Former Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan doesn’t rule out 2024 presidential bid saying Americans don’t want Trump in office again

Former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan hasn’t closed the door on a 2024 presidential campaign, but he said he wouldn’t jump into the race if there wasn’t a path to victory.

Hogan, 67, left office earlier this year as one of the nation’s most popular governors and initially declined to enter the Republican primary race.

He has served as the national co-chair of No Labels, a centrist political organization, since 2020, and the group is securing a spot on the 2024 general election ballot in all 50 states to nominate a moderate presidential candidate.

“However I can serve, I’m still trying to figure it out, but I’m not leaving,” Hogan said at a Bloomberg News event Tuesday in Washington. “I don’t want to run into a race and pinch the edges. If I thought there was a path to success to win the race, then I just said I wouldn’t close the door on that opportunity.’

The Maryland Republican noted that former U.N. Ambassador. Nikki Haley was “on the rise” and could still emerge as a formidable opponent to keep former President Donald Trump out of the White House – something Hogan wants.

“DeSantis has continued to fail throughout the campaign. He started with all the advantages,” Hogan also admitted.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis initially looked like a strong contender to prevent Trump from winning the Republican nomination in 2024, but his campaign has sputtered.

In New Hampshire, the state holding the first presidential primary since Iowa, Haley rose to second place, while DeSandis slipped to third in Real Clear Politics polling average.

DeSantis did have a strong showing at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, but so did Haley.

Hogan thought it wasn’t likely another Republican would enter the race now and succeed in the GOP primary.

A top GOP billionaire has been trying to push Virginia’s first Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, into the race, while Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s name has also been floated.

“That’s not going to happen,” Hogan said. “I mean, they’ve already missed the deadlines.”

Next April, No Labels will hold a convention to determine whether the group will field a 2024 presidential candidate.

Much of the country fears a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden, who were foes in the 2020 general election.

A poll in April found that 60 percent of Americans did not think Trump should run again, while 70 percent believed the 80-year-old Biden.

Two independent candidates have also entered the race, academic Cornel West, who is expected to appear on the ballot as the Green Party candidate, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was challenging Biden in the Democratic primary until Monday. when he announced an independent march in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

NBC News poll from late September which included a Green candidate, a Liberal and a No Labels candidate found that each got between 4 and 5 percent, and Biden lost to Trump 36 percent to 39 percent.

Back on Capitol Hill, Hogan said he was “disgusted” by the impeachment of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy’s ouster was engineered by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump ally, who told Bloomberg that Hogan was “a cancer in the party and in Congress.”

“It’s a train wreck. I mean, it’s embarrassing and I think it’s terrible for the Republican Party,” Hogan said. “I think it’s terrible for Congress and terrible for the country.”