An article in Politico reports on Governor Hogan’s vision for a post-Trump GOP. Asserting that President Trump was a “bad messenger,” Governor Hogan argued that the Republican party must “move on from the cult of Donald Trump and return to the basic principles that the party has always stood for.”
Although Donald Trump lost the presidency overwhelmingly, other Republicans like Senator Susan Collins, Governor Phil Scott, and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick that Governor Hogan endorsed and campaigned for were successful because they focused on “common sense conservative” principles and reaching out beyond their base.
Maryland’s governor looks forward to post-Trump GOP
‘I think the party has a winning message. We just had a bad messenger.’
David Cohen
“Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday he sees a clear path forward for the Republican Party without Donald Trump.
Hogan, one of Trump’s more frequent critics within the GOP, said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that the party needs to build coalitions that are not constructed around loyalty to the former president.
‘I think that if they really want to win competitive seats in purple states and if they want to win suburban districts,’ Hogan said, ‘if we want to somehow get back the House and the Senate, if we want to win a presidential election, they’re going to have to start building coalitions like we’ve done here in one of the bluest states in the country where you can have a message that appeals to more people.’
While decrying ‘a hostile takeover of the Republican Party’ in discussing pro-Trump forces, Hogan pointed both toward the party’s history and the 2020 elections in offering a new direction.
He noted that the Republican Party had been left for dead after Watergate and President Richard M. Nixon’s resignation in disgrace — suffering extensive losses in the 1974 midterms — but came back six years later with Ronald Reagan winning a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter. Hogan also said that many moderate Republicans did well in the 2020 election.
‘Many people who are like, from my wing of the party, who are common sense conservatives that we’re not really Donald, strong Donald Trump supporters. They all won,’ he said. ‘And, you know, people like [Maine Sen.] Susan Collins won. … [Gov.] Phil Scott up in Vermont. We picked up a whole lot of House seats in all the suburban districts. So, I think the party has a winning message. We just had a bad messenger, and I think we’ve got to move on from the cult of Donald Trump and return to the basic principles that the party has always stood for.’
Hogan said if he were in the Senate, he likely would have voted to convict Trump in the Senate’s impeachment trial. ‘I was very proud of some of the folks who stood up and did the right thing. It’s not always easy,’ he told host Chuck Todd.”