Former Gov. Larry Hogan paints himself as one of a few Republicans who never backed down to ex-President Donald Trump, but the Democratic attorney general who served during Hogan’s two terms disagrees.
Hogan’s latest political campaign ad for a U.S. Senate seat has drawn fresh ire from former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. As the ad’s video rolls through clips of Hogan’s two terms as governor, a folksy male voice describes Hogan as a Republican who criticized Trump — one who “never caved” and “never backs down.” Text clipped from a news headline calls Hogan “The Un-Trump Republican.”
Frosh is calling foul. The state’s former top attorney recalled dozens of times where Hogan could have stood up to Trump but repeatedly chose to stand down. Instead, lawmakers had to change state law, giving Frosh the unilateral authority to sue the Trump administration and cutting Hogan out of the process.
But Hogan didn’t support Frosh’s pursuits on these issues, he recalled — many of which are still at play in the U.S. Senate race against his Democratic opponent, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks — and remain pertinent now that both Hogan and Trump are again on the ballot.
During Trump’s term, Frosh sued the federal government on behalf of Marylanders dozens of times. Among the reasons: to protect their civil rights, to preserve the Affordable Care Act used by hundreds of thousands of Marylanders, to guard access to contraception and access to food stamps and to keep offshore drilling away from the Chesapeake Bay.
“In a lot of ways, he let Trump do his dirty work,” Frosh said. “There are a lot of things that Larry Hogan would have gladly signed up for.”
Hogan criticized the General Assembly’s actions, calling them “unfortunate, rank partisanship,” and said Frosh should instead focus on state business. The governor also withheld funding for Frosh mandated by the General Assembly because Hogan said the attorney general’s office could pull money from other sources.
“He is the antithesis of someone who stands up for something,” Frosh said. “He was ducking and running.”
Hogan supported at least two of Frosh’s lawsuits aimed at protecting the environment, according to news reports. One fought Trump’s attempt to weaken emissions standards. Another sued the administration over pollution from out-of-state power plants.
Campaign spokesperson Mike Ricci did not say why Hogan did not back the majority of Frosh’s lawsuits but said in a statement that the two men took “different approaches” to their jobs.
“While Mr. Frosh prioritized playing politics and tilting at Washington windmills, Governor Hogan focused on Maryland and Marylanders first,” Ricci said. “While Mr. Frosh was busy shuffling papers and filing briefs, Governor Hogan stood up to Trump on COVID, January 6th, Charlottesville, the Chesapeake Bay, the Affordable Care Act, NIH, family separations, rescinding DACA, the Supreme Court, and so on — no matter the political cost.”
Legislature cut Hogan’s power
Frosh and Hogan’s differences of opinion intensified after Trump took office. Days after Trump’s inauguration, the 45th president ordered a travel ban, barring people from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
Frosh wanted to sue on the basis of religious discrimination and on behalf of students and workers trying to come to Maryland. The quickest route to suing the federal government at the time was to seek the governor’s permission. But Hogan never answered Frosh’s request, he said.
The attorney then went to the General Assembly for help, an alternative allowed by law, and the Democratic-led legislature acted. They changed state law to scrap Hogan’s authority, giving Frosh sole power to sue if the federal government threatened the public interest and welfare of Marylanders.
Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson co-sponsored the Maryland Defense Act of 2017 which brought the attorney general’s powers in line with dozens of other states. The Baltimore Democrat was then a senator and recalled “a great deal of consternation and fear” among lawmakers about what could happen to Marylanders under a Trump presidency.
“We wanted Marylanders to be protected,” he said.
Ferguson recalled Hogan criticizing Frosh’s use of his unilateral authority and keeping funding from Frosh’s office.
With his new powers and no extra money, Frosh cobbled together a team of attorneys using legal fellows from New York University and members of his staff who volunteered to work overtime. Almost all of the lawsuits he joined or filed against the administration were successful, he said.
One of the most notable cases led by Frosh challenged Trump for violating the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause by using the power and influence of the presidency for his own financial gain. Frosh along with Washington D.C.’s attorney general co-led the effort, but the case came to a halt after the US. Supreme Court deemed it moot because Trump had left office.
Hogan’s balancing act
Hogan has said he didn’t vote for Trump in either election, but he attended Trump’s inauguration. Back then, he said through a spokesperson that he planned to work with Trump’s administration. But the two have sniped at each other on social media and Trump helped sink the gubernatorial campaign of Hogan’s handpicked successor two years ago.
This time around, Hogan said he won’t endorse Trump’s campaign or vote for him and has skipped the party’s national convention three times. Trump endorsed Hogan for Senate. Hogan rejected the nod.
It was Trump’s outsized influence over American politics that cemented Hogan’s decision to run for Senate, Hogan has said. After Trump’s meddling spiked a bipartisan immigration deal in Congress, Hogan filed his candidacy hours before the deadline.
To win in Maryland again, Hogan needs to keep Republicans in his camp and win over a significant number of independents and Democrats.
Since jumping into the Senate race, Hogan has painted his stance as staunchly defiant to Trump. On the trail, Hogan has pitched himself as a strong, independent leader and a senator who will stand up to both parties, vote his conscience and put “people over politics.”
In a recent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Hogan said he was “disgusted” by Trump’s talk of a stolen 2020 presidential election and the events on January 6, 2021. Hogan called on Trump to resign the next day, he told Tapper.
The campaign ad that has Frosh vexed calls Hogan “an early critic of Donald Trump, one of the few Republicans who never caved.” On January 6, 2021, the voice reminds viewers, “As we watched in horror, Hogan didn’t just talk about defending democracy. He did something, sending in the Maryland National Guard to protect the Capital. That’s the same Larry Hogan, tough, independent, never backs down.”
It’s true Hogan hasn’t ever been for Trump, but during his time as governor, he wasn’t consistently against him either. If Hogan was truly disgusted, Frosh said there were far more opportunities to show it.
The most “inhumane” act Frosh said he sued over was when the Trump administration began systematically separating immigrant children from their parents at the southern border. On this issue, Hogan acted with executive authority to pull Maryland National Guard members back from the southern border, but the former governor was silent when Frosh filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration to halt the family separations, Frosh recalled.
‘Put it in writing’
Now that Hogan is again running for public office, critics are comparing the former governor’s projected image against their recollections of his actions, or lack thereof, while in office.
The former governor’s record should face “legitimate public debate,” said Baltimore Democrat Del. Sandy Rosenberg.
“Here’s a commercial on the one hand, but here’s what he [Hogan] didn’t do on the other,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg co-sponsored the House version of the Maryland Defense Act of 2017. The bill became law without Hogan’s signature and after it passed required Hogan to state his objections to Frosh’s lawsuits in writing. Rosenberg said he did not recall any objections filed, but did remember Hogan airing his grievances in the press.
“If you object, put it writing,” the Baltimore Democrat said.
Hogan “could teach a master class in how to appeal to all sides,” said Ferguson, the Maryland Senate president. Ferguson became the senate chamber’s leader during Hogan’s second term.
He recalled that other than during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hogan “largely ignored” the Democratic-led legislature.
“It is almost comical to me that it’s being framed as though he [Hogan] was not sort of doing the bidding of the [Republican] party at the time,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said despite Hogan’s political skill at appealing to a broad electorate, “I don’t trust him to stand up for Maryland’s values when It comes down to it in the United States Senate, because I saw what he did when he was governor.”
