Donald Trump endorsed current Senate candidate Larry Hogan this week — but that doesn’t mean the former Maryland governor will be retuning the favor.
The former president endorsed Hogan for the Maryland Senate on Thursday, saying, “We have to straighten out our country. So, I’d like to see him when he’s somebody that can win…And I would like to see him win.” Trump continued, “I think he has a good chance to win. I would like to see him win. And we’ve got to take the [Senate] majority.”
A Hogan campaign official told Fox News in response that the Republican Senate candidate doesn’t feel the same way: “Governor Hogan has been clear he is not supporting Donald Trump, just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020.”
The former governor has made his views clear about the former president in the past.
Not only was he outspoken about Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic when he was still serving as governor, but Hogan more recently encouraged Americans to “respect the verdict and the legal process” after Trump’s historic conviction in his hush money trial. The Maryland Republican added: “At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
His comments about the conviction came in stark contrast to others in his party — and actively angered some.
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and the Republican National Committee co-chair, told CNN that Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly anybody in America.”
Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign manager, similarly chimed in: “You just ended your campaign.”
When she was asked about whether the RNC would spend resources on Hogan’s Senate run, she offered a noncommital response: “I’ll get back to you on all the specifics monetarily, but what I can tell you is that as the Republican Party co-chair, I think he should never have said something like that.”
The two-term Maryland governor left office in January 2023 with a soaring approval rating of 77 percent.
Trump’s support of the GOP Senate candidate likely comes as he tries to gain popularity in Maryland, a blue state he lost by 33 percent in 2020 and by 25 percent in 2016.
