Tag: Larry Hogan

AP Photo/Brian Witte

AP Photo/Brian Witte

Michael Ciesielski Photography/Maryland Public Television via AP

Michael Ciesielski Photography/Maryland Public Television via AP

Michael Ciesielski Photography/Maryland Public Television via AP

AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.

AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File

Michael Ciesielski Photography/Maryland Public Television via AP

Michael Ciesielski Photography/Maryland Public Television via AP

OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Democrat Angela Alsobrooks highlighted former Gov. Larry Hogan’s actions in office as evidence he isn’t as supportive of abortion rights as he now claims to be, while Hogan challenged the criticism during a debate in a widely watched Senate race in Maryland.

Alsobrooks, in the hourlong debate on Maryland Public Television, criticized Hogan’s veto of a bill in 2022 to expand abortion rights by ending a restriction that only physicians can provide abortions in the state. The Legislature overrode the veto, and the law enables nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide care.

“The Republican Party has declared war on women’s reproductive freedoms,” Alsobrooks said. “We recognize that this party of chaos and division that is led by (former President) Donald Trump is one that cannot lead our country and also has severe consequences for Marylanders.”

Hogan emphasized that he supports abortion rights, and said Alsobrooks’ criticism of him didn’t reflect his position. He said he would cosponsor legislation to codify Roe v. Wade, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2022. The former governor said his veto was due to concern about allowing health care providers who aren’t doctors perform abortions.

“It was allowing non-medical professionals, and for you to lie about something as important as this issue, it really is insulting,” Hogan said.

The former governor also said he would be an independent voice who will stand up to partisanship in the Senate and do what he believes is best for the nation.

“You’re going to hear nothing but red vs. blue,” Hogan said. “I care more — a lot more — about the red, white and blue.”

The race is getting national attention because it is unusually competitive this year in a deeply blue state where its outcome could determine whether Democrats or Republicans get control of the Senate.

Democrats currently hold a 51-49 Senate advantage, including independent senators who caucus with Democrats. And Democrats have to defend 23 seats out of the 33 Senate seats on the ballot around the country this November.

If elected, Alsobrooks would be Maryland’s first Black U.S. senator.

While a Republican has not won a Senate race in Maryland in more than 40 years, Hogan has wide name recognition. In the last two U.S. Senate races in Maryland, the Democratic candidate won by more than 30 percentage points against candidates who were not well-known. But Hogan, who once considered running for president and has often appeared on national news programs, is the most formidable Republican candidate in years.

In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 2-1, the popular two-term former governor won over enough Democratic voters to win two statewide races in 2014 and 2018.

Still, Hogan has a difficult needle to thread. This election was the first time Hogan is running on the same ballot as Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Maryland. Hogan has been one of the GOP’s fiercest Trump critics, which has helped him win support from some Democrats, but also risked turning off some Republican voters.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion rights have become a major campaign issue around the country. Maryland voters will be deciding whether to pass a constitutional amendment in November to enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution. Maryland is one of nine states where abortion rights on the ballot this year.

Since 2018, Alsobrooks has served as the county executive of Prince George’s County, Maryland’s second most populous jurisdiction in the suburbs of the nation’s capital. Before that, she served as the county’s top prosecutor since 2011.

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This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.

MILWAUKEE – Amid calls for cooler rhetoric, supporters of Maryland Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks are complaining her opponent, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), is doing the opposite with a spoof campaign website.

The new Hogan website, angelaalsobrooks.org, looks almost identical to the official Alsobrooks campaign website, angelaalsobrooks.com. But instead of extolling the Democrat’s virtues, the website calls her “another partisan machine politician who is part of the broken system and doesn’t deliver on her promises.”

The website – with a “Paid for by Hogan for Maryland Inc.” disclaimer at the very bottom – goes on to blast Alsobrooks’ record on everything from crime to public education to immigration to trash collection.

