Hogan To Take A Break After Office; Jabs At Trump, DeSantis On CNN

ANNAPOLIS, MD — As term limits force Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to leave office — and be replaced Jan. 18 by Democrat Wes Moore, the first Black man elected to lead Maryland — Hogan is touting a new poll that shows he remains one of the nation's most popular governors.

Political observers continue to wonder if Hogan — a moderate Republican who received generally positive remarks for his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic and his push to get Marylanders vaccinated and cut taxes — will mount a run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

On Tuesday afternoon, Hogan appeared on CNN with Jake Tapper, who asked the outgoing governor if he planned to run for president.

Hogan said he plans to take a break and "see what the future holds" while he also continues to be a voice appealing for a bigger GOP tent. "But whether that means I’ll be a candidate, I don’t know.”

During the CNN interview Hogan poked at both former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Hogan reiterated that he was the first elected official to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, by sending in the Maryland National Guard after President Trump's Stop the Steal rally. While there is no question the former president has influence with a segment of the Republican party, his influence is diminishing, Hogan said.

He also said the GOP has focused on firing up the base. "We barely took the House back after losing it. If we want to win elections and want to be a party that can govern … you can’t just appeal to the base."

As for DeSantis, seen as a top contender to challenge Trump for the nomination, Hogan said the Florida governor has "done a good job of getting on Fox News" and he is focused on the base. "But he’s going to have to figure out a way to appeal to a broader audience," Hogan said.

While Trump has already announced he's a candidate for the 2024 race, pundits say Hogan, DeSantis, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, former Vice President Mike Pence, former CIA director Mike Pompeo and others might throw their hats into the sweepstakes.

A presidential run in 2024 remains a possibility for the GOP governor finishing his second term, who has been popular with independents and moderate Democrats. Hogan has consistently been a critic of Trump, noting publicly that he did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020.

"As I leave office, I’ve never been more concerned that our divisions are weakening America," Hogan wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. "But I’ve never been more confident in our capacity to overcome them. My experience in Maryland proves that there is more that unites us than divides us. But toxic performative politics won’t restore America. Only real leadership with a record of results will do that."

According to Gonzales Polling, Hogan will leave office with a 77 percent approval rating, and a historic 74 percent average approval over the last eight years, Hogan's An America United group said Tuesday. According to Gonzales, “Never in our three-plus decades of rating Maryland governors had any approached this level.”

Hogan had an 81 percent approval rating among Democrats and Black voters, compared to 76 percent for white voters, according to the poll.

In a Jan. 14 article, The Washington Post ranked the top 10 Republican presidential contenders, labeling DeSantis the front-runner, with Trump No. 2.

"You know you’re the — or at least a — front-runner when your would-be opponents start coming for you even before the campaign begins. But how effectively can those Republicans actually prosecute the case against him? ... (DeSantis has) made great pains to appeal to hard-right social conservatives on things like the coronavirus, vaccines and gay and transgender issues," the Post said. "Despite Trump’s political decline, his ethos of fighting with any tool available — even if it’s the government — appears to live on."

Hogan didn't make that list, although the Post and other political publications in the past year have called him someone who seems likely to seek the White House.

Hogan told CBS News on Nov. 9 that the midterm results pushed him closer to running for president, noting that he didn't predict a red wave, and the Democratic hold on the U.S. Senate shows voters want "normal Republicans" to seek office rather than candidates endorsed by Trump.

“I think there is a battle for which direction the Republican Party will go,” Hogan told CBS. “My side of the party had a really good night. Trump's side did not." He added, "That battle is not over, and it's going to go on for a long time."

GOP primary voters in Maryland chose governor and attorney general nominees backed by Trump; although both lost by double-digit margins in November’s elections. The Post's editorial board on Jan. 6 said Republicans should not count Hogan out.

"If Mr. Hogan is headed for political oblivion — and that remains an 'if,' for he has been counted out prematurely before — that would be his party’s loss. He remains among the relatively few top-tier elected Republicans who can claim to hold a traditionally conservative, pro-business, anti-tax record untainted by dalliance with the 'big lie' that voting fraud played a role in 2020 elections," the Post said.

The newspaper gave him high marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, striking the right note in public when Baltimore endured rioting after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, and approving the light rail Purple Line.

But it deemed as failures his lack of progress in quelling violence in Baltimore, no addition of toll lanes to the Capital Beltway, and problems administering state departments and programs.

"If he runs, Republicans would be wise to give him a fair hearing," the editorial said.

Not every conservative publication is a Hogan fan.

"All Hogan could do by running is help Trump by peeling off 'anti-Trump' primary voters from candidates who could actually defeat him for the nomination. Hogan was a good Republican governor in Maryland, but he is never going to be the Republican nominee for president," The Washington Examiner said in November 2022. "If he wants to beat Trump, he should put an end to the fantasy that he could actually win the nomination."

Hogan has been favored by both GOP and Democratic voters for years. In 2020, Hogan was named the "Most-liked governor in the United States," and several years was No. 2 for most popular state leader in the country.

A Morning Consult survey in late April found Hogan held the third-highest approval rating in the country at 71 percent. His disapproval rating was then at 22 percent, which is the second-lowest disapproval rating of any current governor in the U.S.

Marylanders generally approve of the way Hogan handled the health crisis, with 70 percent of respondents in a March 2022 Goucher Poll approving of his actions, according to the poll. A September 2022 Goucher Poll showed 62 percent of all Marylanders approved of the job Hogan was doing in office.