NORTH BETHESDA, Maryland — Larry Hogan summed up in one word his surprise over the unexpected, and unwelcomed, endorsement from former President Donald Trump: “What?!”
“To this day, I haven’t seen the actual video,” the Maryland Republican Senate candidate told the Washington Examiner on Sunday during an interview at an Asians for Hogan fundraiser just outside of Washington, D.C. “But I heard about it from my staff. And I was like, ‘What?!’”
Hogan, the former two-term Maryland governor who based his national profile on his centrist ideology and disdain for Trump, downplayed an endorsement from the presumptive GOP presidential nominee that could jeopardize his support among independents and centrist Democrats in the deep-blue state.
Trump told Fox News this month that he’d “like to see” Hogan win to “take the majority.”
“We have to straighten out our country, so I’d like to see him win,” Trump said. “He’s somebody that can win.”
Trump’s seal of approval came earlier this month just hours after Trump met privately with Senate Republicans in the nation’s capital, where he vowed to back GOP candidates and mended fences with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
Hogan characterized the endorsement as halfhearted, making the case that it’s unhelpful with the Maryland electorate but will ultimately have little impact because voters will rely on his eight-year stint as governor of the Old Line State.
“We can’t control what they’re going to say and do. I didn’t ask for his support or his endorsement,” he said. “We’re not going to be campaigning [together], and it certainly doesn’t provide much help to a guy that ran 46 points ahead of him in Maryland.”
Hogan continued: “He’s not going to have any impact on the race in Maryland at all, and there’s not going to be much of a race for president in Maryland. It’s going to be Joe Biden.”
Democrats, including opponent Angela Alsobrooks, beg to differ.
That’s the same thing I thought when I heard that the President had endorsed a Dino like hoggan.
I would rather have Larry Hogan inside the tent pissing out than have him outside the tent pissing in.
The return of Larry on the Corner. Who woulda thought Larry has a chance.
Alsobrooks is a loony lefty that ran her county in to the ground.
Hogan is a bona-fide RINO but still better than Alsobrooks.
Hopefully, Trump’s endorsement won’t tank his campaign and we can win the majority back!