United States | Maryland maverick

Why Larry Hogan’s long-odds bid for a Senate seat matters

He offers conservatives a pragmatic path beyond Trumpism

Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, speaks to the press after the Maryland Senate debate in Maryland.
Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times/Redux/Eyevine
|MIDDLE RIVER, MARYLAND

FEW REPUBLICAN politicians differ more from Donald Trump than Larry Hogan, the GOP Senate candidate in Maryland. Consider the contrasts between a Trump rally and a Hogan event. Whereas Mr Trump prefers to take the stage and riff in front of packed arenas, Mr Hogan spent a recent Friday night chatting with locals at a waterfront wedding venue in Baltimore County. Mr Hogan’s stump speech, at around ten minutes, felt as long as a single off-script Trump tangent. Mr Trump delights in defying his advisers; Mr Hogan fastidiously sticks to talking points about bipartisanship, good governance and overcoming tough odds. Put another way, Mr Hogan’s campaign is something Mr Trump is rarely accused of being: boring. But it is intriguing.

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