Democrats are pivoting to a new attack line against GOP Maryland Senate hopeful Larry Hogan that may raise eyebrows among those familiar with the centrist Republican’s record: He’s a fake Never Trumper.
The rhetoric goes beyond that of Democratic rival Angela Alsobrooks, who’s sought to rebrand the former two-term governor as a “MAGA”-enabler that would hand the keys of the Senate to Republicans, by painting his long-held antithetical views of the former president as phony.
The Hogan campaign pushed back by touting its candidate as a “leading” Trump critic.
“Governor Hogan has been the leading Republican speaking out against Donald Trump form the beginning — and Maryland Democrats have repeatedly praised him for doing so,” campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernen told the Washington Examiner. “As part of his core commitments to Marland voters, Governor Hogan will never hesitate to stand up to the Republican Party to do what is right for Marland.”
The unexpectedly competitive race in a state President Joe Biden captured by more than 30 points prompted Democrats early on to brush aside Hogan’s promise to stay in the lane he charted as governor as a political maverick willing to rebuff his own party.
Maryland Democrats, including senators, representatives, and the former state attorney general, now say Hogan failed to stand up to Trump by snubbing progressive policies and demands as governor.
“When Trump became president, Gov. Hogan stood in the way of Maryland taking a strong stand against a whole series of things he was doing,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former lead impeachment manager against Trump.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) whacked Hogan for having “blocked or tried to block” efforts by then-Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, to “hold the Trump administration accountable.” He added that Hogan underwent an “election-year conversion” with his policy positions.
“Larry Hogan has been talking a lot about how he stood up to Donald Trump,” Frosh said in a call with reporters on Friday. “That’s not what I remember.”
During Hogan’s tenure, which ran parallel to Frosh from 2015 to 2023 and overlapped all of Trump’s first term, the Democratic-led state legislature empowered the attorney general to sue the administration without the governor’s approval.
As evidence of Hogan’s alleged anti-Trump facade, Frosh cited his own lawsuits launched against the Trump administration covering the so-called Muslim ban, Obamacare, access to abortion, food stamps, toxic chemicals, environmental protections, gun control, and migrant detentions.
“Please don’t tell me that Larry Hogan is going to stand up to Donald Trump,” Frosh said. “The house was on fire for four years, and Larry Hogan did not so much as spit on the blades.”
On the campaign trail, Hogan has vowed not to vote for Trump but will caucus with Senate Republicans if elected, an alliance that would create a GOP majority.
He’s consistently spurned Trump and distanced himself from national Republicans, such as denouncing the “culture of fear” over speaking out against the presidential nominee that is “a plague on our party.” His campaign has cited the national GOP’s agenda as the “greatest challenge” to winning in Maryland.
As part of its rebuttal to Democrats’ claims, the Hogan campaign referred to an ad it cut in May rejecting the Left’s attempt to paint him as a “MAGA” stooge by showcasing past praise from Democrats, including Van Hollen.
“Gov. Hogan put the country over party,” Van Hollen says in a clip.
Van Hollen said at the time that the Hogan campaign must’ve “really had to dig for that one” because it’s from a 2016 debate, and it called it “cherry-picked.”
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The ad also included positive comments, made prior to Hogan’s Senate campaign, from Alsobrooks, Biden, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), former President Bill Clinton, and Rep. David Trone (D-MD), Alsobrooks’s onetime primary opponent.
Hogan has also made remarks that have fueled Democratic attacks, including giving Trump credit for having “nominated incredible justices to the Supreme Court.” His campaign at the time said the remarks were to a Jewish group in the context of a religious education ruling and criticized Senate Republicans’ handling of the confirmation process for Trump’s nominees.
