Republican Larry Hogan says he won't vote for Trump or Harris

WASHINGTON — Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday he would not vote for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in the presidential election in November. 

"Neither one of the two candidates has earned my vote," Hogan told CBS News' Face The Nation on Sunday. "The voters in the country are going to be able to make that decision."   

Hogan served as governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023, his time in office happened as Trump became the Republican presidential nominee, president and an influential voice within the GOP. 

"I didn't vote for (Trump) in 2016 or 2020," Hogan said on Sunday. "It's not just about red versus blue, which is what my opponent wants it to be about, I'm concerned about the red, white and blue."

Democrat Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George's County executive running against Hogan, has attempted to portray the former governor as a Trump supporter and someone who could put the U.S. Senate into Republican control. 

"A Larry Hogan victory will ensure they can obstruct Kamala Harris' picks to the United States Supreme Court," Alsobrooks said on Monday. "We saw this before and it led to the Dobbs decision." 

Democrats' majority in that chamber is narrow, with 51 Democratic members and 49 Republicans. The majority party has the authority to schedule bills for a vote and to allow Supreme Court nominations to get a hearing in the chamber. 

In 2015, when Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky led the Republicans in the Senate, he said that he would not hold a vote for President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee. The three justices nominated by former President Trump were among those who cast the decision to overturn Roe V. Wade in 2022. 

Hogan told Face The Nation Sunday that he would support protecting abortion rights if elected, adding though that he would oppose removing the filibuster ─ a Senate rule that allows members to delay a vote on a bill unless that bill has the support of at least 60 senators.

"I'm going to support the compromise bill to secure Roe and protect abortion rights all across, so that nobody comes between a woman and her doctor," Hogan said Sunday. "I don't agree with my opponent and Donald Trump about trying to do away with the filibuster, so we can jam things through on a partisan basis with one vote." 

A poll of over 1,000 likely Maryland voters from the University of Maryland had Alsobrooks leading Hogan, with Alsobrooks at 51% as compared to Hogan with 40%. 

The poll gave Harris an even larger lead over Trump with Harris at 64% and Trump at 32%.

Maryland has not had a Republican U.S. Senator since 1987, when Charles Mathias retired. 

President Joe Biden won Maryland's 10 electoral college handily in 2020, with 65.4% of the vote. Biden's win in the state over then-President Donald Trump was his fourth largest margin of victory nationwide. 

The last time Maryland voted for Republican presidential candidate was in 1988, when George H.W. Bush ran for president. 

Alsobrooks and Hogan are running to replace the vacancy left by 80-year-old Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, who announced in 2023 he would not seek another term in office.