Democratic Party leaders, who concede Larry Hogan is a powerful Republican political force, are determined to rebrand him as a MAGA stooge as he campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat from Maryland.
The plan is designed to take down a Republican threat in Democratic-leaning Maryland who doesn’t fit neatly into the Democrats’ playbook for a starkly divided America. Although Mr. Hogan opposes Donald Trump, Democrats stress that he is still a Republican.
Democrats deployed a similar strategy to no avail in the 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial races. They spent millions of dollars to portray Mr. Hogan as a dangerous social conservative, but his low-tax, pro-business message carried him to the Governor’s Mansion in Annapolis.
Hogan campaign spokesman Michael Ricci said they expect Democrats to again “put a lot of time and money into those kinds of cookie-cutter attacks.”
“They don’t want to run against the Larry Hogan who Marylanders know and trust. They want a cartoon character version,” Mr. Ricci said. “But he’s not a typical Republican, and they have a tough task ahead of them trying to prove otherwise.”
Mr. Hogan, elected in 2014 as only the second Republican Maryland governor in 50 years, tipped the battle for the Senate majority slightly more toward the Republican Party with his last-minute decision to enter the race.
Senate Democrats must retain several battleground seats in November to maintain or increase their one-seat majority.
Known for his bipartisan and centrist nature, Mr. Hogan is a longtime opponent of Mr. Trump and says he won’t vote for him this year. The former governor said he wants to go to the Senate to “fix our nation’s broken politics and fight for Maryland.”
Democrats insist Mr. Hogan is a Trojan horse for right-wing extremists.
Rep. David Trone, who is vying against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland’s Democratic primary for Senate, labeled Mr. Hogan as “Mitch McConnell in disguise” in a recent WYPR radio interview.
The characterization hits Mr. Hogan on two fronts. Mr. McConnell, the longtime Senate Republican leader, is loathed by Democrats for his party affiliation and by far-right conservatives for being an anti-Trump Washington Republican.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said Mr. Hogan is simply on the wrong team.
“I’m confident that the Democratic Senate nominee will win because Marylanders will recognize that a vote for Larry Hogan is a vote to put Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Rick Scott in the majority of the United States Senate.”
Democrats’ anti-Republican arguments haven’t worked against Mr. Hogan in the past, and his record as governor does not support their attacks, said Richard Vatz, a professor of political persuasion at Towson University in Maryland.
“To claim he is in line with the most conservative Republicans in the Senate is just untrue. I don’t think it will take long for Hogan to convince people of that,” Mr. Vatz said. “People in Maryland like to see Hogan’s demeanor in senatorial candidates. … You don’t find any kind of crazy anger or nastiness.”
He said Mr. Hogan’s style is closer to that of Mr. Van Hollen or Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin.
Mr. Hogan is running to replace Mr. Cardin, the third-term Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has been in Congress since 1987. He is retiring at the end of the year.
Mr. Hogan’s campaign for the Senate, an institution he once vowed never to join, illustrates his alignment with moderates. He said he was motivated to enter the race by his outrage at most Senate Republicans, backed by Mr. Trump, helping tank a bipartisan border policy deal.
He also has steered toward the center on hot-button issues such as abortion.
Speaking at an Axios event in Washington last week, Mr. Hogan said he opposes a federal abortion ban but would not stake a position on codifying Roe v. Wade or protecting in vitro fertilization.
The Alabama Supreme Court issued a first-of-its-kind ruling on Feb. 16 declaring that embryos are people. Mr. Hogan said the IVF issue is brand new and he doesn’t want to “speculate on what the legislation might look like.”
Mr. Hogan, who in 2018 became the first Republican governor to win a second term in Maryland since 1954, would make history again if he prevails in the Senate race.
A Republican senator hasn’t been elected in Maryland since 1980. The state gave Joseph R. Biden his fourth-largest margin of victory in 2020 against Mr. Trump with a more than 30-point margin. Nonpartisan election forecasters rate the race as likely Democratic.
Still, early polling shows Mr. Hogan tied or ahead of Mr. Trone and Ms. Alsobrooks.
One difference in this race is that Mr. Hogan has never appeared on the same ticket as Mr. Trump, who clinched the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday.
“It’s a tough place for a Republican,” Mr. Hogan said at the Axios event. “But the voters of Maryland know me and have overwhelmingly voted for me twice.”
Mr. Cardin, confident that his successor will be a Democrat, said having Mr. Trump at the top of the Republican ticket “makes it more clear [Mr. Hogan] is with them.”
“This is not a gubernatorial year. This is a presidential year,” he said. “This is where the control of the Senate, the presidential politics, the future of our country and the division in the parties play a much stronger role.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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