America’s most improbably popular governor, a Republican beginning his second term in perhaps the bluest state, resembles a beer keg with an attitude. Stocky and blunt, Larry Hogan, whose job approval is in the high 70s, has won twice in the state with the highest percentage of African-Americans of any state outside the Deep South. In 2016, Maryland voted more emphatically for Hillary Clinton — by 26 percentage points — than all but three other states. In 2018, Hogan was re-elected receiving a majority of women’s votes, and 28 percent of the African-American vote while running against a former NAACP head. Hogan won while almost 50 percent of Marylanders were saying they would vote against all Republicans to express contempt for Donald Trump. So, he won against a huge blue wave in a deep blue state.
But, then, Hogan had ended the “rain tax,” which was known as a “stormwater remediation fee” until he rebranded it. It forced certain counties to tax everyone, sometimes based on the amount of “impervious surfaces” on their property. All the great and good in Maryland defended this as environmentally virtuous (supposedly helping the Chesapeake Bay). However, all but one member of the Legislature, which had veto-proof Democratic majorities in both houses, voted not to terminate their political careers by continuing to tax rain.
In 2016 Hogan was early in saying he would neither endorse Trump nor attend the convention nor vote for him. And because Hogan has voiced barely disguised disgust about the president’s comportment. And because Hogan’s father set an example of principled insubordination. And because he, Hogan, is term limited, with little to lose other than sleep, happiness and friends. For all these reasons, he is being importuned to challenge the president in Republican primaries. He says he is “listening” and has “not said no.”
He does, however, have a day job he is reluctant to neglect. And he soon will become chair of the National Governors Association. So, he clearly is not eager to mount a losing challenge — which it surely would be — just to unfurl the tattered flag of recognizable Republicanism. Opposing any incumbent president is not a day at the beach, and campaigning against today’s uniquely smarmy incumbent would be especially disagreeable. Hogan has, however, undergone, while governor, six rounds of chemotherapy to defeat an advanced and aggressive cancer, so has endured something almost as unpleasant as Donald Trump.
