OPINION:
On May 1, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin ended months of speculation about whether he would launch a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Taking himself out of the running was the right thing to do, just as it was for fellow Republican Larry Hogan in neighboring Maryland — albeit for very different reasons. (More on that in a moment.)
To Mr. Youngkin’s credit, however, he didn’t dodge and weave when asked by The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker whether he was planning on “dusting off” his signature fleece jacket and testing the waters on the political chicken-dinner circuit in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He answered with an unequivocal “no.”
That was the correct decision, because Mr. Youngkin has been a political officeholder for just 16 months, and both Virginia and his political career would be better served by his finishing his four-year term and then challenging ultraliberal Democratic Sen. Mark Warner for his seat in 2026. “Sen. Youngkin” has a nice ring to it, and at 56, he has plenty of time to seek the White House later.
Unlike in 2020 when Mr. Warner trounced an underfunded GOP rival, the Democratic incumbent wouldn’t be able to vastly outspend Mr. Youngkin, whose large personal fortune is comparable to Mr. Warner’s.
Meanwhile, across the Potomac River, with Sen. Ben Cardin, Maryland Democrat, having announced — also on May 1 — that he won’t seek a fourth term next year, Mr. Hogan, a former two-term Republican governor, has an opportunity to step up.
Mr. Hogan had floated the idea of entering the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race as a “moderate” alternative to former President Donald Trump, of whom he has been stridently — and often gratuitously — critical. But he disappointed the country club wing of the GOP when he realized he stood the proverbial snowball’s chance and on March 5 wisely bowed out.
When Mr. Hogan left office in January, we chastised him here for his conspicuous failure to use his eight years in the Governor’s Mansion to breathe life into a moribund Maryland Republican Party. It was a shamefully missed opportunity to build a competitive two-party system in the Free State.
Mr. Hogan could do the country and the Maryland GOP a favor, however, if he were to run for and win the soon-to-be-open Senate seat of the far-left Mr. Cardin, thereby moving the ideological needle of Maryland’s congressional delegation, if not to the right, at least a bit toward the center.
After all, Mr. Hogan is probably the only viable candidate for Senate in that state (unless a telegenic, articulate nonpolitician of Mr. Youngkin’s stature were to emerge from the private sector). And unlike with the Republican nod for president, Mr. Hogan might actually stand a chance of winning the seat — a move that could help the GOP get one step closer to reclaiming a Senate majority, which would get America one step closer to commonsense legislation.
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