Larry Hogan Says GOP Backing Trump Again Would Be ‘Definition of Insanity’
Maryland governor and possible 2024 presidential candidate is the latest in a series of Reagan Library speakers
By John McCormick
Wall Street Journal
May. 3, 2022 5:00 am ET
Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Democratic-leaning Maryland and a possible 2024 presidential candidate, is expected to use a high-profile speech Tuesday evening to call on his party to extricate itself from the grasp of former President Donald Trump.
“We won’t win back the White House by nominating Donald Trump or a cheap impersonation of him,” Mr. Hogan will say, according to a copy of his speech shared with The Wall Street Journal. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
He is set to appear at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California as part of a speakers series on the GOP’s future following its loss of the White House, Senate and House during Mr. Trump’s tenure in office.
While Mr. Hogan will offer plenty of criticism of President Biden and Democrats, he will be nearly as critical of his own party, suggesting a wholesale remake of the GOP.
“A party that lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections and that couldn’t even beat Joe Biden is desperately in need of course correction,” he will say. “The truth is the last election was not rigged and it wasn’t stolen. We simply didn’t offer the majority of voters what they were looking for.”
Mr. Hogan, 65 years old and just the second Republican in deep-blue Maryland to win a second term in the governor’s mansion, will also criticize the divisive politics that Mr. Trump’s tumultuous style stoked inside the GOP and the nation overall.
“As Ronald Reagan understood, successful politics is about addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division,” he will say. “We have been doing far too much subtracting and dividing.”
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s speakers series has drawn an array of potential presidential candidates to Simi Valley, Calif. PHOTO: DEAN MUSGROVE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The speakers series has drawn an array of potential presidential candidates to the hilltop shrine for a GOP hero, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
In an interview before his speech, Mr. Hogan said he thinks Mr. Trump will lose some of his political grip on the party this year if some of the candidates he has endorsed fail to win their primaries.
“What happens in 2022 may have some bearing on what happens in 2024,” he said. “It’s going to show a little bit about which direction the party wants to head and how critically important—or not—is an endorsement from Donald Trump.”
Those primaries start Tuesday in Indiana and Ohio, where Mr. Trump’s candidate in the U.S. Senate race, J.D. Vance, has moved up in polling since winning the former president’s endorsement. Mr. Hogan said he doesn’t think Mr. Trump will look like a political winner by year’s end.
“He’s going to lose more than he’s going to win, which is sort of what’s been happening for the past four years,” he said. “He’s still the 800-pound gorilla and still has strong support, but it’s greatly diminished from where it was in November of 2020 and it’s continuing, I think, to go down and probably will accelerate that downward trajectory.”
In his speech, Mr. Hogan will also criticize Mr. Trump for his role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Jan. 6 was not enthusiastic tourists misbehaving,” he will say. “It was an outrageous attack on our democracy, incited by the losing candidate’s inflammatory false rhetoric. The last four years were the worst four years for the Republican Party since the 1930s, even worse than after Watergate when Ronald Reagan had to rebuild the party from the ashes.”
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich didn’t respond to an email Monday seeking comment. Mr. Trump has previously called Mr. Hogan a RINO—a Republican in name only.
As governor Mr. Hogan has emphasized support for business and pushing back against proposed tax increases. He is relatively moderate on some social issues, including abortion and gun policy, compared with most other potential GOP presidential candidates.\
Mr. Hogan, who has enjoyed strong approval ratings in his home state and in 2019 toyed with the long-shot notion of a primary challenge to Mr. Trump, will argue in his speech that differences within the party are more strategic than ideological.
“It’s more of a difference between those who know how to win and those who only pretend that they won,” he will say. “Enough of the angry rhetoric and the grievance politics. Enough of the narcissism of small differences. We can’t build a successful party by tearing it apart, or burning it down.”
While he will say that he expects Republicans will make “big gains” in this year’s midterm election, Mr. Hogan will argue those expected victories will have more to do with the “failures of the Democrats in Washington” than the GOP’s current direction.
“We can’t let that fool us into complacency,” he will say. “The problems that have caused our party to repeatedly lose have not been addressed.”
While he is primarily focused on his job as governor, Mr. Hogan said in the interview that he is also planning to spend time this year helping Republican governors, including some of those Mr. Trump wants defeated such as Brian Kemp in Georgia.
Mr. Hogan said he spoke last week with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) about where he could help with Senate races. He said he already has an event planned with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican Mr. Trump wants defeated. Mr. Hogan disappointed Mr. McConnell and other top Republicans earlier this year when he announced he wouldn’t challenge Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.).
Mr. Hogan said he doesn’t have that many policy disagreements with Mr. Trump and praised the tax cut passed during his administration. “I just thought Trump was his own worst enemy and picked fights and turned people off unnecessarily and really wasn’t that successful at getting anything done,” he said.
Limited to two terms as governor, Mr. Hogan will leave office in early 2023, roughly the time when more serious campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination would typically start.
In an indication of his potential interest in a presidential bid, Mr. Hogan said in the interview that he expects to travel this summer to both Iowa and New Hampshire. Those states are set to be the first and second on the GOP’s nominating calendar.
He also said he wouldn’t be dissuaded from running if Mr. Trump did so, a position some other prospective GOP candidates have declined to take.
“I think there’s a lane for someone who is completely opposite from Trump,” he said. “I think there is a lane for somebody that has a proven track record of doing things completely opposite of the way they do in Washington.”
Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com
Larry Hogan Says GOP Backing Trump Again Would Be ‘Definition of Insanity’ - WSJ |
