Today, Ben Jealous highlighted Hogan’s record of shortchanging Marylanders and it apparently got under Larry Hogan’s skin. Hogan’s campaign has issued yet another inaccurate fact check, so let’s set the record straight (again):
- In response to Ben highlighting Hogan’s record of aiding the DeVos war on public schools in Maryland, Hogan does not dispute that he has been a loyal foot soldier in the Trump-DeVos war on schools and rolled out the red carpet for DeVos weeks after her confirmation, making her the very first Trump administration cabinet official hosted in Maryland.
- In response to Ben highlighting Hogan’s record of complicity in Jeff Sessions’ divisive immigration and incarceration policy, Hogan tries to run from his record, but here’s the truth:
- Governor Hogan and his administration regularly work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain undocumented Marylanders.
- When Donald Trump announced his Muslim ban in February 2017, Marylanders flooded Governor Hogan’s Facebook page pleading with him to join them at the airport to stand with Muslim Americans. Instead of joining Marylanders against Trump’s Muslim Ban, Hogan blocked them on Facebook.
- Despite pressure from Marylanders, including leaders in the faith community, Governor Hogan opposed efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in Maryland in 2015.
- In response to Ben highlighting the skyrocketing costs of healthcare under Hogan, the governor is unable to defend his record. The year before Larry Hogan took office, the average monthly benchmark premium in the ACA marketplace was $220. Today, it has more than doubled to $487. Hogan is hanging his hat on a stopgap measure passed by Democrats in the legislature, which will help protect Maryland families from Donald Trump’s healthcare sabotage for one year. Hogan still has no long-term solution to lower Marylanders’ healthcare costs. Ben’s plan can be found here.
- In response to Ben highlighting Hogan’s record of failing Maryland students, the governor is once again unable to defend his record. Larry Hogan’s very first budget attempted to cut more than $100 million in public school funding. Hogan’s last budget proposed nearly $100 million in education funding cuts to vital programs to improve teacher retention and provide afterschool programs. After Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment to ensure that casino gaming revenue goes to our schools, Hogan used legislative gimmicks to try to water down the bill so he could continue diverting casino gaming revenue from our public schools—which Hogan has done to the tune of $1.4 billion since he’s been in office.
- In response to Ben highlighting the thousands of dollars Maryland workers have lost under Hogan, the governor is unable to refute Ben’s statement. But since he brought up the subject:
- Baltimore was one of only a handful of cities nationwide to see a rise in unemployment in May. Additionally, Maryland has consistently trailed the nation and the region in wage growth under Hogan. Since Hogan has been in office, workers nationwide have taken home an additional$5,300 in wage increases since Hogan entered office, while Maryland workers have taken home less than $1,000 in added wages under Hogan. Virginia workers have taken home more than $8,000 more.
- In response to Ben reminding voters that Hogan blocked key environmental protection regulations to reward poultry producer Mountaire Corporation for donated $250,000 to help get him elected, Hogan can’t hide from the facts.
In response to Ben highlighting Hogan’s failure to take on the prescription drug industry and his opposition to legislation to lower the price of prescription drugs, the governor blamed…Martin O’Malley?