Former Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan doesn’t rule out 2024 presidential bid saying Americans don’t want Trump in office again
- Maryland’s former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday he could still jump in the 2024 race
- Hogan is a national co-chair for the centrist political group No Labels, which is working to have a candidate appear on the 2024 general election ballot
- That would be Hogan’s likeliest avenue, as he said it was too late for other GOP governors to join the Republican primary race
Maryland‘s former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan hasn’t shut the door on a 2024 presidential run but said he wouldn’t jump in the race unless there was a path to victory.
Hogan, 67, left office earlier this year as one of the country’s most popular governors and initially declined to jump in the Republican primary race.
He’s served as a national co-chair for No Labels, a centrist political organization, since 2020 and the group is securing a place on the 2024 general election ballot in all 50 states to potentially field a moderate presidential candidate.
‘However I can serve, I’m still trying to figure that out, but I’m not walking away,’ Hogan said at a Bloomberg News event Tuesday in Washington. ‘I don’t want to run a race and nibble around the edges. If I thought there was a path to success to win the race, then I just said I wouldn’t shut the door on that opportunity.’
The Maryland Republican observed that former U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley was ‘on the ascent’ and could still emerge as a formidable opponent to keep former President Donald Trump out of the White House – something that Hogan desires.
‘DeSantis has continued to fail throughout the campaign. He started with all the advantages,’ Hogan also acknowledged.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis initially looked like a strong contender to keep Trump from winning the Republican nomination in 2024 but his campaign has sputtered.
In New Hampshire, the state that holds the first presidential primary after the Iowa caucuses, Haley was risen to second place, while DeSantis has fallen to third in the Real Clear Politics polling average.
DeSantis did have a strong debate performance at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, but Haley did as well.
Hogan thought it wasn’t probable that another Republican could get in the race now and be successful in the GOP primary.
One top GOP billionaire was trying to nudge Virginia’s first-term Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the race, while Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s name has also been floated.
‘That’s not going to happen,’ Hogan said. ‘I mean, they’ve missed the deadlines already.’
Next April, No Labels will hold a convention to determine if the group will field a 2024 presidential candidate.
Much of the country is dreading a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, who were 2020 general election foes.
Polling in April found that 60 percent of Americans don’t think Trump should run again, while 70 percent believed that of 80-year-old Biden.
Two independent candidates have also entered the race, academic Cornel West, who’s expected to appear on the ballot as the Green Party’s candidate and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was vying to unseat Biden in the Democratic primary until Monday, when he announced an independent run in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
An NBC News poll from late September that included a Green Party candidate, a Libertarian and a No Labels candidate found that each garnered between 4 and 5 percent and Biden lost to Trump 36 percent to 39 percent.
Turning to Capitol Hill, Hogan said he was ‘disgusted’ by the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy’s removal was plotted by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, an ally of Trump’s, who Hogan told Bloomberg was ‘a cancer on the party and on the Congress.’
‘It’s a train wreck. I mean, it’s embarrassing, and I think it’s terrible for the Republican Party,’ Hogan said. ‘I think it’s terrible for Congress and for the country.’