GOP Senate candidate and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan skipping Republican National Convention

Republican Senate candidate and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan will skip next month’s Republican National Convention.

Hogan’s campaign confirmed to The Hill that the former governor will not attend July’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where former President Trump is expected to be named the party’s official nominee, which will run from July 15-18.

The former governor did not attend the party’s 2016 and 2020 conventions.

Hogan, a vocal critic of President Trump, is facing off against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D), who last month defeated Rep. David Trone (R-Md.) for the Democratic nomination in one of the nation’s most expensive Senate primaries.

The second-term governor is seeking to win the support of moderate and left-leaning voters as he continues his campaign in a heavily Democratic state.

The announcement came after Hogan alienated some of Trump’s key allies last week when he called on voters to “respect the verdict and the legal process” minutes before the verdict was announced in former President Trump’s first criminal case.

Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita hit back at Hogan, telling him, “You just finished your campaign.” Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said the Maryland politician “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and frankly, anyone in America.”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), one of Trump’s running mates, said Hogan was “completely right to criticize” his posts last week, but the Ohio senator acknowledged that Hogan is running in a Democratic-leaning state that President Biden won by 33 points in 2020.

“He’s obviously going to run a different campaign than I am,” Vance said. “I still hope he wins.”