Republican candidate for Senate Larry Hoganthe former governor of Maryland, humiliated donald trump in rejecting the former president’s endorsement on Thursday.
“Gov. Hogan has made it clear that he is not supporting Donald Trump, just as he did not in 2016 and 2020,” said Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci. told Fox News when asked about Trump’s statement of support.
Hogan wrote in March the The Republican Party Couldn’t Afford to Have Trump as the candidate. But the criminally convicted candidate still went out of his way to support Hogan.
“I would like to see him win,” Trump told Fox News. “I think he has a good chance of winning. I would like to see him win. And we have to keep the majority.”
Asked by the conservative news outlet whether he supported Hogan, Trump said: “Essentially, I would, yes.”
Hogan rattled Trump’s team and allies by urging Americans to “respect the verdict and the legal process” before Trump was convicted in his secret trial last month.
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, later said that Hogan “doesn’t deserve respect from anyone in the Republican Party right now and, frankly, from anyone in America.”
Chris LaCivita, Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager, wrote ominously to Hogan on X (formerly Twitter): “You just ended your campaign.”
Hogan, who served two terms as governor in the blue state and previously said he wouldn’t vote for Trumpis running against Democrat Angela D. Alsobrooks for Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D) seat.
Trump lost Maryland in more than 30 points in the 2020 election, perhaps making him an albatross for Republican candidates in the state. But it seems the possibility of winning a Senate seat under his potential presidency made him swallow his pride to support Hogan.