Republican Larry Hogan, the two-term former Maryland governor, made a surprise announcement Friday that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin after this year.
Hogan’s entry shakes up a race that had been dominated by the Democratic primary campaign battle between Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. David Trone.
Democrats hold a better than 2-1 voter registration in Maryland, and Republicans did not have a well-known candidate until Hogan jumped in. He filed with the Maryland State Board of Elections on Friday, the last day to formally enter the race. He previously had indicated that he was not interested in running.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was among national Republicans who had been recruiting the popular two-term governor to run, according to a McConnell spokesperson.
In 2018, Hogan became the first Republican to be reelected Maryland governor since Theodore McKeldin in 1954. He did it in part by presenting himself as a pragmatic businessman and divorcing himself from then President Donald Trump.
While Hogan wasn’t supportive of Trump, going so far as to not vote for him twice, many in the state Republican Party leadership have embraced the former president.
A Trump supporter, Dan Cox, won the Republican nomination in 2022 to succeed Hogan as governor, defeating Hogan’s choice, Kelly Schulz. Democrat Wes Moore easily defeated Cox in the general election.
The Maryland Republican Party provided The Baltimore Sun a statement about Friday’s candidate filing deadline that did not mention Hogan.
“We respect the process,” state GOP executive director Adam Wood said. “As a state political party, we are looking forward to seeing the process play out and working closely with whoever the voters say is the nominee.”
Hogan has sometimes contrasted Trump’s style with former Republican President Ronald Reagan’s, suggesting Reagan’s more tempered approach was preferable for the nation because he wasn’t focused on scoring partisan points.
In the 2020 election, Hogan said he cast a symbolic write-in vote for Reagan, who died in 2004. Trump is leading the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In 2022, McConnell and other top Republicans sought unsuccessfully to persuade Hogan to run for the Senate seat held by Democrat Chris Van Hollen, who was reelected.
“As I have repeatedly said, I don’t aspire to be a senator and that fact has not changed,” Hogan said in January 2022.
Hogan’s announcement video appeared on his website on Friday.
“Today, Washington is completely broken,” Hogan said in the video. “My fellow Marylanders, you know me,” he said, discussing his record as governor. “I have made the decision to run for the United States Senate, not to serve one party but to try to be part of the solution to fix our nation’s broken politics and fight for Maryland.”
Hogan could not be reached for additional comment after his statement was released.
Hogan’s father, Republican Larry Hogan Sr., lost a 1982 challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes. The defeat, including losing the heavily Democratic county of Prince George’s while serving as its county executive, ended the senior Hogan’s career in office. In a later interview, he said: “I regretted running. I shouldn’t have. Egos are a driving force for politicians.”
Earlier, Hogan Sr. served three terms in House of Representatives and sat on the House committee that voted to recommend the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. The younger Hogan has often praised his father’s decision to advocate for the impeachment of Nixon — a president of his own party — because it came at political expense.
Hogan’s entry is significant nationally since Democrats hold a narrow, 51-49 majority in the Senate. One Senate Democrat in a red state — West Virginia’s Joe Manchin — has announced his retirement, posing a challenge for Democrats.
“Larry Hogan is a godsend for Maryland Republicans, not to mention the Senate GOP. He’s the only Republican who would have any shot at the seat in a deeply Democratic state,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
“Hogan doesn’t start out as the November frontrunner, of course, but now Chuck Schumer and the Democrats will have to spend a ton of money to keep the seat — money that they would have much preferred to spend in states such as Ohio and Montana, where their incumbents are threatened,” Sabato said.
Alsobrooks quickly began using Hogan’s candidacy to try to raise funds.
“This is not a drill: Former Republican Governor Larry Hogan is entering the race for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat,” Alsobrooks’ campaign said in an email solicitation. “Defending our narrow Senate majority just got a lot tougher, but we know that Angela Alsobrooks is the strongest candidate to take him on.”
Trone, in a campaign statement, called Hogan’s candidacy “nothing but a desperate attempt to return Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump to power and give them the deciding vote to ban abortion nationwide, suppress votes across the country, and give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.”
David Smith, owner of The Baltimore Sun, contributed the maximum of $6,000 to Hogan for his 2018 gubernatorial reelection campaign.
