This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
MILWAUKEE – Amid calls for cooler rhetoric, supporters of Maryland Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks are complaining her opponent, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), is doing the opposite with a spoof campaign website.
The new Hogan website, angelaalsobrooks.org, looks almost identical to the official Alsobrooks campaign website, angelaalsobrooks.com. But instead of extolling the Democrat’s virtues, the website calls her “another partisan machine politician who is part of the broken system and doesn’t deliver on her promises.”
The website – with a “Paid for by Hogan for Maryland Inc.” disclaimer at the very bottom – goes on to blast Alsobrooks’ record on everything from crime to public education to immigration to trash collection.
“Under Angela’s leadership in Prince George’s County, crime has increased to out-of-control levels, schools are declining, the budget deficit is skyrocketing, and the county’s financial outlook has been downgraded,” the website says. “Whether it’s a lack of funding for police and firefighters or even just picking up the trash, Angela’s administration has taken swift action by failing to deliver on even the most basic of government functions.”
There are also sarcastic elements to the mock website – including the Hogan campaign’s assertion that, “We can’t afford a leader like Larry Hogan who might offend his colleagues by daring to be independent and actually work across the aisle to get things done. Send [Alsobrooks] to Washington because she will fit right in!”
But Alsobrooks’ camp said it sees the Hogan website – which went live in the middle of last week – as mean-spirited. The Alsobrooks campaign responded with standard fodder that they have attempted to use against Hogan since he entered the Senate race in February.
“Mitch McConnell recruited Larry Hogan to run for this seat to get a majority in the Senate,” said Alsobrooks spokesperson Gina Ford, referring to the Senate Republican leader, who was booed on the floor of the GOP convention Monday afternoon. “No Marylander thinks that’s a laughing matter.
“Larry can misconstrue whatever he wants, but we know his record and we know that this race represents who will have the 51st seat. Our future and freedoms are at stake,” Ford said.
It’s unclear how Hogan’s campaign, rather than Alsobrooks’, wound up with the web domain name angelaalsobrooks.org. A Hogan spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on Monday.
But on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hogan once again struck a unifying theme Monday, saying the country has to “stop with the rabid tribalism, dividing our country into red and blue teams. We must get back to the red, white, and blue.”
Even though Hogan, a frequent critic of former President Donald Trump, has made a point of avoiding the GOP convention here, state and national leaders both said they are bullish on his campaign.
Democrats currently hold a 51-49 edge in the Senate, but Republicans have multiple opportunities to flip the majority. They are the overwhelming favorites to capture the open Democratic seat in West Virginia. And if Trump is reelected in November, his vice president – the ex-president tapped Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to be his running mate Monday – would break ties in the Senate if control is deadlocked 50-50, giving Republicans the effective majority.
But that scenario may not be necessary, as several Democratic-held seats are teetering this November, said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Daines predicted Monday that Vance would boost GOP Senate candidates in competitive races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – not to mention in Daines’ home state of Montana.
“President Trump picks a son of Ohio, that’s going to help us there,” Daines said. “It will help us in Wisconsin, too, and Pennsylvania. There’s an overlap between the presidential battleground map and the Senate battleground map.”
Daines, who took part in an event sponsored by the website Axios, later told Maryland Matters, “I like Maryland,” as a pick-up opportunity.
Last week, Republican senators were privately shown an internal GOP poll showing Hogan leading Alsobrooks 47% to 41%. That contrasted with another recent poll from a Democratic firm showing Alsobrooks ahead by 8 points.
Daines told Politico Monday that the Republican Senate committee will temporarily refrain from polling in battleground races in the aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt Saturday.
‘He has stayed true to his party in most respects’
Hogan, of course, is not in Milwaukee with his fellow Republicans. He made it clear that he won’t vote for Trump this fall – just as he didn’t in 2016 and 2020. But most of the Republicans in Maryland’s convention delegation, who are Trump loyalists, do not seem offended that Hogan didn’t choose to appear here.
They acknowledge that he will be the Maryland GOP’s strongest Senate nominee since 1980, and said that in a tight race with Alsobrooks, he needs to focus on Maryland voters.
Del. Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County), a leading conservative in the state who was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 2016, said conservatives who have sometimes had uneasy relationships with Hogan have rallied around him this time.
“We want Gov. Hogan to win, and we know there are no voters in Wisconsin for Gov. Hogan,” she said. “Congressman [Andy] Harris and myself and party leaders across the delegation are all supporting Gov. Hogan. He doesn’t need to talk to us.”
Another conservative in the delegation, Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano (R), said the delegates’ differences with Hogan pale in comparison with their differences with the Democrats.
“As a conservative, if you look at Gov. Hogan’s record, there’s only a few things we would differ on,” she said. “He has stayed true to the party in most respects. If you are a true conservative, you’d probably prefer the policies of Gov. Hogan to Angela Alsobrooks.”
