percent of the time with the Republican caucus, that’s a lot better than how many times Angela Alsobrooks will vote with the Republican caucus, which is probably zero percent of the time.”

While Maryland Republican leaders are under no illusion that Trump will carry the deep-blue state he lost by 33 points four years ago – “President Trump’s not going to win Maryland,” Haire said flatly – the Hogan race gives them something to cheer.

“We haven’t won a Senate race since the 1980s and Governor Hogan clearly has the momentum in that race,” Haire said, noting fundraising reports that showed Hogan outraising Alsobrooks by about $1 million. “I think that it’s a really exciting opportunity.”

Said Murphy, the former Maryland delegate: “It would be hard for any Republican to not be excited that we have a competitive race.”