A Republican governor rumored to be eyeing a run for the White House in 2024 said Sunday that the GOP needs to be a “bigger tent party” after President Donald Trump leaves office.
Maryland’s Larry Hogan, who has been known to break with Trump, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he doesn’t “know what the future holds in November.”
“But I know that the Republican Party is going to be looking at what happens after President Trump and whether that’s in four months or four years,” Hogan said. “And I think they’re going to be looking to, ‘How do we go about becoming a bigger tent party?’”
The rebuke was a rarity from Republicans, who have largely been afraid to criticize a president still popular with the GOP rank-and-file despite questions about how he has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hogan did not rule out voting for Joe Biden, the Democrat challenging Trump in the November election. In 2016, Hogan wrote in the name of his father, a former Republican congressman from Maryland.
“It’s a difficult choice,” he said. “I think most people would like to see something different, and maybe we’ll figure that out in 2024.”
The governor pointed to his 2018 reelection as a model, when he won in deep-blue Maryland by almost 12 percentage points “by reaching out, by trying to find that middle ground where people can stand together” and by eschewing “divisive rhetoric.” He also noted that he did well with suburban women, a group that polls suggest has largely abandoned Trump.
Hogan also raised questions with Trump’s decision on Friday to commute the sentence of longtime political ally, Roger Stone, who had been convicted of lying to help the president, and said “it’s certainly going to hurt politically.”
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
8 Responses
Governor Hogan:- You are a shocking disgrace to our Republican party, to even just so much as contemplating not voting for our beloved best President Donald Trump, and even have the audacity to even utter any remark against such an incredibly wonderful president.
another brainless ap article!
Gov. Hogan is a wonderful man. He’s a 2nd term Republican in a deep blue state. He’s doing great things for Maryland and has a great relationship with the Jewish community.
He is “Typical Maryland” He has the ability to see both sides and understand neither side is 100% right or wrong.
He understands Americans on BOTH sides need to drop the extremist positions and work together in an environment of good will, good faith, respectable debate, and compromise.
A lot of Americans are fed up and want to see Americans come together for the benefit of all.
To win Republicans need the “deplorables” who put Trump in office, and a lot of Hogan’s policies were very hurtful to them – but in Maryland, whose largest industry is commuting to the District of Columbia, they aren’t a factor in most of the state. For example, Hogan was able to do “blue state” style lockdowns with minimal fear of the economic impact since the Federal government gave paid leave to employees who couldn’t telework, Maryland can afford to be anti-
business since most of the state economy depends on the Federal government. Hogan has no experience is working with anything other than “white collar” Maryland, and he has to expand his perspectives if he is interested in national politics.
147, Trump is the worst President since before the Civil War. How many Americans have to die before you and other members of the cult come to your senses?
Imitating McCain and Romney won’t accomplish that much for the GOP.
A bigger tent?! Trump has already made the tent far too big, bringing in protectionists and populists who were outside the Republican tent for decades. After Trump we will probably need to make the tent a bit smaller, if that is possible.
charliehall, stop spreading Marxist blood libel propaganda lies against Trump. American are dying because of your incompetent corrupt Democrats governors who forced Wuhan-19 virus patients back to nursing homes.