Despite “Blank Check,” Hogan Fails to Deliver Amazon to Maryland

Annapolis, MD—Despite his “blank check,” Larry Hogan has once again failed to deliver businesses for Maryland after the Washington Post reported that Amazon is “in advanced talks” to select Crystal City, Virginia for the location of HQ2.

In February, Maryland Secretary of Transportation Pete Rahn said that he promised Amazon a “blank check” to entice the company to select Maryland for HQ2.

“After losing Discovery, Larry Hogan made landing Amazon the centerpiece of his economic development policy, but once again, it appears a Democratic governor in Virginia has bested Hogan to win the bid for HQ2,” said Maryland Democratic Party chair Kathleen Matthews. “Amazon is looking for a dynamic business environment, and under Larry Hogan, Maryland is losing out to Virginia and its other neighbors.”

Amazon joins a long list of missed opportunities and lost jobs for Marylanders. In April, Gerber Products announced that it will move its headquarters from New Jersey to Rosslyn, VA. In January, Governor Hogan became the first Maryland governor to lose a Fortune 500 company in decades with Discovery’s announcement that it will move its headquarters to New York.  Hogan then dismissed the impact of Discovery’s departure as “not the end of the world.”

Last year, Facebook, Nestle and Boeing chose to invest in Virginia instead of Maryland.  When President Trump cancelled a project to move the headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which would have brought thousands of high-paying jobs to Maryland, Governor Hogan sat by and did nothing.