Maryland Governor Larry Hogan takes on his would-be successor
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has ratcheted up the rhetoric about GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox, describing him earlier this week as mentally unstable.
Hogan, who has previously called Cox a “QAnon whack job,” described the GOP nominee as “a nut” during a recent radio interview and reiterated his prediction that Cox has “no chance whatsoever” of being elected as Maryland’s governor in November.
“He’s not, in my opinion, mentally stable,” Hogan, who is term-limited, said Wednesday on WGMD radio, based on the Eastern Shore. “He wanted to hang my friend, Mike Pence, and took three busloads of people to the Capitol.”
Cox, a Republican delegate from Frederick, handily defeated Hogan-endorsed candidate Kelly Schulz last month in a primary largely viewed as a proxy war between Hogan, who has presidential ambitions, and former president Donald Trump, who endorsed Cox. In January 2021, Cox tweeted that he was organizing buses to the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. During the insurrection, he tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence was “a traitor,” though he later apologized for his language while facing a legislative ethics inquiry.
The popular outgoing governor’s denigrations of Cox have shown no sign of slowing, and coupled with Cox’s own comments this week, signaled a potential shift in tone for the race.
“Hogan has a problem with telling the truth and mounting smear antics,” Cox said in a statement. “As a lifelong Marylander, father of 10 children and experienced state delegate, businessman and attorney at law, the people of Maryland and I trounced Hogan’s lockdown agenda candidate. And I intend to do it again this fall by unifying Maryland to win big for freedom.”
Cox’s campaign is seen as a long shot in Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin. And Hogan’s repeated attempts to paint Cox, a first-term delegate and a relative unknown across the state, as unfit to replace him probably will dampen Cox’s efforts to lure the Democratic voters and independents he would need to win.
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He doesn’t have a chance in hell of luring Democratic voters:
Earlier this week, Cox agreed when his running mate, Gordana Schifanelli, said, “This is not a campaign [of] Republican versus Democrat. This is a campaign between freedom and a socialist-communist politics that has driven the people of this state to the ground.”
Cox said he “absolutely” agreed that Moore promoted socialist and communist ideas, citing a Moore campaign invitation that required proof of vaccination and later labeling the teaching of the history of race in schools and discussion of gender identity as socialist causes.
“The socialist model is a top-down model that requires more government control of our education. And we’re seeing that he is advocating that. You can’t even attend his events without a vaccination passport of an experimental vaccination. That’s an egregious overstep,” Cox told reporters Monday at the opening of his Annapolis campaign headquarters.
He went on to criticize teaching about gender identity to children in third grade or younger, which is not a specific policy Moore endorsed. Cox also criticized Moore for supposedly embracing “CRT,” an acronym for critical race theory, an intellectual movement that examines the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism. Critical race theory is not taught in Maryland schools; Moore has not advocated that it should be.
Cox is almost a nutty as Pennsylvania GOP candidate Doug Mastriano. Completely around the bend. But that’s the mainstream of the Republican Party. Hogan is the one who’s out of touch with is party.