WaEx:
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Gov. Larry Hogan is stepping up preparations for a 2020 White House bidas he moves slowly toward challenging President Trump in the Republican primary.
Maryland’s chief executive has been holding regular meetings with his political team to pore over data and mull how a campaign against Trump might unfold. Hogan also is using previously scheduled travel to more than a dozen states, including an invitation to Utah to attend Sen. Mitt Romney’s annual summit with top Republican insiders, to meet with political operatives, donors, and business leaders.
Hogan, 62, has insisted he is not interested in launching a kamikaze mission against Trump, who is popular with Republican voters and has won over some previously skeptical party bigwigs. But the governor confirmed Tuesday that his position on 2020 has shifted.
Initially just intrigued, Hogan has since moved from politely entertaining the small but vocal band of Never Trump Republicans pleading with him to run, to a more active and strategic exploration. Hogan survived a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After being diagnosed in 2015, he underwent chemotherapy and declared himself cancer-free in late 2016.
“I am taking it more seriously and doing more things,” Hogan told the Washington Examiner in an interview as he made the rounds here for events and meetings that usually signify a presidential run. “We’re having discussions.”
Hogan was reelected overwhelmingly in the midterm elections, becoming the second Republican governor in history to win a second term in deep-blue Maryland. That feat, in the midst of a rebuke of Trump that cost the GOP control of the House of Representatives and one Senate seat, each, in Arizona and Nevada, inspired opponents of the president inside the Republican Party to recruit Hogan to take him on.
The governor’s initial response? Prop open his office door, welcome the flattery, and listen as supporters made the case.
Hogan emphasized in a February interview with the Washington Examiner that that was the extent of his involvement, saying he would not be a sacrificial lamb for Trump haters looking to hobble the president heading into the general election against the Democrats. Indeed, Hogan said then that Trump was too strong with Republican voters to justify a primary challenge.
Hogan is now more bullish on a potential 2020 bid, despite the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller letting Trump off the hook on obstruction of justice and conspiring with Russia. The governor did not hesitate to hammer the president during his swing through New Hampshire, a key early primary state. He even outlined his view of a potential primary campaign while mockingly comparing Trump to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“To change the rules and to insist 100% loyalty to the ‘dear leader’ didn’t sound very much like the Republican Party that I grew up in,” Hogan said during his trip to St. Anselm College to headline “Politics & Eggs,” a top event for presidential candidates. Hogan was referring to a resolution supporting Trump’s reelection that was approved by the Republican National Committee in January.
“Here in New Hampshire, for example, they like to be independent, they like to look at the candidates and kick the tires and meet people one-on-one. I’m pretty good at retail politics. That’s how I won my state with no money,” Hogan said during a subsequent news conference with reporters, prior to heading to the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper for an editorial board interview and meeting with the publisher.
“There are, I think, 23 states that have open primaries of one sort or another, so independents and Democrats can cross over and vote,” he said. more
SNIP:
MUST LISTEN: At around 45 minutes into the Dan Bongino podcast, he lets Hogan have it with both barrels, describing Larry Hogan as a self-serving RINO fraud.
Bill Kristol’s never trump bitch.
Yawn
He will give Warren a run for her wampum because, after all, he was named for an Indian ‘house’!
He truly is a smug POS. Almost about as smug as Mitt Romney.
Why isn’t Mitt running? lol
Pasty faced Larry doesn’t look like he could make it through the primaries much less actually stay around for the final vote. The Never-Trumpers are a shrinking battalion, getting smaller everyday as reality sets it. Go home and run Maryland Larry.
Meanwhile on the dem side;
Spoiler Alert: Eric Swalwell Gets Owned by Candace Owens after Publicly Revealing He Is a “White Man”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/spoiler-alert-eric-swalwell-gets-schooled-by-candace-owens-after-publicly-announcing-he-is-white-man/
Subversive arrogant swamp dweller…shows the Repub’s are not with Trump or else they would tell him to knock it off.
Most of the Demoncrat pukes and the two Republicrats who have announced a presidential race are fully aware that they do not have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning but instead want to profit off the money they raise to supposedly run (maybe Hillary will also buy them a lakeside mansion)!
His hopes are a little too high.
And here is to hoping speaks a lot on TV interviews.
Larry Joe Hogan is a politician serving as the 62nd Governor of Maryland. He is the first from Anne Arundel County, Maryland to be elected in over 100 years.
Crab Cakes and Rémoulade, a condiment invented in France that is aioli-based. Similar to tartar sauce and sometimes contains chopped pickles, piccalilli, horseradish, paprika, anchovies, capers and a host of other items.
If campaign finance laws changed so that a failed candidate doesn’t benefit from quitting the campaign and having a sack of cash in the campaign fund we wouldn’t have so many sacks o shit pretending to be serious about running.
I can’t wait to hear President Trump’s nickname for him!
“I’m taking it more seriously”.
Lol. Ok. That makes one.
Why waste his money? Or does he want to get noticed so he’ll be considered for a job in the next administration?
Sounds like another Krispy Kris Krispy Kreme.
I remember the last time we had a Maryland Governor on the ticket.
I was stationed at Andrews AFB during the time when Vince President Agnew (former Governor of Maryland) resigned over corruption while he was Governor, President Nixon appointed Ford as Vice President, and President Nixon resigned.
I escaped MD many years ago, but knowing what I (knew?) he is no conservative.
“Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” Geo. Orwell
“…in the midst of a rebuke of Trump that cost the GOP control of the House of Representatives…”
David Drucker, do you really want to go with “a rebuke of Trump”? It makes you sound shrill and nevertrumpish. How about “a midterm election” instead, and spare us your editorializing?
Welcome to Supercuts, what style are You looking for?
Hogan: “Something batshit crazy, but not full blown retard”
Supercuts: “You’re going to love the Glen Beck!!”
…that’s ONE way to end your political career, I suppose…
Uncle Fester is a RHINO.
And I’m seriously considering joining the NBA. Just because I’m a 57 year old white guy who has honestly never touched a basketball, has a bad back and bad knees and don’t see too good anymore shouldn’t be a problem, right?
What a deluded simp.
fighting Trump is like using a garden hose against a nuke
Cliche Guevara ftw
Official Card: 1 – 03 – 17
I voted for him twice. The first time with hope, the second time with my nose held. Such a disappointment…
Proof positive i have been right here many times this year. THE BUSH/OBAMA/ROVE GOP WANT DON OUT; IT THEAT MEANS PUTTING A DEM IN – GOOD!
Hogan has been, and remains, a Bush/Obama/Rove RINO! He knows he has not chance. But the UNIPARTY want him to “Challenge” so the MSM can say “here is what the GOP thinks about the racist Don”!
As ivs said before The UNIPARTY want to cripple Don so a Dem will be President in 2021! any Dem will do!
What fantasy world do these politicians live in where they think they have ANY chance against a President who has brought us record-breaking low unemployment, a turbo-charged economy, is doing everything he can (but is still being obstructed by members of his own ‘party’) to curb illegal immigration, and has re-negotiated a bunch of bad trade agreements to better favor the US?
Larry wouldn’t make a pimple on his daddy’s ass.
His dad seemed to have some sense.
izlamo delenda est …