Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has been a beacon of anti-Trump sanity in a Republican Party that has too little of it these days. In that sense, his announcement that he won’t seek the 2024 presidential nomination, made in a New York Times op-ed Sunday, is something of a disappointment. But his reasoning is valid: Having multiple Republicans in the primary race could create “another multicar pileup,” giving former President Donald Trump a path to again capture the nomination — an outcome Hogan rightly views as unacceptable.
Hogan’s advice is worth heeding. Republicans of good faith must coalesce around one reasonable Trump alternative rather than risk fragmenting the non-MAGA vote among multiple moderates. Hogan has apparently surmised, probably correctly, that he doesn’t have the national base for it. But it’s crucial that the party find that candidate.
Hogan, who served eight years as Maryland’s governor before his term-limited tenure ended in January, has long been among the GOP’s most vocal critics of Trump. While Hogan’s essay Sunday cites family stress as a reason for deciding not to seek the presidency, he expounds extensively on the urgency of unifying the party against Trump.
