No Labels tapping Larry Hogan as co-chair

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) will join No Labels as co-chairman ahead of a lobbying push in the new Congress by the centrist group.

Hogan will join former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) in leading the group. Lieberman called No Labels particularly primed for influence as the bipartisan group of eight senators backs pushes for a deal on coronavirus relief.

“No Labels is really at a great moment right now of realizing the goals of the organization when it was started 10 years ago,” Lieberman said Monday, according to The New York Times. “I expect Governor Hogan will be expanding our reach to the nation’s governors.”

The announcement, scheduled for Tuesday evening, was first reported by the Times. A person familiar has confirmed the news to The Hill.

The news comes as Hogan has both teased a possible 2024 presidential run and sharply criticized the right flank of his own party. Hogan has also campaigned for several Republican members of the centrist Problem Solvers caucus, which No Labels backs.

Members Hogan stumped for include Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and John Katko (R-N.Y.). The governor also cut an ad for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who was a top target for Democratic groups this November after her pivotal vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Hogan, who also recently ended a term as chairman of the National Governors Association, has long been one of the Republicans most willing to criticize President Trump, and hit back after the president attacked him on Twitter in late November.

“If you had done your job, America’s governors wouldn’t have been forced to fend for themselves to find tests in the middle of a pandemic, as we successfully did in Maryland,” Hogan tweeted Nov. 22. “Stop golfing and concede.”

However, Hogan has also endorsed Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in Senate races, two candidates who have mounted explicitly pro-Trump campaigns for the state’s January runoffs.

“I’m still a committed, what I would call common-sense, conservative Republican,” Hogan told the Times.