FMaryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said he would reconsider his candidacy if he believed he would inadvertently help former President Donald Trump secure the White House in 2024.
Hogan, who is among several former governors considering a 2024 GOP presidential bid, said Sunday in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that the timeline for his potential campaign announcement could come sometime this spring.
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“I have strong support with Republicans, Democrats and independents,” Hogan said. “I left as one of the most successful governors in America … I got the same vote as Trump did in the Republican primary and beat him by 45 points in the general.”
However, he said he would reconsider his candidacy if it paves the way for the former president to return to the presidency in 2024.
“I don’t really care about my future in the Republican Party. I care about making sure that we have a future for the Republican Party, and if we can stop Donald Trump and elect a great, common-sense conservative Republican leader, that certainly would . be a factor,” Hogan said.
Hogan reiterated his stance that he would not support Trump for president in 2024, saying he puts country before party.
“I’m a lifelong Republican, who wants to support the party’s nominee, whoever it is,” Hogan said. “However, I’ve said before, I didn’t support Trump, I wouldn’t support Trump. I would put country before party and I wouldn’t put someone who shouldn’t be president.”
He added that he is concerned that the spread of misinformation related to the theft of the 2020 election, as well as the appointment of election denialists to positions of power within the Republican Party, could seriously affect the GOP’s success in future elections.
“I think we need to go back to a bigger marquee party that can appeal to more people,” Hogan said. “Otherwise, we’ll keep losing elections.”
Hogan believes that, overall, the core values of the Republican Party are apparently being sidelined in favor of far-right positions on cultural issues, which could affect the GOP’s success in the 2024 election.
Hogan agreed with Todd that the three legs of the party’s “stool” focus on small government, low taxes and cultural issues, but that Republicans are not united on the first two “big issues.”
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“I’ve been talking about the issues that matter for a long time and I was a Republican governor in the bluest state in America and I made things work across the aisle with Democrats,” he said. “It’s not what everybody’s talking about, and I think some people are making the calculation that the base voters, the Trump lane primaries, that’s what they want to hear, and so a lot of candidates are focusing on that “.
“It cannot be ruled out, but it is not the only thing we are talking about,” he added.