Ex-GOP gov loses faith his party will ever 'get back to sanity'

The former Republican governor of Maryland warned on Monday that the antidote to his party's loss of sanity is getting further away as President Donald Trump's grip on the party tightens.

Larry Hogan told the Washington Post that he has left Trump's Republican Party behind as he enters what he calls his "Zen era." That comes after Hogan was unable to parlay his record-high bipartisan approval ratings into a national job, which he chalked up to Trump's efforts to remake the Republican Party in his image.

“I‘m somewhat jaded,” Hogan said.

Hogan told the outlet he thought Republicans were “eventually going to get back to sanity. And we haven’t.”

Since leaving office, Hogan has launched the Hogan Institute at a small liberal arts college, where he teaches students about ethical political leadership, something he sees as sorely lacking in today's politics, according to the report.

That approach to leadership is part of what Hogan sees as the antidote to Trumpism, the report added. However, he's become more concerned about how Republicans are genuflecting toward the president, and are seemingly afraid to criticize Trump out of fear of being primaried.

“There are some people who have been afraid of speaking out or standing up because they were afraid of being primaried or attacked on social media,” Hogan said. “But when they start losing seats, I’m hoping that maybe there’ll be some more political courage that pops up.”

Hogan's comments came at a time when Trump is seeking to further tighten his grip over the Republican Party during the 2026 midterm elections. Trump has backed winning candidates in Indiana who ran against lawmakers who opposed his redistricting efforts. Trump has also endorsed challengers to lawmakers in Congress with whom he disagrees, such as Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).