Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced Sunday he would not run for president in 2024, ending months of speculation over the moderate Republican’s presidential ambitions.
Summary
Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced Sunday he would not run for president in 2024, ending months of speculation over the moderate Republican’s presidential ambitions.
- “I would never run for president to sell books or position myself for a cabinet role. I have long said that I care more about ensuring a future for the Republican Party than securing my own future in the Republican Party,” Hogan wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “And that is why I will not be seeking the Republican nomination for president.”
- Hogan had positioned himself as a vocal Donald Trump critic while considering his bid, and insisted Trump “didn’t really scare me off.” Hogan added, “It was a personal decision. It was like, I didn’t need that job. I didn’t need to run for another office. It was really I was considering it because I thought it was public service and maybe I can make a difference.”
- The former Maryland governor said he did not want to create a “multicar pileup” of non-Trump candidates that would make it easier for the former President to win the GOP nomination for the third cycle.
- Hogan was cagey about who he would back in 2024. He complimented Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his statewide executive experience and heaped praise on former Vice President Mike Pence as a “full of integrity and experience.”
- Hogan served two terms as governor of Democratic-leaning Maryland. He won his 2018 reelection campaign in a landslide and left office earlier this year due to term limits.
- The Washington Post reported on other candidates who could run for president in 2024. Besides Trump, ex-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Pence, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could all launch campaigns in the coming weeks.
- The New York Times noted that Hogan repeatedly said he “thought his record could be an example for the Republican Party, which has moved sharply to the right and has lost or fallen short of expectations in all three election cycles since Mr. Trump was inaugurated.” It’s not clear that Republican voters similarly think the party needs to move to the center.
- As CNN observed, Hogan didn’t vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020 and considered challenging him in the 2020 GOP primaries. Its unclear whether that kind of strident anti-Trump advocacy could’ve performed well in a GOP presidential primary.
- The Wall Street Journal noted that the very thing that made Hogan a popular governor of Maryland – his centrism – would’ve made any presidential campaign against a field of more conservative contenders a difficult task.
- National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar thanked Hogan for not running for president and observed his op-ed “tactfully” omitted two primary reasons for Hogan to pass on 2024: that he wouldn’t win, and would “suffer the indignity” of losing Maryland’s presidential primary.
- According to Fox News, Hogan is open to supporting a candidate who “stands for fiscal responsibility and getting the government off our backs and out of our pockets,” “celebrates entrepreneurship and economic opportunity for every American,” “backs law enforcement and the rule of law,” “works to secure peace through strength in our dangerous world,” and “can win not just the electoral college or the popular vote but sweep landslide elections with an inclusive, broad coalition of Americans and a hopeful, optimistic vision for America’s future.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
