Maryland’s Popular Republican Senate Candidate Incurs Trump’s Wrath
With former President Donald J. Trump’s organization in full attack mode, former Gov. Larry Hogan’s path to the Senate in Maryland is getting considerably narrower.
Mr. Hogan, a popular Republican in a strongly Democratic state and prized Senate recruit, has never tried to hide his disdain for Mr. Trump, the former president and presumptive nominee. But when he urged “all Americans to respect the verdict” just before guilt was rendered against Mr. Trump last week in Manhattan, the Trump team decided the former president’s interests outweighed the Republican Party’s push to regain control of the Senate.
“You just ended your campaign,” announced Chis LaCivita, a veteran Republican operative who serves as a senior campaign adviser to Mr. Trump and as an official at the Republican National Committee.
It got personal quickly. Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair and Mr. Trump’s daughter-in-law, strongly denounced him on CNN.
“He doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly, anybody in America,” she said, adding, “I think he should never have said something like that. I think that’s ridiculous.”
She did not directly answer follow up questions on whether the Republican Party would use its resources to support Mr. Hogan’s campaign going to forward.