If President Trump faces a primary challenge heading into 2020, he should refuse to debate the candidate, starving him of the oxygen he would need for his little vanity project.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who made a show of not supporting Trump in 2016, is hinting that he’s open to running for the GOP nomination in 2020. Hogan at this point is publicly begging for a catastrophic report by special counsel Robert Mueller because he thinks it would be politically good for him and provide an opening into the election. “[I]f … some serious charges come out or it becomes worse than it is today, and [Trump] took a hit in the polls, then I think all bets are off,” Hogan told the Associated Press last week.
This is that principled patriotism that “Never Trumpers” are always waving in your face. And it raises the question: What need would a Republican candidate like Hogan fill that the 20 Democrats in the race don’t fill already? “Never Trumpers” may have all of the media, but Trump has the party’s voters.
A run by Hogan would serve as nothing more than a tribute to the proven-losers wing of the GOP that has yet to come to terms with how little influence it now wields. Virtually every poll shows Trump with at least 80 percent approval among Republican voters. Meanwhile, nobody outside of Washington knows who Hogan is.
It’s true that there’s no rule that says Hogan, governor of a tiny liberal state and with nothing obvious to offer GOP voters, can’t start a campaign. But there’s no rule that says Trump has to legitimize it by agreeing to appear with him on stage, either.
[Read more: Plan B for rebel Republicans: Wound Trump so he’ll lose to a Democrat in general election]
