Larry Hogan launches surprise bid for Maryland Senate seat

Larry Hogan launches surprise bid for Maryland Senate seat

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan launched a surprise, last-minute bid for an open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland late Friday, hours before the filing deadline.

Hogan led the deeply Democratic state for two terms and left office with high approval ratings, but had previously ruled out a run for Senate in 2022 to chase a potential presidential bid he abandoned last year.

In a video announcing his 2024 Senate bid to succeed retiring Democrat U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, Hogan said, “Washington is completely broken” because a “willingness to put country ahead of party is far too rare.”

Using lines familiar to Maryland residents, he cast his candidacy as one against partisanship in general, and described himself as “like the exhausted majority of Marylanders.”

“My fellow Marylanders, you know me,” he said. “For eight years we proved that the toxic politics that divide our nation need not divide our state.”

He’s the only well-known and high-profile Republican in the race. The Democratic primary has become a two-person contest between Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

Two years ago, Hogan had been courted by national Republicans to challenge Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and help the GOP tip the chamber’s balance of power, but he declined after months of speculation.

“I have repeatedly said, I don’t aspire to be a United States senator, and that fact has not changed,” he said at the time.

His reversal now will test the endurance of his popularity and whether Maryland’s Democratic voters are willing to send a pragmatic Republican to the U.S. Senate if it would hurt Democrats nationally.

The Maryland Republican Party he lead lost many of the pro-Hogan leaders from his tenure, replaced by supporters of former president Donald Trump, whom Hogan has sharply criticized for years.

This is a developing story and will be updated.