Republican Senate nominee Larry Hogan doubled down Wednesday on his pledge to be a “pro-choice” senator, promising to support legislation codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade that guaranteed a right to an abortion up to 26 weeks.
But his Democratic opponent, Angela Alsobrooks, shot back Wednesday, arguing that Hogan’s time as Maryland’s governor proves that voters “can’t trust” his newfound position on abortion.
Political analysts say it was necessary Hogan for come out in support of some abortion protections if he hopes to win a Senate seat this fall, as abortion continues to be one of the issues driving voters to the polls since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Especially in a place like Maryland, the fact that Hogan chose it to be the topic of his first general election ad is a clear sign that this is an issue he wants to get ahead of,” Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor for Inside Elections, said Wednesday. He added that Hogan “clearly sees abortion as his No. 1 vulnerability in this race.”
Hogan, who described himself as personally pro-life, has previously avoided definitive statements on what abortion access should look like in Maryland and nationally. The former governor, who served from 2015 to 2023, said then that considered abortion protections to be “settled law” in Maryland.
That said, Hogan vetoed a measure in 2022 that would have expand abortion access in the state. When the legislature overrode his veto, Hogan withheld state funding to train nonphysicians to perform abortions, funding that Gov. Wes Moore (D) released on his first day in office in 2023.
But Tuesday, Hogan’s campaign released an ad saying he would “support legislation that makes Roe the law of the land, in every state, so that every woman can make her own choice.”
He expanded on that stance Wednesday during an appearance on WBAL Radio to talk about his crime plan.
“It was the law for 50 years and that’s the way we were operating,” Hogan said of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling. “And there’s a compromise bill … that would just re-enshrine pre-existing law.”
He said that bill would allow abortions up to 26 weeks, claiming that “the Democrats, including Alsobrooks, want to go further than that and take it up to the moment of birth.”
Rubashkin said Hogan “knows that this is the issue that Democrats are going to hit him on and so he wants to start defining himself on abortion before Democrats can try and litigate his record.”
That’s exactly what Democrats tried to do Wednesday.
The Alsobrooks campaign has long branded Hogan as a threat to abortion access if he wins the Senate seat. At a news conference Wednesday outside the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Alsobrooks said that voters should look to Hogan’s history.
“We are going to stand strong on this issue, that we send out the message again, that it is not your words that matter. It is your actions,” she said.
“Republicans see Hogan as a ticket to national abortion ban,” Alsobrooks said. “They believe that road runs through Larry Hogan and runs through the state of Maryland.”
If elected, Alsobrooks said she intends to co-sponsor the “Women’s Health Protection Act” to “codify in federal law a woman’s right to choose.”
“We cannot trust anyone with this,” said Alsobrooks, who was backed by state lawmakers and abortion-right supporters.
Rubashkin suspects that Hogan may lose some votes “from the anti-abortion crowd, but for the most part, Republicans will likely still vote for the Republican candidate.”
“The strategy here is that whatever kind of minimal drop-off is made on the Republican side by taking this stance is far outweighed by the number of voters he maintains the possibility of winning over by articulating a pro-Roe stance,” Rubashkin said. “He keeps himself alive with the independents and even some moderate Democrats if he takes this stance.”
An April poll from Goucher College, in partnership with the Baltimore Banner, said 60% of Maryland voters said a candidate’s position on abortion would be a “major” factor in determining their vote. Among Democrats surveyed, 70% said abortion would be a major factor in the primary, compared to 47% of Republicans and independent voters.
“Regardless of what he (Hogan) may believe in his heart, and that’s beyond my pay grade,” Rubaskin said, “I think that politically, to win statewide in Maryland in a Senate race, this is where you have to be.”
Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, agreed.
“This is something I think Hogan had to do, and the campaign realized they had to do it. And it gains them more votes than it probably costs them,” he said.
“If Larry Hogan came out and basically said that he would not support codifying Roe, that he wanted it to be decided solely by the states, that he wouldn’t protect that right … it would be the death knell of his campaign,” Eberly said.
Both Eberly and Rubashkin believe Democrats will continue to question Hogan’s commitment to abortion rights. Eberly added that if Hogan reversed course once in the Senate and did not keep his campaign promise to support abortion access, he might have a hard time getting reelected, but there would be little repercussion during his term.
“I suspect that’s one of the messages that the Democrats would use — that if he doesn’t keep his word, he’s there for six years with no recourse,” Eberly said.
– Maryland Matters reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.