CHEVY CHASE, Maryland — Democrats in the Old Line State are digging in their heels that Republican Senate hopeful Larry Hogan , the former two-term governor, is nothing but a self-described centrist secretly draped in MAGA gear .
As Republicans gathered in Milwaukee for the final day of their party convention on Thursday, Maryland Democrats assembled reporters hundreds of miles away in an affluent suburb of Washington to counter-program: Hogan may not be in Wisconsin with the rest of his party, but he’s “on red team.”
“Larry Hogan is running from his record,” Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) said. “He's running from the fact that he's the handpicked candidate of Donald Trump. He's running from the fact that he’s the handpicked candidate by [Senate Republican Leader Mitch] McConnell, but he's not running from those soft money dollars that are coming from the Republican Party. And when he gets to the Senate — if he gets there, we've got to make sure it doesn't happen — he would run to the Republican [Conference].”
The former president did not urge Hogan to join the race, and the former governor is vehemently anti-Trump. However, Hogan did receive an unwelcomed endorsement from the GOP presidential nominee and was lobbied by McConnell (R-KY) to run for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).
Former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, whose tenure coincided with Hogan’s governorship, borrowed a phrase from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to criticize Hogan's middle-of-the-road style of politicking.
“There's always somebody who's willing to be neutral between the fire brigade and fire,” Frosh said. “That person is Larry Hogan.”
The Hogan campaign told the Washington Examiner that the rhetoric from state Democrats was evidence the “Maryland political machine is in a state of panic over this race.”
“They were expecting another coronation where they could coast on partisanship, and instead they are getting the fight of their lives because Governor Hogan is an independent voice who will hold the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the current president, and the former president accountable,” Hogan spokesman Blake Kernen said. “Party hacks have nothing to offer voters except more partisan politics and dysfunction. Our campaign is about cutting through the partisan BS and getting things done for Marylanders.”
The tactic of tying Hogan to Trump and more polarizing conservative figures is one that Democratic nominee Angela Alsobrooks and Senate Democrats are banking on as the party looks to rewrite the years he spent forging relationships and policies across party lines. But there has been little evidence of the type of impact that stuffing him into a MAGA mold, particularly on abortion, has had on the race.
Polling is limited, with the only post-primary survey coming from a firm with Democratic Party ties showing Alsobrooks up 48%-40%. Hogan edged Alsobrooks in second-quarter fundraising by roughly $1 million.
In deep-blue Maryland, Democrats' strategy would usually get little attention. But against Hogan, a twice-elected statewide Republican who hates Trump, the approach could be a gamble that ultimately pushes crucial voters he is relying on to win, such as centrist Democrats and independents, toward the former governor.
“It's not so much we're just saying he's in this box,” Ivey said. “His record puts him there. The opposition to basic abortion rights and reproductive rights, the opposition to basic, and very reasonable, gun control measures. He can run from it, but he can't hide from it.”
Hogan’s Democratic opponent in the battleground race that could determine control of the Senate is Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive.
However, aside from the Alsobrooks campaign signs that covered the walls behind where the Maryland Democrats engaged with reporters, it might have otherwise been difficult to the common observer who Hogan was up against. In the less than 30 minutes that Ivey, Frosh, and various other state Democratic officials spoke, Trump and Hogan were mentioned a combined roughly 50 times compared to about seven mentions of Alsobrooks.
“He's running for the U.S. Senate,” Democratic state Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk said. “He's not running for governor. There is a difference, and people need to know that difference and the consequences of electing someone like him. He will be the 51st [Senate Republican] if he were to win to give the majority to the Republicans in the Senate.”
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Democrats have sought to kneecap Hogan on abortion, who only after clenching the primary said he was “pro-choice” and would support codifying Roe v. Wade into law at the national level. His critics point to actions taken as governor, such as vetoing the expansion of abortion access by allowing nonphysicians to perform the procedure, as further evidence that he will fit right in with Senate Republicans.
“It’s an important issue, and it should be one that keeps him from winning this election,” Peña-Melnyk said. “But it's more than that. It is what the Republican Party stands for and how polarized we are in this country, the values that do not reflect to having empathy and humanity. It is a lot more than just that issue.”
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