On Thursday, former President Donald Trump endorsed Larry Hogan’s Senate campaign. Hogan, a Maryland Republican, has been one of Trump’s harshest critics within the Republican Party.
“I’d like to see him win,” Trump told a Fox News reporter during a trip to Washington, D.C. “I think he has a good chance to win.”
Hogan has yet to accept Trump’s endorsement.
Trump pointed out that the Maryland race could determine which party controls the Senate.
“I would like to see him win, and we got to take the majority. We have to straighten out our country, so I’d like to see him win,” Trump said.
Hogan served two terms as governor of Maryland, left office in 2023, and remains popular. Now, he’s trying to become the first Republican in more than 40 years to win a Senate seat in Maryland, a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 ratio.
Last month, Hogan angered some of Trump’s advisers. He called for the public “respect the verdict and the legal process” shortly before Trump’s felony conviction for falsifying business records.
“At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Hogan tweeted before the jury’s announcement about its verdict. “We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, shot back. “You just ended your campaign,” LaCivita tweeted.
Hogan, who is trying to navigate a difficult path running in a heavily Democratic state, has said he will not be attending the Republican National Convention next month in Milwaukee, which will take place from July 15-18. Hogan also did not attend the party’s conventions in 2020 and 2016.
In the past two presidential elections, Hogan said he did not vote for Trump, the party nominee.
In 2016, he wrote in the name of his father, former U.S. Rep. Larry Hogan Sr.
In 2020, he cast a write-in vote for the late President Ronald Reagan in 2020.
Hogan is running against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, the rather obscure executive of Prince George’s County, just outside the nation’s capital. The Senate seat is open because Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, is retiring.
In March, a poll from The Washington Post found Hogan leading every Democrat by a landslide, although the organization hasn’t taken a poll since the Democratic primary in May.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.