A column from Jason Riley in The Wall Street Journal highlights Governor Hogan’s success appealing to black Marylanders as proof that Republicans can win these voters “without making overt racial appeals.”
In 2018, Governor Hogan “won 28% of the black vote, which was double the amount he’d won four years earlier…all the more impressive because his opponent not only was black but also a former head of the NAACP, and Democrats enjoyed a blue wave nationally that year.” These black voters were won over by Governor Hogan’s “push to lower taxes and his decision to send federal troops to Baltimore during the 2015 riots.” Recent polling shows nearly 80% of black Marylanders approve of Governor Hogan’s job performance.
While Republicans nationally don’t win more black voters because “GOP candidates rarely seek them out,” Governor Hogan has already proven that Republicans can change this by showing up and focusing on “safe neighborhoods and low tax rates.”