Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said he “voted for Ronald Reagan” in this year’s presidential election after deciding he could support neither President Donald Trump nor Democratic nominee Joe Biden for the job.
In an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday, the governor said he voted by mail last week. He said he wrote Reagan’s name on his ballot to make a statement and felt he could comfortably do so in a state where Biden holds a significant lead in polls.
The move comes as he works to expand his national profile that has gained momentum as he establishes himself as a prominent Trump critic. He delivered a scathing review of the President Trump’s bungled response to the COVID-19 crisis in a book published earlier this year, and there have been whispers that he’s contemplating a potential 2024 presidential bid.
Hogan is the second GOP governor in recent days who has formally decided against a vote for Trump, after Massachusetts Gov. Charlier Baker (R) made a similar declaration earlier this week.
Last month, Hogan did endorse Sen. Susan Collins (ME), who is in a tough race to keep her seat and has also broken with the President on a number of issues, including a decision to barrel ahead with a Supreme Court nomination as voting in the election gets underway.
In his interview with the Post on Thursday, Hogan called Reagan “my hero in politics” alongside his late father, Larry Hogan Sr., whom he wrote in for president in 2016 after deciding that he could not support Trump or then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Hogan described himself as a “lifelong conservative Republican” to the Post on Thursday, saying that back in his college days “Reagan was the guy.”
“I know it’s simply symbolic. It’s not going to change the outcome in my state. But I thought it was important to just cast a vote that showed the kind of person I’d like to see in office,” Hogan said.
