Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is hitting the campaign trail in New Hampshire as he positions for a 2024 presidential bid that offers Republicans an alternative to Donald Trump and the populist faction of the GOP that elevated during the former president’s reign atop the party.
Hogan’s New England swing started Sunday, when he headlined a fundraiser for Connecticut Republican Senate contender Themis Klarides, and continues with a visit to a Boston firehouse and more stops with firefighters this week in New Hampshire. Hogan is scheduled to make six stops in New Hampshire, a key early presidential primary state, over a 36-hour period beginning Monday evening.
Hogan is in the Granite State to speak with local business leaders about the effect of skyrocketing inflation on the economy and to promote his plan to mitigate its impact.
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But the undercurrent of Hogan’s political activity generally is that he is not Trump and that the GOP would be more successful emulating the political stylings of the 40th president, Ronald Reagan, rather than the 45th president.
For instance, Klarides, the Senate candidate Hogan is backing in Connecticut, reflects his view of Trump in that, like him, she did not support the former president for reelection in 2020.
Maryland’s governor believes he’s making headway with his argument, despite polling that shows Trump with the vast support of grassroots Republicans and GOP voters who are likely to participate in the 2024 White House primary.
“I’ve said that President Trump’s influence on the party was going to diminish over time. It hasn’t happened rapidly, but it has diminished dramatically,” Hogan said Sunday on NBC News’s Meet the Press.
Hogan’s effort to provide a bulwark against Trump and his wing of the party has included raising money for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), both of whom are opposed by the former president because they supported his impeachment in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, ransacking of the Capitol. Over the weekend, Trump hosted a rally in Anchorage to boost support for Murkowski’s GOP challenger.
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Additionally, the governor’s outside political group, An America United, has run advertisements in central California on behalf of Rep. David Valadao, who was among 10 House Republicans to support Trump’s impeachment related to the Jan. 6 riots.
And, of course, Hogan is backing Kelly Schulz in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Maryland, who is running against the Trump-endorsed Dan Cox.
