Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Wednesday said he is giving “very serious consideration” to running for president in 2024 and added that he does not expect former President Trump to become the Republican nominee.
Hogan said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” that he was willing to “stand up” and say when he disagreed with actions Trump took as president. He said he agrees with many of Trump’s policies but does not believe the former president would be the GOP’s strongest nominee to win the general election in 2024.
Hogan said the Republican Party needs a candidate who can appeal to a “broader audience of people” and win swing voters after the party suffered defeats in the 2018 midterms, the 2020 presidential race and the 2022 midterms.
Many in the Republican Party blamed Trump for the party’s performance in the November 2022 midterms, in which many of the candidates he endorsed during the primaries went on to lose in key races for the House and Senate and in gubernatorial contests.
“We have been really successful 30 miles outside of Washington, where everything appears to be broken and nothing but divisiveness and dysfunction,” Hogan said, referring to his time as the two-term governor of a solidly Democratic state.
Hogan has previously said he might jump into the race for the Republican nomination.
He said Trump still has a “solid group” of people who support him, but an increasing number are no longer backing him.
Recent polling has shown Trump with large leads over other possible Republican challengers in a hypothetical primary match-up, but he has not received a clear majority of respondents’ support.
Hogan said serving as a governor is a “training ground” for becoming president. Experience as an executive is different than being a representative or senator, he said.
“You’re out there making arguments and you’re involved in issues, but you don’t have the executive experience of running something,” he said. “So I think there are going to be a number of governors, and I think governors are a good place for us to look for leadership at the national level.”
Hogan’s comments come as former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley reportedly plans to announce on Feb. 15 that she is running for the Republican nomination. Trump is the only Republican to officially jump into the race so far.