“Under Angela’s leadership in Prince George’s County, crime has increased to out-of-control levels, schools are declining, the budget deficit is skyrocketing, and the county’s financial outlook has been downgraded,” the website says. “Whether it’s a lack of funding for police and firefighters or even just picking up the trash, Angela’s administration has taken swift action by failing to deliver on even the most basic of government functions.”

There are also sarcastic elements to the mock website – including the Hogan campaign’s assertion that, “We can’t afford a leader like Larry Hogan who might offend his colleagues by daring to be independent and actually work across the aisle to get things done. Send [Alsobrooks] to Washington because she will fit right in!”

But Alsobrooks’ camp said it sees the Hogan website – which went live in the middle of last week – as mean-spirited. The Alsobrooks campaign responded with standard fodder that they have attempted to use against Hogan since he entered the Senate race in February.

“Mitch McConnell recruited Larry Hogan to run for this seat to get a majority in the Senate,” said Alsobrooks spokesperson Gina Ford, referring to the Senate Republican leader, who was booed on the floor of the GOP convention Monday afternoon. “No Marylander thinks that’s a laughing matter.

“Larry can misconstrue whatever he wants, but we know his record and we know that this race represents who will have the 51st seat. Our future and freedoms are at stake,” Ford said.

It’s unclear how Hogan’s campaign, rather than Alsobrooks’, wound up with the web domain name angelaalsobrooks.org. A Hogan spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on Monday.

But on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hogan once again struck a unifying theme Monday, saying the country has to “stop with the rabid tribalism, dividing our country into red and blue teams. We must get back to the red, white, and blue.”

Even though Hogan, a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump, has made a point of avoiding the GOP convention here, state and national leaders both said they are bullish on his campaign.

Democrats currently hold a 51-49 edge in the Senate, but Republicans have multiple opportunities to flip the majority. They are the overwhelming favorites to capture the open Democratic seat in West Virginia. And if Trump is reelected in November, his vice president – the ex-president tapped Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to be his running mate Monday – would break ties in the Senate if control is deadlocked 50-50, giving Republicans the effective majority.

But that scenario may not be necessary, as several Democratic-held seats are teetering this November, said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Daines predicted Monday that Vance would boost GOP Senate candidates in competitive races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – not to mention in Daines’ home state of Montana.

“President Trump picks a son of Ohio, that’s going to help us there,” Daines said. “It will help us in Wisconsin, too, and Pennsylvania. There’s an overlap between the presidential battleground map and the Senate battleground map.”

Daines, who took part in an event sponsored by the website Axios, later told Maryland Matters, “I like Maryland,” as a pick-up opportunity.

Last week, Republican senators were privately shown an internal GOP poll showing Hogan leading Alsobrooks 47% to 41%. That contrasted with another recent poll from a Democratic firm showing Alsobrooks ahead by 8 points.

Daines told Politico Monday that the Republican Senate committee will temporarily refrain from polling in battleground races in the aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt Saturday.

‘He has stayed true to his party in most respects’

Hogan, of course, is not in Milwaukee with his fellow Republicans. He made it clear that he won’t vote for Trump this fall – just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020. But most of the Republicans in Maryland’s convention delegation, who are Trump loyalists, do not seem offended that Hogan didn’t choose to appear here.

They acknowledge that he will be the Maryland GOP’s strongest Senate nominee since 1980, and said that in a tight race with Alsobrooks, he needs to focus on Maryland voters.

Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), a leading conservative in the state who was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2016, said conservatives who have sometimes had uneasy relationships with Hogan have rallied around him this time.

“We want Gov. Hogan to win, and we know there are no voters in Wisconsin for Gov. Hogan,” she said. “Congressman [Andy] Harris and myself and party leaders across the delegation are all supporting Gov. Hogan. He doesn’t need to talk to us.”

Another conservative in the delegation, Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano (R), said the delegates’ differences with Hogan pale in comparison with their differences with the Democrats.

“As a conservative, if you look at Gov. Hogan’s record, there’s only a few things we would differ on,” she said. “He has stayed true to the party in most respects. If you are a true conservative, you’d probably prefer the policies of Gov. Hogan to Angela Alsobrooks.”