He was one of the nation’s most popular governors, a Republican who oversaw a blue state for eight years. Now, Larry Hogan, whose term expired last year, is a candidate for U.S. Senate and struggling to win back the moderate Democratic voters who supported him in the past in a hotly contested presidential election year.
"Obviously it's a different turnout,” Hogan told Scripps News aboard his campaign’s bus after a Veterans for Hogan event in southern Maryland. “It's a different motivation, and I have to convince a lot of ticket splitters.”
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Recent polls show Hogan trailing the Democratic candidate, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks by double digits. Though Hogan is running as a Republican, the focus of his campaign has been a promise to be an independent voice in the Senate.
Hogan says he would model his time in Washington after outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin, the longtime Democrat turned Independent.
Hogan, though, has not indicated he would leave the Republican party.
“[Manchin] just recently, on his way out the door, switched to become an independent,” Hogan told Scripps News. “There's just not as much of a path to victory to make a difference,” he added.
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The ‘R’ next to Hogan’s name has been a major focus of Alsobrooks’s attacks against him, especially when it comes to the issue of abortion.
"My position has never changed,” Hogan insisted. “I ran for governor promising to protect access to abortion, and I delivered on that promise.”
Hogan remains a registered Republican, in a state even he predicted will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris “by probably 30 [percentage] points.”
Meanwhile, for Hogan, promoting bipartisanship might not be enough to succeed in a year when Maryland appears to be a safe bet for Democrats at the top of the ticket.
