ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Larry Hogan, the previous Republican governor of Maryland who positioned himself as one in every of his get together’s fiercest critics of Donald Trump, stated Sunday he is not going to problem the ex-president for the GOP’s White Home nomination in 2024.
“I’d by no means run for president to promote books or place myself for a Cupboard function,” the 66-year-old Hogan wrote in The New York Instances. “I’ve lengthy stated that I care extra about guaranteeing a future for the Republican Get together than securing my very own future within the Republican Get together. And that’s the reason I can’t be in search of the Republican nomination for president.”
The transfer is a recognition that whereas many within the GOP are contemplating methods to maneuver on from the Trump period, there’s little urge for food amongst major voters for such a vocal critic of the previous president. Different outstanding Trump adversaries, together with former Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, don’t look like making strikes towards a marketing campaign in the mean time.
For now, that leaves Trump because the main determine within the early discipline of Republican candidates.
To this point, he faces simply three formal challengers: his former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Michigan businessman Perry Johnson. Others, together with former Vice President Mike Pence, ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, might be a part of within the coming months. Some, reminiscent of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, may wait till late summer season to formally announce their campaigns.
In an interview airing on CBS’ “Face The Nation,” Hogan insisted the prospect of competing in opposition to Trump didn’t issue into his choice.
“He’s very robust,” Hogan stated. “However, you already know, I beat life-threatening most cancers. So having Trump name me names on Twitter didn’t — didn’t actually scare me off.”
“It’s largely concerning the nation and concerning the get together,” Hogan added. “It was a private choice. It was like, I didn’t want that job. I didn’t have to run for an additional workplace. It was actually I used to be contemplating it as a result of I assumed it was public service and possibly I could make a distinction.”
Hogan wrapped up his second time period as governor in January, serving for eight years in a state the place Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin. He was Maryland’s second Republican governor ever to be reelected.
Some Republicans had hoped that Hogan, rising as the brand new greatest hope of a small group of “By no means Trump Republicans,” would problem Trump in 2020. However a yr after Hogan’s reelection in 2018, he stated that whereas he appreciated “the entire encouragement” he had acquired to run for president, he wouldn’t. Hogan informed The Related Press he had no real interest in a “kamikaze mission.”
Up to now two presidential elections, Hogan stated he didn’t vote for Trump, the get together nominee. Hogan stated he wrote within the title of his father, former U.S. Rep. Larry Hogan Sr., in 2016 and the late President Ronald Reagan in 2020.
Hogan received his first time period as governor in 2014 in an upset, utilizing public marketing campaign financing in opposition to a better-funded candidate. Working on fiscal considerations as a reasonable Republican businessman, Hogan tapped into frustration from a wide range of tax and payment will increase over the eight earlier years to defeat then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.
Hogan had by no means held elected workplace earlier than and in his first yr as governor, he centered on pocketbook points. He lowered tolls, an motion he may take with out approval from the Basic Meeting, lengthy managed by Democrats. However he was additionally offered with challenges, together with unrest in Baltimore following the demise of Freddie Grey in police custody in 2015. Hogan despatched the Nationwide Guard to forestall additional rioting.
In June of that yr, he was identified with stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma however continued working whereas receiving therapy. He has been in remission since November 2015.
In 2018, he turned solely the second Republican governor within the historical past of the state to win reelection, defeating former NAACP President Ben Jealous.
Hogan has lengthy been upfront about his distaste for Trump as president.
In 2020, as chair of the Nationwide Governors Affiliation, Hogan criticized Trump for delaying a nationwide coronavirus testing technique, saying the president was taking part in down the virus’ menace regardless of grave warnings from prime nationwide specialists.
“I didn’t exit of my method to criticize the president,” Hogan stated. “However in contrast to loads of Republicans, I’m not the man that’s simply going to take a seat down and shut up and never rise up and say one thing if I believe one thing’s going incorrect.”
Describing the riot on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as “one of many darkest days in American historical past,” Hogan stated Trump ought to have resigned or been faraway from workplace.
“The those that attempt to whitewash Jan. 6 as if nothing occurred are delusional. It was an assault on democracy,” Hogan informed the AP late final yr.
Trump and Hogan had been engaged in a proxy battle of types within the 2022 election. Hogan’s decide to succeed him as governor was Kelly Schulz, who was labor secretary and commerce secretary in his administration. She misplaced within the Republican major to Trump-endorsed Dan Cox, a state lawmaker who stated President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory shouldn’t have been licensed and who sought to question Hogan for his pandemic insurance policies.
Cox went on to lose the November basic election by a big margin to Democrat Wes Moore.
