Annapolis, MD— Ahead of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s scheduled visit to Baltimore to push their anti-immigrant, race-baiting crime policies, Maryland Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Matthews is calling on Governor Larry Hogan to denounce the Trump Administration’s racial fearmongering:
“It’s time for Governor Hogan to reject the racist, anti-immigrant Trump agenda that masquerades as a crime policy. Does Governor Hogan stand with President Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ hateful rhetoric and ineffectual policies, or will he stand with Marylanders and uphold our values?”
Hogan and his Maryland Republican colleagues have mimicked Trump’s divisive politics. Hogan himself endorsed failed GOP candidate Ed Gillespie’s hateful campaign for Virginia governor, and Scott Wagner’s Trump-lite campaign for Pennsylvania Governor. Just like Gillespie, Hogan has also used racist dog whistles on multiple occasions to shore up his political support.
Hogan also knows that he can’t abandon his base too much or he will feel the heat. Less than half of all Maryland Republican voters supported Hogan’s decision to note support President Trump during the 2016 election. When he reversed his previous Trumpist position on the Roger Taney statue in Maryland this past August, Governor Hogan was rebuked by Maryland Republican base voters. There have been reports that Governor Horgan is “rapidly losing support from the base” of the Republican Party and that Republican insiders are worried his “re-election is in peril…” Hogan’s poll numbers among Republican voters have slipped markedly. On election night, one Republican Member of the House of Delegates reportedly predicted that next year will be “a bad year for Maryland Republicans.”
During his failed campaign for governor, Ed Gillespie struggled to navigate the same political minefield. Should he run with or from Trumpism? He settled on a strategy of “Trumpism without Trump,” which resulted in a wave election up and down the ticket in Virginia. Hogan is struggling—and failing—to navigate the same minefield.