Maryland Republican Senate candidate Larry Hogan cut a path all his own this week when he preemptively implored the public to “respect” the jury’s verdict in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
The stance drew swift condemnation from the Trump world and separated him from most of his party — including Republicans running in battleground states and anti-Trumpers.
Even Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who said she can’t support Mr. Trump in the November election, bashed the verdict as politically motivated. She said it threatens “to blur the lines between the judicial system and the electoral system.”
That is the sort of reaction Mr. Hogan warned against in a statement released moments before Mr. Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of trying to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Mr. Hogan said. “We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
The statement came two weeks after Mr. Hogan ditched the pro-life base of the Republican Party on the issue of abortion.
Mr. Hogan, who served two terms as governor in deep blue Maryland, is running for an open Senate seat against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee.
Mr. Hogan has not weighed since the verdict was handed down, and his campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita said the Hogan response dashed his chances of winning.
“You just ended your campaign,” Mr. LaCivita said on X.
Steve Daines, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign arm for the Senate GOP, told Fox News the group will continue to support Mr. Hogan and give him the freedom to “run his race.”
Mr. Hogan is making a calculated gamble that the risk of infuriating parts of the GOP base is worth the reward in Maryland where Democrats have roughly a 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Republicans, according to political analysts.
“It is the balancing act that he was already working on,” Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, said referring to Mr. Hogan’s recent tack to the left on abortion.
Mr. Eberly said the electoral reality for Mr. Hogan is he likely needs to win over at least a quarter of those Democrats to defeat Ms. Alsobrooks and become the first Republican from Maryland elected to the Senate since 1980.
“Him coming out and trashing the legal system and questioning the motivations of the jury is not going to help him in Maryland,” he said. “Maybe Larry Hogan only represents 40 or 50 percent of what Republicans want from a candidate, but they have to ask how much Angela Alsobrooks represents what they want.”
Mr. Hogan has urged Republicans to recognize he needs nearly all of them on his side to win, as well as most independents and a healthy slice of Democrats.
“Whether they don’t agree with me on a couple of issues or not, it really is a choice between me and a far-left Democrat,” Mr. Hogan said in a recent interview with WGMD radio. “I hope they understand we can’t run a campaign just geared toward the base.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.