‘He doesn’t need them’: Larry Hogan’s Senate run will be independent of Maryland GOP

On his newly minted U.S. Senate campaign website, former Gov. Larry Hogan barely utters the word “Republican.” Not in Democratic-dominated Maryland. Not with a state GOP organization that has had almost no interaction with the former two-term Republican governor in recent years. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was among national Republicans who had recruited Hogan to run for the seat being vacated by the retirement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin after next year, according to a McConnell spokesperson.