A top Republican figure has warned that the party under Donald Trump has become a “cult of personality” and it could not afford to try and put the former US president back in the White House in 2024.
Larry Hogan, a former Maryland governor, had been widely tipped to enter the party’s nomination race but instead used an op-ed in the New York Times on Sunday to announce he would not be running and to warn against Trump’s own 2024 campaign.
“I would never run for president to sell books or position myself for a cabinet role. I have long said that I care more about ensuring a future for the Republican party than securing my own future in the Republican party,” Hogan wrote.
He went on to warn that the Republican party cannot be successful if it puts “personality before principle, if our elected officials are afraid to say publicly what they freely admit behind closed doors, and if we can’t learn from our mistakes because of the political cost of admitting facts to be true”.
“For too long, Republican voters have been denied a real debate about what our party stands for beyond loyalty to Mr Trump. A cult of personality is no substitute for a party of principle,” Hogan continued.
He added: “I am deeply concerned about this next election. We cannot afford to have Mr Trump as our nominee and suffer defeat for the fourth consecutive election cycle. To once again be a successful governing party, we must move on from Mr Trump.”
Hogan explained that his decision not to run for president is due to stakes that are “too high for [him] to be part of another multicar pileup” which could potentially help Trump secure the Republican nomination once more.
Hogan echoed similar sentiments last month, telling NBC in an interview that if he believed his candidacy was going to contribute to inadvertently helping Trump, then “that would be a pretty good reason to consider not running”.
Seven years ago, when asked by reporters whether he was going to vote for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, Hogan replied: “No, I don’t plan to.”
In 2020, then president Trump lashed out at Hogan after Maryland purchased a batch of flawed Covid-19 tests from a South Korean company.
“This RINO will never make the grade,” Trump wrote on Twitter, using a disparaging acronym for “Republican in Name Only” coined by far-right Republicans. “Hogan is just as bad as the flawed tests he paid big money for!”
In response, Hogan wrote: “If you had done your job, America’s governors wouldn’t have been forced to fend for themselves to find tests in the middle of a pandemic, as we successfully did in Maryland.”
“Stop golfing and concede,” Hogan added, calling on Trump to accept the 2020 presidential election results.
Meanwhile, another top Republican who chimed in on the presidential race discussion on Sunday was Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire.
During an interview with NBC host Chuck Todd, Todd asked Sununu if he would be comfortable signing a “loyalty pledge” as a presidential candidate that would ensure his support for whoever ends up securing the Republican nomination, even if it were Trump.
“I’m a lifelong Republican. I’m going to support the Republican nominee. When you look at what’s coming out of the White House, it isn’t Democrat policies. It’s real leftwing extreme agenda type stuff that is not in the best interest of this country and I have no doubt that any solid Republican … would be better than … what comes out,” Sununu said.
Nevertheless, Sununu said that he does not think that Trump will secure the nomination.
“As far as former president Trump, I think he’s going to run – obviously he’s in the race. He’s not going to be the nominee. That’s just not going to happen,” he said.
Sununu has not officially announced his run for presidency but hinted last month that a run would be “an opportunity to change things”.
