Larry Hogan came to Washington with a very simple message on Thursday: America is tired of you. All of you.
The former governor of Maryland came up short in his bid to be the first Republican senator from Maryland in decades in November. This week, he gave his first remarks since the election at No Labels, the bipartisan organization he co-chaired before his Senate bid.
The Independent was provided with a copy of his prepared remarks, in which the governor touted his ability to significantly outperform the president-elect in the state of Maryland despite his defeat; Hogan also noted that he did so better than any Republican in a statewide election across the country. In the end, an 11.7-point gap separated him from Angela Alsobrooks, the victorious senator-elect.
Hogan attributed his success to a rejection of the divisive, dysfunctional status quo — in both parties.
“We overperformed the top of the ticket by 17 points — more than any other statewide race in America,” Hogan said, according to the prepared remarks. “We created a model, and forged a path for all those who believe in civility, bipartisan compromise, and common sense for the common good.”
His campaign, the governor added, “proved that politics can be more than just red vs. blue.”
Hogan’s ability to win over Democrat voters was key to his two successful gubernatorial runs, though it could not quite convince Marylanders that he wouldn’t reliably caucus with MAGA Republicans in the next Senate. Despite his arguments throughout the campaign that he would serve as an independent voice and vote in the Senate, he couldn’t overcome the leftward bent of his state’s politics.
The remarks were received with a standing ovation from the group he joined just over three years prior to launching his bid for Senate. While serving at the organization, he was beset by overtures from moderate Republicans in his party to run for president. That path never materialized as Donald Trump reasserted his dominance over the party and trampled over critics and allies alike to complete a near-total sweep of the GOP primaries.
Republicans on the Hill leaned on the popular two-term governor to run for Senate as well, given that he was seen as likely the only Republican with a serious shot of winning a seat in Maryland, where a retiring Democratic senator left Republicans a key opening. Hogan told The Independent earlier this year that he eventually decided to run — despite having said thet he did not want to be in the Senate — given his overwhelming frustration with the collapse of negotations around a bipartisan border security and immigration bill the chamber considered in the spring.
He took aim at the sentiment which killed that bill again on Thursday, telling No Labels: “Both parties have been doing a lot more subtracting and dividing lately.”
“Durable solutions don’t come from ramming policies through on party-line votes,” Hogan said. “They come from honest negotiations, compromise, and a shared sense of responsiblity to serve the people.”
Maryland’s former governor gave no signs of any future plans in his remarks, however. Republicans like Mitt Romney who have expressed an interest in remain a part of the GOP’s post-Trump future are taking somewhat of a holding pattern ahead of the president-elect’s second term. Many remain unsure that there will be a post-Trump future for the party, or whether instead the dominance of Trumpism will carry on after 2028.
