Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan impressed in the polls last week when he announced his bid for the Senate, but the Republican could quickly become an unpopular candidate among state voters who are looking to enshrine abortion rights in Maryland’s constitution this November.
Hogan, who finished his tenure as governor last year, has presented himself as a centrist Trump critic who tends to focus on financial issues, such as taxes and budgets, rather than social matters. That approach has made him a popular governor even among Democrats, but it could land him in the hot seat ahead of the November election as voters in the blue state of Maryland decide on whether the state’s abortion protections can be preserved in the state’s constitution.
“I’m not running as Donald Trump,” Hogan told CNN in an interview Wednesday. “I think you probably know I was probably the most outspoken critic in our party standing up to him. And I’m really — I’m not running for the Republican Party or for any candidate for president. I’m — I decided to run to kind of stand up and fight for the people of Maryland and fight against the broken politics in Washington.”
The former governor told the outlet he has a history of taking a “moderate position on abortion,” but he said he would not support an abortion ban at the national level. Though he understands that it’s an “important and emotional issue for women” in the country, he added that it was unnecessary for the abortion protections to be enshrined in Maryland’s constitution because it’s “already a law.”
“I think Democrats put this on the ballot to try to make it a political issue, and voters can make their decision on whether they think it’s important or not, but it’s not going to change anything in our state,” Hogan told the outlet.
Prince George County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and state Rep. David Trone are running against Hogan as the leading Democratic candidates.
“Larry Hogan is also echoing what the Republican Party has told us for decades when he claims abortion is ‘settled law.’ That’s what they told us right up until the day they overturned Roe v. Wade and took away a 50-year precedent that had protected our right,” Alsobrooks said in a statement.
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In 1991, Maryland passed legislation that would protect abortion rights in the event that the Supreme Court restricted abortion, the Associated Press reported.
In an Emerson College poll conducted last week, Hogan was shown tied or leading against Trone. Hogan remains the most prominent and competitive GOP candidate the state has seen in decades, but how he approaches the state’s abortion question that is set to appear on the November ballot will likely have a significant effect on his favorability and chances of winning the highly competitive fight to flip the seat left vacant by retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).
