Former President Donald Trump appeared to endorse former Gov. Larry Hogan in the Maryland Senate race on Thursday, just days after Hogan said he would urge “all Americans to respect” Trump’s guilty verdict in the New York hush money case.
“I’d like to see him win. I think he has a good chance to 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. And I would like to see him win,” Trump told Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie in an interview that has yet to air.
Hogan drew the wrath of the former president’s team after he refused to defend Trump following his conviction on May 30. “You just ended your campaign,” Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita wrote on X in response to Hogan at the time. Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump also said at the time that Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect.”
National Republican Senate Committee Chair Sen. Steve Daines, however, previously defended Hogan, saying that the former Maryland governor “is running for Senate in Maryland, not Mississippi.”
Trump’s support for Hogan, ironically, could end up hurting the former two-term governor, who is running in a state where Trump received just 32 percent of the vote in the 2020 election.
Hogan, a longtime Trump critic, has repeatedly refused to endorse Trump, saying that he does not back him or Biden. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Thursday afternoon released a statement saying: “Donald Trump wants Republican Larry Hogan in the Senate.”
News of Trump’s endorsement came the same day that the former president visited with GOP senators in Washington, where they said he pushed an agenda of unity and pledged to campaign against Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, two of the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats.
Trump recently also endorsed former Army Capt. Sam Brown, who was running against Jeffrey Gunter, former ambassador to Iceland under Trump, in the Nevada GOP primary. Brown won the GOP nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen.
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