Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday he would not be backing former President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in 2024.
Hogan, a Republican running for U.S. Senate in Maryland, said at an Axios event Thursday that he would not vote for Trump, backpedaling on his statement that he would endorse the GOP presidential nominee, which he made last year.
“Look, I’m like 70% of the rest of the people in America who do not want Joe Biden or Donald Trump to be president, and I’m hoping that there potentially is another alternative,” Hogan told Axios.
At the event, Hogan expressed interest in supporting a third-party ticket. No Labels, a third-party political group of which he is a former chairman, is planning to forge ahead with a presidential candidate, despite prominent candidates rejecting the ticket in the past, the Associated Press confirmed Wednesday.
Hogan told said he turned down a No Labels offer because he didn’t want to be a “spoiler.” Though the third-party group has yet to announce its candidates, No Labels will vote Friday on its plans moving forward.
The centrist Republican is known as a staunch Trump critic and chose to endorse former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley as the Republican nominee before she dropped out of the race Wednesday.
Last year on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Hogan said he would vote for the Republican nominee, adding that he did not think it would be Trump.
Hogan continued to bash the former president when asked about comments Trump made about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” in which he referred to illegal immigrants coming to the United States from prisons and mental institutions from all over the world.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Trump’s rhetoric is terrible for the people in our state, and that’s why he lost by more than 30 points twice and why I won by, you know, a lot more,” Hogan told the outlet.
Hogan’s unwillingness to get behind Trump mimics Haley’s reluctance to endorse Trump as the GOP nominee after she also previously said she would vote for whoever the Republican nominee would be. Instead, following the announcement of her dropping out, the former ambassador called on Trump to “earn the votes of those in our party.”