‘3 strikes, you’re out’: Larry Hogan laments Trump’s election record

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, on Sunday aired frustration at former President Donald Trump’s role in last week’s midterm elections.

“It’s basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race, and it’s like, you know — three strikes, you’re out,” Hogan told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Republicans failed to win a majority in the Senate, and faced a closer-than-expected race for the House majority as votes were counted Sunday. A number of Trump-endorsed candidates lost crucial races, including Senate candidates Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Blake Masters in Arizona.

“There should have been a huge red wave,” said Hogan, a moderate Republican who has been a vocal critic of Trump.

The House flipped to a Democratic majority in 2018; Trump lost the presidency in 2020 and Republicans lost the Senate soon thereafter; and Democrats outperformed “red wave” expectations last week, despite historical trends and President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings.

Candidates who “tried to re-litigate the 2020 election” and push conspiracy theories “were all, almost universally, rejected,” while “common-sense conservatives” prevailed in some places, Hogan said.

Hogan did not endorse the Republican candidate who ran to replace him as governor, Dan Cox — instead, he referred to Cox as a “QAnon whack job.” Democrat Wes Moore was elected in that race last week.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/13/larry-hogan-trump-election-record-00066633