Republican Senate Candidate Larry Hogan, Endorsed by Trump, Won’t Endorse Him Back

Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, in a close race for a US Senate seat against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, was endorsed by former president Donald Trump in June. He won’t be returning the favor.

“I’m not going to,” Hogan told CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday when asked if there was a chance he would support Trump in this year’s presidential election. “I didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020 and I’ve made that pretty clear.”

Describing himself as “one of the leading voices of opposition” in the Republican Party, Hogan insisted he has a “completely separate identity” from Trump and noted he polls ahead of the GOP presidential nominee in Maryland by double digits. When Trump endorsed Hogan in June, the Senate hopeful said he wanted no part of it.

Hogan went on to condemn Trump’s hateful outburst Saturday—where Trump called President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “mentally disabled”—as “outrageous and unacceptable.”

“I’ve’ already called him out when he had the one interview where he was questioning her racial identity and now he’s questioning her mental competence and I think that’s insulting not only to the vice president, but to people that actually do have mental disabilities and I’ve said for years that Trump’s divisive rhetoric is something that we could do without,” added Hogan.

“I think he’s his own worst enemy and I’m very concerned about the toxic and divisive politics that seems to continue back and forth. It’s what people are so fed up with. It’s why they want to change Washington and it’s why I’m running,” he continued.

That doesn’t mean Hogan will be supporting the Democratic ticket. “Neither one of the two candidates has earned my vote,” he said, during the CBS appearance. In 2016, Hogan wrote in his own father for president and, in 2020, he wrote in the deceased former President Ronald Reagan.

While Trump has previously attacked Hogan as a RINO, or Republican In Name Only, a well-funded super PAC with money pouring in from well-heeled MAGA Republicans and RINOs alike recently entered the Maryland senate race in support of Hogan, throwing over $18 million at booking airtime for campaign ads in the contest’s final six weeks, according to a Washington Post report.

Some polls have put Hogan within striking distance in the last month, but others have found him trailing by double digits.