Larry Hogan won’t seek Republican presidential nomination in 2024
“I did give it serious consideration, and I talked to people everywhere, and I talked to my family and it was a tough decision,” Hogan told CBS.
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will not seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, he said Sunday.
“I did give it serious consideration, and I talked to people everywhere, and I talked to my family and it was a tough decision, but I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president,” Hogan told CBS’ Robert Costa during an interview on “Face the Nation.”
Hogan’s decision to forgo a bid was a personal one, he told Costa.
“It was like, I didn’t need that job. 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 said.
Though he acknowledged challenging former President Donald Trump would be an uphill battle in a GOP primary, “that didn’t really scare me,” Hogan said.
“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.”
The moderate Republican, who has criticized Trump and members of his own party for claiming the 2020 election was stolen, noted that a “pile up” of candidates would make it more difficult for any one person to gain significant support.
“Right now, you have — you know, Trump and [Ron] 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,” Hogan said.
DeSantis has not yet said whether he intends to run in 2024, though he is widely expected to. When asked, Hogan declined to say whether he would would support the Florida governor.
“The people of Florida just overwhelmingly elected Ron DeSantis. I said earlier that I think governors are a good training ground to become president. We have a lot of great governors to consider. Maybe Ron DeSantis and I have different styles, but, you know, certainly he’s got every right to get out and make the case,” Hogan said.
Hogan did, however, offer his full-throated support for former Vice President Mike Pence.
“Absolutely,“ Hogan said, when asked if he could support Pence. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mike Pence, and I thought he certainly, you know, is the kind of guy, he’s full of integrity and experience.“
Besides the possibility of running as a Republican, there had also been talk of Hogan spearheading a third-party ticket, backed by No Labels, the centrist group he co-chairs. He was not asked about that possibility in the CBS interview.
Limited to two terms as governor, Hogan left office in January. During his tenure, he consistently had among the highest approval ratings in the nation of any governor, despite being a Republican governing one of the nation’s bluest states. His appearance on “Face the Nation” coincided with the publication of an op-ed article in the New York Times about the same subject.
David Cohen and Sam Stein contributed to this report.