Maryland Senate GOP nominee Larry Hogan has thrown his support behind codifying abortion rights into federal law and embraced the “pro-choice” label, breaking with former President Donald Trump and most of the Republican Party.
Clarifying where he stands on the thorny issue days after cruising to victory in the Maryland GOP Senate primary, Mr. Hogan said he supports reviving the constitutional right to abortion that was protected under the now-defunct 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
“I support restoring Roe as the law of the land,” the former governor told The New York Times. “I’ll continue to protect the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices just like I did as governor for eight years.”
“I think Marylanders know and trust that when I give them my word, I’m going to keep it, and I’ve protected these rights before,” he said.
“And I’ll do it again in the Senate by supporting a bipartisan compromise to restore Roe as the law of the land.”
Mr. Hogan took it a step further when pressed on how he would classify his position.
“Given the definition of what I’m supporting — women’s rights to make their own decision — I would say that’s pro-choice,” he said.
Angela Alsobrooks, his Democratic rival, countered that Mr. Hogan is playing politics and cannot be trusted on the issue.
“Time and again Larry Hogan has refused to support federal protections for abortion rights,” Ms. Alsobrooks said in a video that featured clips in which Mr. Hogan dodged questions related to federal protections for abortion rights.
Ms. Alsobrooks said the Republican caucus that Mr. Hogan pledged to join in the Senate has made its abortion “agenda crystal clear” — in an apparent reference to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s push to put strict limits on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Democrats have benefited at the ballot box from the blowback against the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and kick the issue back to the states.
And they are looking to tap into that energy again this fall, hoping it will help President Biden win reelection and power down-ticket Democrats to victory in swing states and congressional districts that will decide whether they defend their slim Senate majority and whether Republicans defend their razor-thin hold on the House.
Mr. Trump has sought to take some of the sting out of the unrelenting attacks from Democrats.
While he takes credit for nominating the conservative justices that helped overturn Roe, Mr. Trump vows if elected to take a hands-off approach on the federal level moving forward. Like it or not, Mr. Trump says the states will decide.
Mr. Hogan, meanwhile, faces a different set of challenges in deep-blue Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly a 2-1 margin.
Mr. Hogan’s newfound abortion stance could help insulate him from Democrats’ attempts to argue he will do whatever Republican leaders want if they take over the Senate.
Before Thursday, Mr. Hogan had been relatively coy about his stance on abortion rights at the federal level.
Still, pro-choice activists, including Planned Parenthood, accused him of having an extreme record on abortion.