Iowa Visit by Larry Hogan Tests White House Prospects for Anti-Trump Republicans
DES MOINES, Iowa—A visit last week by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to the state expected to host the first 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest showcased the challenges ahead for prospective candidates not aligned with former President Donald Trump. Almost no one seemed to recognize Mr. Hogan as he walked through the Iowa State Fair surrounded by three Maryland state troopers and his own camera crew. During a stop at a suburban Des Moines country club, in front of a local conservative group better known for its chamber of commerce ties than for fealty to Mr. Trump, Mr. Hogan received a friendly reception from the roughly 50 people gathered.
“Successful politics is about addition and multiplication,” the 66-year-old governor said, addressing how the GOP lost the White House, Senate and House during Mr. Trump’s tenure in office. “It’s not about subtraction and division.” GOP voters in Iowa have said they are open to alternatives to Mr. Trump, but it is hard to determine how many will listen to Mr. Hogan’s message, or that of other potential candidates critical of the former president.
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The pace of prospective candidate visits to Iowa is already picking up and will accelerate more after November’s midterm elections, with many of the potential candidates being closely aligned with Mr. Trump. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas have made visits to Iowa since 2020. Mr. Hogan, Ms. Cheney and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are some of the possible 2024 GOP candidates who could enter the race as Trump antagonists.
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Mr. Christie, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate who was in Iowa last week to help raise money for Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, told Radio Iowa that he won’t make a decision about a 2024 bid until early next year. “Definitely thinking about it,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump’s status as the nomination front-runner could quickly change. Many Iowa Republicans continued to back the former president following the unprecedented search at Mar-a-Lago by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Mr. Hogan, who will leave office in January because of term limits, said in an interview he wouldn’t be dissuaded from running if Mr. Trump did so and mentioned the competition the former president might face from Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Trump and DeSantis and 10 other people could be fishing for that same pond of folks, and somebody like me might pick up the other 35% of the vote,” he said. During his swing through Iowa, Mr. Hogan stressed his record of being the first Republican in his state to win a second term in the governor’s mansion in more than 60 years. He also sought to bolster his conservative credentials with frequent mentions of his support of law enforcement.
In the interview, Mr. Hogan said the GOP needs to move away from Mr. Trump if the party wants to win more state and federal elections. “We need to get away from just relitigating 2020 and talking about stolen elections and stop catering to the extremes of our party and stop talking about conspiracy theories and focus on issues people care about,” he said. Mr. Hogan said Mr. Trump has put the GOP in a vulnerable position in the midterm elections by endorsing candidates in primaries that the governor views as “the least electable” in November. Mr. Trump has often backed candidates aligned with his false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, including GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania. Some establishment Republicans argue that such candidates will struggle to win independent voters in November not interested in revisiting the 2020 vote.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iowa-visit-by-larry-hogan-tests-white-house-prospects-for-anti-trump-republicans-11660815002 (subscription)
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