Hogan’s RGA tenure and Senate GOP backers raise questions about his abortion promises
By Michael Jones
When Marylanders tune in tonight to what could be the only debate of the Senate general election campaign between former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Democratic County Executive of Prince George’s County Angela Alsobrooks, they’re likely to see a familiar face in Hogan sounding a moderate tone on one of the defining issues of the race: abortion.
His campaign website says he supports legislation that makes Roe v. Wade the law of the land in every state. Hogan went even further in an interview on one of the Sunday shows nearly two weeks ago when he said he would support a compromise bill to restore the protections of Roe that were repealed in the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision. That’s not all: Hogan even said he would sponsor an IVF bill.
But during Hogan‘s tenure on the executive committee of the Republican Governors Association, the organization endorsed and spent millions of dollars to elect Republican gubernatorial candidates who backed, and in many cases enacted, some of the country’s most restrictive abortion bans, according to documents I exclusively obtained. In his role, Hogan personally campaigned for many of these anti-abortion candidates and many of the GOP senators who support him oppose reproductive freedom.
What’s more is Hogan’s bid to replace the retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and become the first Republican to represent the Old Line State in the Senate since 1980 is backed by contributions from nearly two dozen Senate Republicans who oppose federal abortion protections, including members of leadership.
Hogan campaign spokesperson Blake Kernen said in a statement that the former governor’s efforts on the RGA Executive Committee were focused on helping Republicans who were under fire for speaking out against Trump.
“He’s always believed in a big-tent party and sometimes that means disagreeing and standing up to your own side when it’s necessary,” Kernen added. “It’s the kind of leadership he brought to Maryland as governor and the kind of leadership he’ll bring to the Senate.”
However, the Alsobrooks campaign said its candidate was the only one in the race who has consistently supported reproductive freedoms.
“They know that Larry Hogan will give Republicans a Senate majority and there won’t be a single vote to protect reproductive freedoms,” Deputy Communications Director Jackie Bush said. “In fact, Republicans will use their majority to try and pass a national abortion ban.”
Several Democrats I spoke to during my reporting said that Hogan’s words are hollow since his election would place him among a majority of Senate Republicans who want to ban abortion nationwide.
“Maryland voters are going to reject Hogan and his record of opposing reproductive freedom,” Tommy Garcia, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is responsible for electing Democrats to the Senate, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Hogan flirted with seeking the Republican nomination after serving two terms as Maryland’s chief executive. But ultimately, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) successfully recruited Hogan as an insurance policy to safeguard his party’s chances of winning back the majority during a favorable cycle already stacked with multiple pickup opportunities in states like Ohio, Montana, and West Virginia.
While Alsobrooks made history as the first Black woman to serve as Prince George’s County Executive, previously served two terms as the county’s top prosecutor, and won a competitive primary against a sitting member of Congress who spent $60 million of his own money, she has less statewide name recognition than Hogan, who left office with a 77 percent approval rating.
But Hogan stepped onto the national stage as abortion rights remain a political flashpoint as former President Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance have flip-flopped on where they stand on the issue and conservative allies have plotted how the two can enact a federal abortion ban without congressional action.
At the same time, the issue has opened up Hogan’s record on the issue to fresh scrutiny.
Hogan vetoed legislation to allow health care providers outside of physicians to perform abortions in Maryland in 2022. He said at the time that abortion is a procedure that requires the attention of a licensed physician and the bill risked lowering the high standard of reproductive health care women are provided in the state. (The World Health Organization, American Public Health Association and American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists were among the groups to support the expansion of who can provide abortion care.)
Supporters of the bill pointed to a provision that established a training program to increase the racial and ethnic diversity among health care professionals trained to provide abortion care. The Maryland legislature overrode Hogan’s veto to enact the law the next day. But despite the veto override, Hogan withheld funding for the training program, which delayed its implementation by a year.
On the political side, the governors of states with the most restrictive bans—Ron DeSantis of Florida ($21 million), Brian Kemp of Georgia ($14 million), Greg Abbott of Texas ($4 million), Kristi Noem of South Dakota ($2.8 million), Kay Ivey of Alabama ($2 million), and Kim Reynolds of Iowa ($1 million)—received at least seven figures in campaign contributions while Hogan served on the executive committee of the RGA, according to documents I reviewed. (A spokesperson for the RGA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
And as a Senate candidate, Hogan declined three times in March to say whether he would vote to codify Roe into law if elected to the Senate. He also refused to commit to federal IVF protections, which were put at risk when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos created through in vitro fertilization are considered children, a decision Hogan called “outrageous.” Relatedly, Hogan described the three Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices who joined the sitting trio of conservative justices to overturn Roe in 2022 as “incredible” in a speech in November 2022.
Several prominent anti-abortion Senate Republicans have attended fundraisers for Hogan, including Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), who is vying to replace McConnell as the top Senate Republican and headlined two fundraisers this summer. Thune, who has a 100-percent anti-abortion record and has consistently supported a nationwide abortion ban, also contributed $10,000 to Hogan’s campaign through a political action committee.
Thune is also the Senate sponsor of a bill that would penalize health care providers who fail to provide care for an infant that is born-alive from an abortion attempt. Reproductive freedom advocates have called the legislation an anti-abortion tactic that creates a problem that doesn’t exist since doctors are already required to provide appropriate medical care by law. The American Medical Association said it “strongly condemns any interference by the government or other third parties that causes a physician to compromise his or her medical judgment as to what information or treatment is in the best interest of the patient.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who’s also running to succeed McConnell, also contributed $10,000 to Hogan, along with Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), who’s running to replace Thune as the number-two Senate Republican. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Steve Daines (R-MT) each sit on McConnell’s leadership team and have contributed $10,000. (As of July 2024, the Hogan campaign had raised roughly $10 million in the five months since he launched his bid for the open seat.)
Tennessee’s two anti-abortion senators—Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty—held a fundraiser last month for Hogan’s campaign. The two senators support banning abortion nationwide, voted against federal IVF protections and celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe, which triggered a near-total abortion ban.
“Larry Hogan’s record is clear: he does not support women making their own reproductive health care decisions. That’s why Mitch McConnell personally recruited Hogan and anti-abortion rights extremists are throwing their support behind his campaign,” Lindsay Reilly, a spokesperson for the Maryland Democratic Party told me in a statement. “Republicans understand Hogan would be the 51st seat they need to push forward an anti-abortion rights agenda. That’s disqualifying to Maryland voters.”
A spokesperson for the Maryland Republican Party did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
While Democrats will find it difficult to restore Roe’s protections under a Senate Republican majority, there’s no guarantee that they would be able to do so if they hold the Senate due to the institution’s 60-vote threshold for most major legislation, known as the filibuster.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced last week her support for an exception to filibuster for reproductive rights, a carveout the Hogan campaign told me the former governor opposes.
“Governor Hogan does not agree with Donald Trump and Angela Alsobrooks’ position on abolishing the filibuster and certainly does not support any procedural change that would make it easier to pass a national abortion ban.”
The Alsobrooks campaign characterized Hogan’s position on the filibuster as disqualifying as his record as governor and at the RGA.
“Marylanders won’t trust someone who vetoed legislation to expand access to abortion and refuses to get rid of the filibuster to codify Roe,” Bush told me. “She will vote to abolish the filibuster so we can finally codify reproductive freedoms into law.”
Michael Jones is an independent Capitol Hill correspondent and contributor for COURIER. He is the author of Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about Congressional politics.
