ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, who was one of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics in the GOP, endorsed Trump in his bid for the Maryland Senate on Thursday in an interview on Fox News.
“I would like to see him win,” Trump told the network during a trip to Washington, DC. “I think he has a good chance of winning.”
The race in Maryland could determine control of the Senate, a point Trump made in the interview.
“I would like to see him win, and we have to get the majority. We need to get our country on track, so I would like to see him win,” Trump said.
Hogan, a popular governor, is seeking to become the first Republican in more than four decades to win a Senate seat in Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 statewide.
Late last month, Hogan angered Trump’s campaign when he said the public must “respect the verdict and the legal process” ahead of Trump’s conviction by a Manhattan jury on 34 crimes related to hush money payments.
“At this dangerously divisive moment in our history, all leaders – regardless of party – must not add fuel to the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Hogan wrote on X before the verdict was announced. “We must reaffirm what made this nation great: the rule of law.”
Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, fired back at X: “You just ended your campaign.”
Hogan, who is trying to navigate a difficult path in a heavily Democratic state, has said he will not attend next month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, July 15-18. Hogan also did not attend the party’s conferences in 2020 and 2016.
In the past two presidential elections, Hogan said he did not vote for Trump, the party’s nominee. Hogan said he wrote on behalf of his father, former U.S. Rep. Larry Hogan Sr., in 2016 and the late President Ronald Reagan in 2020.
Hogan is running against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, the CEO of Prince George’s County, near the nation’s capital. The Senate seat is open due to the retirement of Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat.
