According to Fox News, Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland, just announced that he will not be entering the race for the U.S. presidency. 

Hogan made the announcement during an appearance, over the weekend, on CBS News’s Face the Nation. 

“It was a tough decision, but I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president,” Hogan said.

Read on to see how Hogan tried to claim that his decision not to enter the race will somehow make it harder for the Republican Party to nominate former President Donald Trump.

“Fight[ing] for the soul of the Republican Party”

Thus far, only three Republicans have officially entered the 2024 Republican presidential primary race: Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy.

This field is expected to grow significantly. And, many expected Hogan – a notable anti-Trump Republican – to be a part of it, particularly after Hogan’s visits last year to the first two primary states: New Hampshire and Iowa.

But, after “serious consideration,” Hogan says that he has decided against running.

Just because he is not running, though, doesn’t mean that Hogan intends to just sit by idly.

During his CBS appearance, he said:

I care very deeply about the country and my party. I think I’ve been a voice of reason to try to get us back to a place where we have a more hopeful, positive vision for America.I think we’ve made a difference and I don’t plan on walking away. I’m going to continue to stay involved in that fight for the soul of the Republican Party, but I’m just not going to do it as a candidate for president.

Stopping Trump

There is no question that when Hogan says that he is fighting “for the soul of the Republican Party” what he really means is that he is trying to get the Republican Party to divorce itself from Trump.

During the interview, Hogan actually tried to claim that his decision not to run for the U.S. presidency, somehow, would make it more difficult for Trump to win the Republican Party’s nomination.

Hogan reasoned:

I didn’t want to have a pile up of a bunch of people fighting. Right now, you have, you know, Trump and DeSantis at the top of the field, they’re soaking up all the oxygen, getting all the attention. And then a whole lot of the rest of us in single digits, and the more of them you have, the less chance you have for somebody rising up.

As Hogan said, Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) are indeed “soaking up all the oxygen.” Polling has consistently indicated that the 2024 Republican presidential primary is a two-horse race between them. No one else is even close.

You can judge for yourself whether or not Hogan’s real reason for choosing not to run is that he would have been unlikely to get even a modicum of support considering the Republicans’ stacked field.