The former Republican governor of Maryland and one of his party’s most vocal critics of Donald Trump, Larry Hogan, announced on Sunday that he will not run against the former president for the GOP candidacy for the White House in 2024.
The 66-year-old Hogan stated in The New York Times, “I would never run for president to sell books or position myself for a Cabinet position.
I’ve often maintained that I’m more concerned with safeguarding the future of the Republican Party than I am with ensuring my destiny within the party. And for that reason, I won’t run for president in the Republican primary.
The decision acknowledges that while many in the Party are exploring how to move past the Trump era, primary voters don’t seem to have much of an appetite for such a loud opponent of the outgoing president.
Some well-known Trump rivals, like former representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, aren’t launching a campaign right now.
That leaves Trump as the front-runner in the first field of Republican contenders.
He has only three recognized rivals, including his former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and Perry Johnson of Michigan.
Others, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, may participate in the coming months. Some, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, could wait until late summer to officially announce their campaigns.
In an interview on CBS’ “Face The Nation,” Hogan stated that the possibility of facing Trump didn’t influence his choice.
He’s tough,” Hogan remarked. Yet, you know, I overcame fatal cancer. Therefore, Trump calling me names on Twitter didn’t frighten me off.
Hogan continued, “It’s mainly about the country and the party. It was a choice I made for myself. I didn’t need that employment, it seemed. There was no need for me to seek another office. I was genuinely thinking about it because I believed it would benefit the community, and maybe I could change something.
Having served eight years as governor in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin, Hogan completed his second term in January.
Several Republicans had hoped that Hogan, who had recently emerged as the “Never Trump Republicans'” best chance, would take on Trump in the presidential election of 2020. Hogan declared that while he appreciated “all of the encouragement” he had gotten to run for president, the governor would not, a year after his reelection in 2018. According to Hogan, a “kamikaze mission” was not something he was interested in.
Hogan claimed he did not support Trump, the party’s nominee, in the previous two presidential elections.
Hogan claimed that he used his father, a former U.S. both the late President Ronald Reagan and Rep. Larry Hogan Sr.
Hogan unexpectedly defeated a contender with more funding to win his first term as governor in 2014. Hogan, a moderate Republican businessman running on economic concerns, used resentment over a range of tax and fee increases over the eight years before beating then-Lt. Tony Brown, the governor.
In his first year as governor, Hogan—who had never previously held elective office—focused on fiscal matters.
He reduced tolls, a decision he could make without the support of the General Assembly, which the Democrats have long controlled. Yet he also had difficulties, including protests in Baltimore after Freddie Gray died in police custody in 2015. Hogan dispatched the National Guard to put an end to the unrest.
He received a stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis in June of that year, yet he continued his job while undergoing treatment. Since November 2015, he has been in remission.
In 2018, he defeated former NAACP President Ben Jealous to become the state’s second Republican governor to win reelection.
Hogan has been open about his dislike of Trump as president for a long time.
Hogan denounced Trump in 2020 while serving as the National Governors Association’s head, claiming that the president was downplaying the threat posed by the coronavirus despite dire warnings from leading specialists in the country.
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