Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to run for Senate this year might have been influenced by a letter he received in early January.
Hogan entered the race as a prominent GOP candidate, well-positioned to give Democrats a run for their money in the deep-blue state. He can become the first Republican to win a Senate race in Maryland since 1980. But his campaign might not have come to be if it were not for a letter from Darin Thacker, chief of staff to Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the head of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
“Without that letter, I don’t think Larry Hogan is in the race,” Daines said, with others close to Hogan in agreement.
The Senate GOP commissioned a poll showing the Republican ahead if he jumped into the race. Thacker brought the poll results with him to Annapolis, Maryland, for a meeting with Hogan after he received the letter, the New York Times reported. The next few weeks included private meetings and polling before the Republican announced his candidacy right before the Feb. 9 filing deadline.
Daines’s job is to get Republicans elected. Top of mind is flipping control of the Senate, which Republicans have not been able to do in the last two election cycles. In 2020 and 2022, the GOP struggled with striking the balance of nominating far-right primary candidates who do not perform as well in the general elections, such as Georgia Senate candidate Hershel Walker in 2022 and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Doug Mastriano in 2020.
“It’s finding candidates that can win both primaries and general elections,” Daines said.
Daines’s team pushed Hogan, a centrist Republican, to launch his Senate bid, but it came without the support of former President Donald Trump. Hogan has been openly critical of the former president, but Trump reportedly is staying out of the Senate race to increase the GOP’s chances to flip the chamber.
“Marylanders know and trust Larry Hogan because they witnessed his eight-year record of success firsthand,” National Republican Senate Committee spokesman Tate Mitchell told Axios in a statement.
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Daines has called on the Republican Party to unite behind the former president, saying at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after taking on the role to get Senate GOP candidates elected that “one of the most important things we can deliver to you as president in January of 2025 is the Republican majority,” according to the New York Times.
House Republicans hold a narrow majority, and the party hopes to win back the Senate next year. Daines has been a formidable operative in his home state, recruiting Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). Sheehy received Trump’s endorsement over Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), who has since dropped out of the race.
