Hogan launching $1M ad campaign in Maryland Senate race

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) launched a $1 million ad buy Monday in the state’s Senate race as he vies for a victory in what has largely been a blue state in presidential and Senate races.

Hogan, a popular former governor, would be the first Republican to serve as a senator from Maryland since the mid-1980s.

The 30-second clip, titled “Common Ground,” features multiple voices lamenting that “D.C. is a mess” and that “Republicans and Democrats are arguing all the time and nothing gets done.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Hogan says in the ad, promising to be “a voice of common sense” in Congress. “It’s time we stop the partisan BS and get stuff done.” 

The ad comes a little more than two weeks before early voting starts for Maryland’s May primary as candidates vie for outgoing Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-Md.) seat. 

Hogan was a late entry into the state’s Senate race, and his campaign has complicated things for Democrats in an otherwise blue stronghold. 

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted the Maryland seat from “solid” to “likely Democrat” after Hogan’s entry, and a poll earlier this month found Hogan edging past the two main Democratic candidates in the race — Rep. David Trone (Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

As the former chair of No Labels, the bipartisan political group that aimed to form a Unity bid for 2024, Hogan had been seen as a possible contender to lead a third-party ticket.

“I still don’t have any burning desire to be a senator. I wasn’t looking for a title. I don’t need a job. But I’m just so frustrated with how broken our political system is,” Hogan said in a recent interview with CNN.