For years, I have told anybody who would listen that I thought Larry Hogan would never run for the United States Senate. I said as I said above, that I never thought that Larry Hogan ever wanted or desired to be a United States Senator.
Well….
So, I guess hell has frozen over.
The big question now is: what does it all mean?
For Maryland Republicans? It means there is a new and dominant frontrunner in the primary for Governor. Is Larry Hogan unbeatable in a Republican primary? No, I don’t think so. If 2022 taught us anything it’s that outsider candidates can win a statewide primary election when the opponent’s campaign falters.
That being said, Larry Hogan is one of the smartest minds around regarding statewide politics in Maryland. He wouldn’t have made this decision at this time without having everything in place and ready to run an aggressive and effective campaign from day one. His 2014 and 2018 gubernatorial campaigns told us that.
It also means that other candidates in the race need to figure out what they’re doing. Jeff Teichert already made a statement indicating he plans on staying in the race and reiterated some of his endorsements. Robin Ficker was always going to lose anyway. All the other candidates will probably hang in there to see if they can catch the scraps from Hogan and Teichert.
Also: Having Trump and Hogan at the top of the ballot is gonna be awkward as hell.
For Maryland Democrats? They get to tie themselves in knots for the next nine months making hyperbolically asinine statements like this.
Good luck tying Trump to a guy who has opposed him since day one, buddy. It’s also a tactic that Ben Jealous tried in 2018, and it flopped hard. I guess Trone is gonna have to burn into his fortune if he makes it through the Democratic primary.
For No Labels? Better hope you can talk Joe Manchin into running.
I’ll focus more on the outlook for the Senate race and what it all means next week after the dust settles. But it is very clear that the Democrats road in Maryland just got a lot tougher than they thought it was going to be and that Trone and national groups are going to have to spend a whole lot of money in Maryland they did not expect to spend. Gonna be a wild ride.