In his appearance last night on The Final 5 with Jim Lokay, Governor Hogan emphasized his commitment to representing all Marylanders in the Senate as an independent maverick willing to stand up to both parties, reiterated his support for codifying Roe and reproductive rights, and called for more bipartisanship in the judicial nomination and confirmation process.
On Representing All Marylanders: “I’m just out there convincing voters, I’m running like I’m 20 points down. But I actually think it’s a very close race. And I think we have a great chance to win. … I’m running because I think I can really make a difference in Washington and I’m going to try to represent all the people of Maryland. And I’m willing to stand up to both the Republicans and the Democrats.”
On Being a Maverick: “The person that probably stands out the most for me is Joe Manchin. You know, he was a guy who was a Democrat that didn’t go along with all of the kind of far left side of his party. And he stood up and stood out. … I think I can be a lot like John McCain and Joe Manchin, the ones that are willing to stand up and do what’s right for them for the state they represent and for the country and not, you know, somebody willing to put, you know, people over politics and country over party. I think it’s what’s desperately lacking in Washington is all they do is, you know, fight with each other and it’s nothing but divisiveness and dysfunction.”
On Protecting Reproductive Rights: “I will sponsor a bill on the first day, sponsor a bill to codify Roe, sponsor a bill to protect IVF. When I ran for governor, I promised that I would protect access to abortion and I kept that promise for eight years, where we funded abortion every single year for eight years. We had no efforts whatsoever to change any abortion laws in Maryland. And I kept my word for eight years as governor. I’ll do the same thing in the Senate. Frankly, it’s sad that my opponents and these outside groups are spending all these millions of dollars. The entire campaign is based on lies. And for an issue so important, that is so important to women, to scare them with complete falsehoods, it’s really sad. It’s disingenuous.”
On Attempts to Politicize the Judicial Process: “With all due respect to Senator Cornyn and Senator Thune, I thought that’s an outrageous position and I think we need to have an up or down vote. I think it’s really terrible when either party tries to only jam through people of their own party, automatically opposes the other party. We should have bipartisan buy in. One thing that shouldn’t be partisan is these judicial appointments to the Supreme Court. And as governor of Maryland, I appointed six out of the seven members of our Supreme Court. And every single one of them received a unanimous confirmation from, you know, Republicans and Democrats in a place where 70 percent of the folks were Democrats. So if they can’t get buy-in, you know, I’m willing to give a fair hearing and I’ll support any qualified nominee. That’s if Kamala Harris is the president or Donald Trump is the president.”
