Hogan battles Dems at home on spending, schools and gerrymandering as he balances moderate national profile
GOP governor battling Annapolis Dems on school spending, gerrymandering and more
Larry Hogan says GOP must move on after Trump-era losses; slams Maryland Dems for gerrymandering, big spending
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan discussed the future of the Republican Party and his battles with Democrats in Maryland in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is in a unique position.
He was the subject of pervasive rumors that he would primary former President Donald Trump in 2020 -- Hogan eventually declined to run, despite saying that even Trump Cabinet members asked him to. And the governor has positioned himself in the GOP as one of the foremost moderate foils to the Trump movement ahead of 2024.
But he remains a Republican governor in a deep blue state; in Maryland, Democrats outnumber Republicans in the General Assembly by a 130-57 margin.
Hogan often manages to find common ground with Democrats in the legislature, like on the "Relief Act" he just signed into law Monday, which was passed nearly unanimously and aimed at helping the state emerge from the pandemic. But he often finds himself in major battles with statehouse Democrats despite the fact that he's more to the center on the national political scene.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan holds his hand up during a news conference in Annapolis, Md., on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, as he describes phone conversations he had with Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer and Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy on sending Maryland National Guard members to help protect the U.S. Capitol after rioters stormed the building a day earlier. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)
Those battles are raging now as Maryland is in the middle of its legislative session, which brings with it the annual tradition of the General Assembly overriding Hogan's vetoes from the previous year. The most high-profile veto override this session was of the Kirwan education bill, a $30 billion-plus package of spending increases and school reforms the legislature pushed through in the early days of the pandemic last year before the session was cut short by the outbreak of the coronavirus.
"I provided record funding for K-12 education for seven budgets in a row since I've been governor but this proposal by the legislature was to, over a 10-year period, add up to $38 billion in more spending, up to $4 billion a year on top of that. And the state just can't afford it," Hogan said in an interview with Fox News.
"I vetoed the bill for very good reason. Most people in the state are opposed to any tax increases at this point, especially now in the middle of a pandemic," Hogan continued. "And that's what would be required to pay for this."
William Kirwan, who was the top proponent of the education bill and after whom the commission that wrote it was named, lauded the veto override by Annapolis Democrats.
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, after stepping off Marine One. Trump is returning from Camp David. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
"Maryland is now on track to develop a school system that will be the envy of the national and as good as any in the world," he said, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Though Hogan may have lost this round, he predicts he'll eventually be on the winning end of the issue.
"In a political move they did override the veto, but it's not going to stand. There's not money. There's no funding mechanism. And the legislature is going to have to ditch this legislation and fix it and come up with a new proposal," Hogan told Fox News.
He added: "We all want better outcomes for our kids. And we have some persistently failing schools. Maryland has some of the highest-funded schools in America, and our school systems that are performing the worst are the ones with the most funding ... Just throwing money at the problem is not a solution."
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Another in-state political quarrel Hogan's pushed into is the reopening of schools amid the pandemic.
Maryland is among the worst states in the country at getting its kids back in classrooms. According to Burbio, a digital platform that tracks school reopenings, Maryland is one of just five states nationwide with less than 20% of students back in classrooms, as of Feb. 11. Many Maryland counties are still doing all-remote learning.
But Hogan says that hasn't been for lack of effort on his part.
"It's critically important that we get our kids back in school," Hogan told Fox News. "I pushed very hard -- although in Maryland, the local-duly elected school boards get to make the final decision -- we basically pushed them as hard as you possibly could to get reopened by March 1st."
Hogan said 22 of 24 districts will be back to some level of in-person learning by March 1, "but it was a tremendous battle against the teachers union."
The Teachers Association of Baltimore County late last month, according to the Baltimore Sun, slammed Hogan for providing "incomplete, slanted" safety guidance and called the March reopening date "arbitrary."
"I think the science is very clear," Hogan responded on Monday, citing the fact that many private schools in Maryland have been open since August with few problems. "And everyone from, you know the Biden administration's top officials to Anthony Fauci to Dr. Scott Gottlieb -- almost anyone you talk to and every study."
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