Larry Hogan has won statewide twice. But now everything is different.

[Celerity]

Hogan faces Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, who would be Maryland’s first Black senator, in his bid to flip a reliably blue U.S. Senate seat red. The matchup is one of a few expected to determine the balance of power in the chamber.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/15/maryland-senate-larry-hogan/

https://archive.ph/nys5D

Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan and his wife, Yumi Hogan, walk into the polling station at Davidsonville Elementary School on Tuesday in Davidsonville. (Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post)

Republican Larry Hogan proved he can win statewide in deep-blue Maryland, but he has never faced a campaign like the one he is about to undertake. The former governor has not had to run with Donald Trump atop the ballot or with control of the U.S. Senate on the line. Nor has Hogan had to run against a Democrat who has a chance to make history — a Black woman backed by a nationwide coalition eager to defeat him. As he seeks to become Maryland’s next senator against the Democratic nominee, Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, Hogan also faces a far different electorate and political climate than when he won his first gubernatorial race a decade ago. After eight years in Annapolis, he will be forced to defend his record against Democrats no longer willing to celebrate him as a symbol of bipartisan leadership.

One target, they say, is his 2022 veto of legislation to expand abortion access in Maryland. “We can do it because he has got a bad record,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown (D), who lost the 2014 gubernatorial race to Hogan. “We were afraid that if we criticized the governor, we would be viewed as overly partisan.” They’re not afraid of that anymore, he said. Democrats who have voted for Hogan in the past may be more reluctant now that his victory could help Republicans capture control of the Senate — a possibility of pointed concern for voters worried about issues such as abortion rights. Hogan, at his victory party Tuesday night, sought to allay those fears, promising not to be “just another Republican on Capitol Hill” but to “stand up to the current president, the former president, to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.”

Hogan greets supporters Tuesday after he won the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in the Maryland primary election. (Wesley Lapointe for The Washington Post)

He also made a point of addressing concerns about his position on abortion, saying, “Let me set the record straight: To the women of Maryland, you have my word that I will continue to protect your right to make your own reproductive choices.” Democrats began pressing their anti-Hogan case soon after the primary ended. Alsobrooks, at her own celebration Tuesday, seized the opportunity to cast Hogan as an ally of the current GOP leadership, labeling him as the “BFF” (best friend forever) of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and saying, “Donald Trump’s Republican Party wants to flip this seat.” “Let’s be extremely clear about who Larry Hogan is,” said Alsobrooks, before reminding her audience of his abortion access veto and that he canceled a $2.9 billion transit line that would have traversed Baltimore. Hogan’s cross-party appeal buoyed his 2018 reelection campaign, with one voter survey showing he captured 31 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.

He still has Democratic allies

Bobby Zirkin, a former Maryland state lawmaker who co-chairs Democrats for Hogan, said Wednesday that he is supporting the Republican despite pressure from friends who are “yelling at me” for not backing Alsobrooks. “I’ll give you one word: Israel,” said Zirkin by way of explanation, referring to Hogan’s promise to be Maryland’s “pro-Israel champion” in the Senate. “It has made this decision for me very easy.” Zirkin, a moderate who represented Baltimore County, also praised the former governor for helping to ban fracking and expand the list of crimes that can be expunged from records. “The most progressive things I ever did, Larry Hogan was involved in,” Zirkin said.

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