EXCLUSIVE: Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland will barnstorm through the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire this week, where he’ll showcase a new inflation relief plan from the pro-Hogan public advocacy group An America United.
Word of the trip to New Hampshire by the term-limited GOP governor of a blue state, which was shared first with Fox News on Sunday, will spark further speculation that Hogan may be gearing up for a run for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Hogan will hold six events in New Hampshire during a day and a half visit that kicks off on Monday evening. The governor will meet with several business groups on front lines of economy, including the New Hampshire Commercial Investment Board of Realtors, Associated Builders and Contractors New Hampshire/Vermont, and the New Hampshire Home Builders Association.
The governor is expected to use his meetings with Granite State business leaders to hear how record inflation is impacting their industries, and to promote his proposed solutions contained in An America United’s five-point plan to provide struggling Americans with immediate economic relief.
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The plan, which is being released on Sunday, is described by officials with the group as a ‘common sense proposal to address this crisis,’ and is modeled on what they spotlight as the ‘results Governor Hogan has achieved in Maryland.‘
The proposals call for restoring America’s energy independence, stopping inflation tax hikes, reducing job-killing red tape, ending reckless federal government spending, and suspending the federal gas tax.
‘Under the failed economic policies of Joe Biden, Americans are suffering from crippling levels of inflation — the highest since in over 40 years. While Washington remains more interested in partisan dysfunction and empty rhetoric than actually delivering solutions, we have already shown a better path forward,’ Hogan told Fox News in a statement.
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Hogan’s swing through New Hampshire — his first trip to the state in over three years — precedes his appearance at the National Governors Association’s annual summer meeting, which is being held in Portland, Maine this year.
Hogan is seen by political pundits as a potential contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. And the governor, a vocal Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, has left the door wide open to a possible White House run.
In announcing in February that he would not make a run this year for the Senate, the governor said that his decision ‘does not mean that I plan to sit on the sidelines when it comes to the serious challenges facing our country and our democracy. I’m going to continue to call it like I see it, and I’ll keep speaking out about the divisiveness and dysfunction in Washington and about fixing the broken politics.’
And looking ahead, Hogan noted that ‘my current job as governor runs until January 2023, and then we’ll take a look and see what the future holds after that.’
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In a speech in May at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California that loudly hinted towards a potential White House run, Hogan highlighted that he’s a ‘common sense conservative from the Reagan wing of the Republican Party.’
And Hogan’s address at the library’s ‘Time for Choosing’ speaking series which has attracted a number of potential 2024 GOP presidential contenders, Hogan argued that Republicans ‘won’t win back the White House by nominating Donald Trump or a cheap impersonation of him.’
Trump on the trail
The former president held back-to-back political rallies this weekend.
Trump was in Las Vegas on Friday, headlining a campaign event for Nevada’s GOP Senate nominee Adam Laxalt — the state’s former attorney general — and for Republican gubernatorial nominee Joe Lombardo, the sheriff of Clark County.
The former president once again teased a 2024 White House run, saying again that he may have to do it ‘a third time.’
On Saturday, Trump was in Alaska, the main attraction at a rally for Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka — who’s challenging longtime GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski — and for 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who’s running in a special election this summer for an open House seat.
Virginia’s Youngkin helping out fellow Republicans
Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a rising star in the GOP, was in Nebraska this weekend, his first trip in a series of planned visits to help fellow Republicans running in November’s midterm elections.
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Youngkin delivered the keynote address at the Nebraska Republican Party’s state convention and campaigned on behalf of GOP gubernatorial nominee Jim Pillen.
Following his election last November, which energized Republicans nationwide, there was instant buzz regarding Youngkin as a possible contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. And his political travels outside Virginia will only increase the speculation. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada — the first four states to hold contests in the next Republican presidential nominating calendar — all hold gubernatorial elections this year.
Youngkin said ‘the short answer is possibly’ when asked last month by Fox News if he would be traveling to any of those states to campaign for fellow Republicans.
But the governor once again deflected any talk a presidential run, saying in his interview that ‘I’m always humbled when people ask me about 2024. But my intention is very much on Virginia, very much on 2022 elections, and doing all I can to help.’