Hogan says he won’t run for president in 2024

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican who has been an outspoken critic of former President Trump, announced he would not run for president in 2024 after giving it “serious consideration.”

“I did give it serious consideration and I talked to people everywhere and I talked to my family,” Hogan told CBS News. “And it was a tough decision. But I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.”

The announcement from Hogan, who had been publicly mulling a bid for the White House, comes after he has spent considerable time in the last few months touring early nominating states in the Republican primary process.

Hogan has served two terms as governor of Maryland, a traditionally blue state, and left office this year after being term-limited. He refused to endorse or campaign for Dan Cox, the Trump-backed Republican who won the party’s gubernatorial primary to succeed Hogan. Instead, he stood by as now-Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) cruised to a general election victory.

Hogan said it was not the idea of running against Trump that deterred him from launching a campaign.

“That didn’t really scare me,” Hogan said. “You’re right. It would be a tough race. And he’s very tough. But, you know, I beat life-threatening cancer. So having Trump call me names on Twitter didn’t really scare me off.”

Instead he argued he was not running to give other candidates who are polling in the “single digits” a chance to challenge front-runners such as Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“I didn’t want to have a pile up of a bunch of people fighting,” Hogan said. “Right now, you have Trump and DeSantis at the top of the field, they’re soaking up all the oxygen, getting all the attention. And then a whole lot of the rest of us in single digits and the more of them you have, the less chance you have for somebody rising up.”

Ultimately, Hogan said of the presidency that he “didn’t need that job.”

“I didn’t need that job,” Hogan said. “I didn’t need to run for another office. It was really, I was considering it because I thought it was public service and maybe I can make a difference.”

Hogan’s name had been thrown around as a possible presidential possibility as his second term was coming to an end. He spent the last few years raising around $6 million as he mulled a White House run, a person familiar with the former governor’s fundraising told The Hill.

Updated at 9:17 a.m.