Hogan And Trump Face Off In Maryland Gubernatorial Proxy Battle

Former President Donald Trump and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) will engage in one of the most significant GOP proxy battles of the midterm season at Republican primary elections in Maryland tomorrow.

• Hogan is term limited and unable to run for re-election. He hasn't yet ruled out a 2024 presidential bid, potentially running on a traditional Republican platform, opposed to the Trump faction.
• Hogan said last week: "I'm hopeful that Donald Trump won't be running [for re-election] and won't be the nominee if he does run."
• Trump told a rally last week during the preamble to the Maryland primaries: “You’ll get rid of a lousy governor” if voters backed his “100 percent MAGA” endorsee Daniel Cox.
• Trump refereed to Hogan's favoured Democrat candidate Kelly Schulz as Hogan's "anointed successor,” and said “anybody [Hogan] wants, frankly, I’d be against just on that basis alone.”
• Washington Post: "Maryland’s Republican primary race has become widely viewed as a hostile proxy campaign between Trump’s and Hogan’s competing visions for the direction of the party. It echoes the schism in GOP contests nationwide as the party seeks nominees who can regain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections."
• WaPo continues by saying the gubernatorial race is "shaped by deep divisions across the country between members of the GOP establishment and supporters of former president Trump."
• CBS: "Hogan argued that recent primaries where Trump's endorsed candidate has lost, such as the gubernatorial primaries in Georgia, Idaho, Ohio and Alabama, are proving his long-held theory that the former president's influence over the party has waned."
• A Goucher College poll suggests that there is currently no clear frontrunner for the governor's race. According to the poll, 35% of Democrat and 40% of Republican voters are undecided.
• Note: Due to the Maryland vote counting system results could be delayed for several weeks in the event of tight races.