You don’t have to be a huge fan of the former Maryland governor, Larry Hogan (R) is a Republican and can smell a rat. The stench of media-driven scum is in the air during the closely watched Senate race in Maryland.
Hogan won easily the GOP Senate primaries on Tuesday as expected. The Maryland primary results surprised many political observers, especially when Angela Alsobrooks defeated Rep. David Trone to win the Democratic nomination.
Trone was polling ahead of Alsobrooks just a month earlier and had invested over $60 million in the race. Trone’s demise was likely due to a series of colossal mistakes, including his utterance of a racial epithet (which he later claimed as an accident) towards Shalanda, a black Biden Administration official, at an April House hearing.
The mainstream media has already started to talk about Maryland as the possible route for a Democrat-controlled Senate. Politico, by way of example, declared that Hogan was “standing between Alsobrooks (a black senator) and history”.
If only that mean Larry Hogan would just step aside and give her the Senate seat, then history could be made pic.twitter.com/cN6d4KMgc5
— Jeremy Hughes (@jeremybhughes) May 15, 2024
Since then, the headline has been changed to “Angela Alsobrooks wins a messy Senate Primary.” She is now ready to take on Larry Hogan. There was also a concern about Senate control.
Hogan’s presence in Maryland, a deep blue state in which Republicans haven’t held a Senate seat for more than 40 years, turns it into a battleground where resources will be diverted from other areas. This could impact Democrats’ attempts to maintain their tenuous Senate control since every dollar spent on Maryland will not be spent on defending vulnerable incumbents from other states.
The National Journal Hotline informed us that Hogan and Alsobrooks do not look alike. This could pose a problem for Hogan, even though he has already proven he can win races statewide in deep blue Maryland.
With Alsobrooks winning the Democratic nomination, Hogan will face a candidate that represents everything he is not.
My latest analysis for @njhotline: pic.twitter.com/1wJna2FfWJ— Hannah Thacker (@HannahPThacker) May 15, 2024
The Baltimore Sun editorial board declared that a victory for Alsobrooks in the Maryland Senate race would be good, according to them, because “maybe, maybe it doesn’t harm to represent social progression either.”
Although Hogan is likely to face an uphill struggle in the general elections, it’s a pity that so much attention has already been placed on color (and sexuality) and “making a history” rather than where they stand on issues.
Hogan’s failure to differentiate himself from Alsobrooks in a meaningful way will be even more apparent, especially to independent and Democratic voters that he has already begun to court.