Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), the GOP candidate to retire Democratic Sen. Cardin’s Maryland seat, argued Friday that his recent pivot to abortion is not “a great transformation.”
Hogan said he supports “restoring Roe as the law of the land” and called himself “pro-choice” in an interview published Thursday in The New York Times.
Hogan doubled down on his comments in that interview on Friday, saying his stance on abortion as he described it to the NYT “really wasn’t a big transformation,” The Washington Post reported.
“Times have changed,” Hogan said, according to the Post. “Look, things have changed in the last few decades and the last two years.”
Hogan did not commit to supporting legislation codifying the right to abortion into federal law in March.
“I think we’re going to have to take a look at that as we move forward,” Hogan said at the time. “…Whether it’s necessary or not.”
The former governor of Maryland said his current position on abortion is enlightening and not new, according to The Washington Post.
“After Roe was overturned, it really put us in a bad position where we were having some crazy, irrational things happening,” Hogan said, also noting recent legal battles surrounding reproductive health, like those in Alabama and Arizona, according to The Washington Post.
“We don’t want to go back to 1864,” he said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called Hogan’s change in position a “head turn” on Thursday.
“This is a complete turnaround,” Van Hollen told The Hill on Thursday. “Larry Hogan tried to present himself as a non-politician, above politics. I agree with your new position, but let’s be clear, this is a total political movement and so the question is: do you believe in the old Larry Hogan or the new Larry Hogan and if you have to ask that question, voters have reason to worry .”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
