Dan Cox, the Trump-backed candidate who won the GOP nomination for Maryland’s governor on Tuesday, secured his primary election victory through “collusion between Trump and the Democrats,” according to Gov. Larry Hogan.
Hogan, a centrist Republican, lamented Cox’s victory as a “win for the Democrats,” arguing the Left threw its support behind the state delegate in the primary election because he was viewed as the Republican less likely to beat the Democratic nominee in November. Cox’s win also handed a victory to former President Donald Trump in a primary contest that became a proxy war with Hogan, who is retiring as governor after this term and is contemplating a 2024 presidential run.
DAN COX WINS MARYLAND GOP GUBERNATORIAL NOMINATION AMID TRUMP-HOGAN PROXY WAR
“It was kind of unprecedented collusion between the Democratic Governors Association and Donald Trump,” Hogan said on ABC’s This Week. “It’s a big loss for the Republican Party, and we have no chance of saving that governor seat. We actually had a chance if they hadn’t gotten together and done that.”
The governor accused the Democratic Governors Association of securing Cox’s win after the group spent about $1 million on an advertising campaign designed to elevate Cox.
Cox’s win last week guarantees a loss in November, Hogan said, noting that the GOP will need to begin reassessing what kind of candidates to prop up in statewide elections after the midterm elections are over. That includes avoiding “fringe candidates” like Cox, he said.
“We’re going to have to start thinking about, between November’s election and the election two years later, what kind of a party are we going to be,” Hogan told CNN on Sunday. “And can we get back to a more Reagan-esque ‘big tent’ party that appeals to more people? Or are we going to double down on failure?”
After Cox’s primary victory, Hogan said he would not support the Republican nominee, whom he called a “QAnon whack job,” in the November election.
Trump and Cox “were promoting a conspiracy theory-believing kind of nut job. And DGA I think spent about $3 million,” Hogan said. “The guy only spent $100,000 on his campaign.”
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Democrats have employed a strategy of backing far-right candidates viewed as weaker general election targets with varying degrees of success in several races across the country, including in Colorado and Arizona.
Cox will face author Wes Moore in the November election, with the race leaning Democratic, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
