FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2024
CONTACT: Lindsay Reilly, [email protected]
VIDEO: Maryland Leaders Hold Press Conference Highlighting How Hogan Could Deliver Republicans Control of the Senate
This week at the RNC Republicans backing Hogan pushed a far-right agenda that is deeply out of step with Maryland
Today, in response to the Republican National Convention, Maryland leaders held a press conference on how Republican Larry Hogan – who promises to caucus with Republicans and was personally recruited by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell – could be the 51st vote Republicans need to pass their agenda that’s deeply out of step with Marylanders, including a nationwide abortion ban.
“Each night the Republican Convention brings speaker after speaker who demonstrates why keeping a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate is essential. A vote for Larry Hogan is a vote for a Republican Senate that cares more about Donald Trump than the American people, our Constitution and the rule of law,” said U.S. Senator Ben Cardin in a statement. “A Republican-led Senate will turn back the clock on civil rights and reproductive health nationwide. Control of the Senate is one more reason as Democrats, we must stay united to make sure Angela Alsobrooks is our next US Senator from Maryland.”
“Angela Alsobrooks is running for the Senate to make a difference. Larry Hogan is running from his record… He’s running from the fact that he’s the handpicked candidate by McConnell, but he’s not running from the soft money dollars that are coming from the Republican Party. [If Hogan gets to the Senate], he would run to the Republican caucus,” U.S. Representative Glenn Ivey (MD-4) said.
“Our office, when I was Attorney General, sued Donald Trump just shy of 100 times. We sued them… for undermining women’s rights to make their own health care decisions. Larry Hogan was required by law to state his position on each one of the lawsuits that we brought. No matter how repellent Donald Trump’s misdeeds were, no matter how much pain they inflicted on Marylanders, Larry Hogan wouldn’t say boo,” said Former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D-Montgomery). “We need somebody who will stand up to Donald Trump. We need somebody who will fight for us. Somebody who has the courage of her convictions. That person is Angela Alsobrooks.”
“We faced a significant obstacle here in Maryland when Governor Hogan vetoed legislation aimed at protecting abortion services in 2022. He did not stand with women then. He did not stand with Marylanders then. And if he is elected to the U.S. Senate, he will gift Republicans the majority that they need to enact a nationwide ban on abortion. We absolutely cannot let that happen,” Delegate and Democratic Caucus Chair Emily Shetty said.
“Republicans aim to make abortion illegal nationally,” said Delegate and Chair of the Health and Government Operations Committee Joseline Peña-Melny (D-Prince George’s). “Hogan has a long record of opposing abortion. You can manipulate, distort the truth, hide it, but at some point, the truth comes up to the surface. Let’s look at the facts. Who recruited him? He was recruited by Mitch McConnell. And why would he do that? Why would Mitch McConnell come to Maryland? To turn control of the Senate to the Republicans.”
“There’s someone running to represent Maryland who believes that he and his fellow anti-abortion politicians have a right to control our bodies, our lives, and our futures. And his name is Larry Hogan… Governor Larry Hogan vetoed bills that would expand access to abortion care, including bills that reached his desk as recently as 2022,” said abortion rights advocate Dr. Jessica Bauer. “And when state lawmakers overrode his veto, he retaliated by blocking millions of dollars for training abortion providers. He couldn’t be trusted to protect the reproductive freedom of Marylanders while he was governor and he surely can’t be trusted to do so in the Senate.”
“Larry Hogan is a proud, self-described ‘lifelong Republican’ who would turn control of the Senate over to Republicans. That’s why Mitch McConnell personally recruited Republican Larry Hogan to run, and that’s why Donald Trump endorsed Republican Larry Hogan just hours after meeting with Republican senators to discuss retaking control of the Senate,” said Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Karen Darkes. “Republicans know Hogan would be the 51st vote they need to push forward an agenda that’s wildly out of step with Marylanders.”