Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said he would rethink his candidacy if he thought it would inadvertently contribute to former President Donald Trump securing the White House in 2024.
Hogan, who is among several former governors considering a 2024 GOP presidential bid, said on Sunday in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that the timeline for his potential campaign announcement could come sometime this spring.
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“I’ve got strong support with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents,” Hogan said. “I left as one of the most successful governors in America … I got the same vote Trump did in the Republican primary and ran 45 points ahead of him in the general.”
However, he said he would rethink his candidacy if it paved the way for the former president to make his return to president in 2024.
“I don’t care that much about my future in the Republican Party. I care about making sure we have a future for the Republican Party, and if we can stop Donald Trump and elect a great Republican, commonsense conservative leader, that certainly would be a factor,” Hogan said.
Hogan reaffirmed his position that he would not support Trump for president in 2024, stating that he is putting the country before the party.
“I’m a life-long Republican, who wants to support the nominee of the party, whoever that is,” Hogan said. “However, I’ve said before, I didn’t support Trump, I wouldn’t support Trump. I’d put the country ahead of party, and not put somebody in that should not be the president.”
He added that he is concerned that the spread of disinformation relating to the 2020 election being stolen, as well as appointing election deniers to positions of power within the Republican Party, could severely impact the GOP’s success in future elections.
“I think we have to get back to a bigger tent party that can appeal to more people,” Hogan said. “Otherwise, we’ll keep losing elections.”
Hogan believes that, overall, the Republican Party‘s core values are seemingly being pushed to the side in favor of far-right stances on cultural issues, something that could impact the GOP’s success in the 2024 election.
Hogan agreed with Todd that the three legs of the party’s “stool” focus on small government, low taxes, and cultural issues, but that Republicans are not united on the first two “important issues.”
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“I’ve been talking out about the important issues for a long time, and I was a Republican governor in the bluest state in America and got things done working across the aisle with Democrats,” he said. “It’s not what everyone’s talking about, and I think some people are making the calculation that base, primary voters in the Trump lane, that’s what they want to hear about, and so a lot of candidates are focusing on that.”
“You can’t dismiss it, but it’s not the only thing we’re talking about,” he added.
