Republican Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan said Thursday he has “no interest” in former president Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Trump recently told Fox News he would “like to see” the former Maryland governor win his Senate race against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George county executive. The pair are competing to replace retiring Senator Ben Cardin (D., Md.)
“I didn’t seek it, I didn’t wanna have it, and I have no interest in it. It’s not something we’re going to be promoting, that’s for sure,” Hogan told WTOP radio when asked about Trump’s endorsement.
Hogan said the endorsement came as a “surprise” and noted he was receiving criticism from Trump allies just weeks earlier.
“We were gettin’ blown up by Trump’s campaign manager and his daughter-in-law, who was running the RNC, saying really bad things about me, and then, all of a sudden, Donald Trump switched gears and started saying nice things about me,” he said, referring to RNC co-chair Lara Trump.
Hogan faced backlash from Trump world when he called on voters to “respect the verdict” in Trump’s hush-money trial. He called on “all leaders” to “reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
Trump campaign manager responded saying, “You just ended your campaign.” Lara Trump, meanwhile, said Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point and, quite frankly, anybody in America.”
Still, Hogan’s political calculus is different than that of candidates running in more red states. Hogan, who left office with a 77 percent approval rating, is hoping to flip the Senate seat in a state Biden won by 33 points in 2020.
Nonetheless, the former president threw his support behind Hogan last week, saying it was a matter of putting the party first.
“We gotta take the majority. We have to straighten out our country. So, I’d like to see him win. He’s somebody that can win … I know other people made some strong statements, but I can just say from my standpoint, I’m about the party and I’m about the country,” Trump told Fox News.