The former governor of Maryland is openly weighing a 2024 run after eight years as the moderate GOP head of a blue state, Maryland. He left office in January.
Long at odds with Trump and critical of his endorsed candidates in the midterms, Hogan has said he sees new room for critics of the ex-president in the GOP. His team recently launched a federal political action committee. But many Republicans see a difficult path for candidates such as Hogan, given many GOP primary voters’ desire for someone further to the right.
Hutchinson, who spent eight years as governor of Arkansas and just left office, has hit the trail in Iowa to signal his 2024 ambitions and told NBC News in late January that he is “absolutely” considering a presidential run. He urged Republicans to look past Trump well before the midterms that intensified GOP doubts and in January said the ex-president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol “disqualifies” him for another term.
Hutchinson and other lesser-known candidates are working to raise their profile and amass the funds for a grueling campaign. Hutchinson has been talking with donors and gauging his ability to raise the money for what he see as an “endurance race.”
Her team is already watching potential rivals on the national stage, with one adviser contrasting her with DeSantis late last year and a spokesman openly criticizing the Florida governor’s record on abortion. But it’s not clear Noem will take the plunge, and she recently told CBS News that she’s “not convinced” that she needs to run for president but that she also believes “that this country needs somebody to lead us that has a vision.”
The governor of New Hampshire — a key early primary state — won his fourth term by a 15-point margin in November, and he has signaled interest in a presidential run. A vocal critic of Trump, Sununu roasted the former president at last year’s Gridiron Club dinner as “f—ing crazy.” (But even as Sununu has distanced himself from Trump, he endorsed a candidate for the Senate who helped spread Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.)
Sununu made clear in a recent interview with Fox News that he is looking at a run but is in no rush to decide. “A lot of folks are coming to me. A lot of folks want me to run. It’s definitely conversations that we’re having.” He said there’s “no timetable for making decisions.”
Youngkin, the Virginia governor who flipped the office in 2021, has repeatedly said he is “humbled” by speculation he may run for president, without committing to anything. The former executive of a private-equity firm recently made headlines for rejecting the possibility of a Ford electric battery plant opening in his state; Youngkin cited concerns about the car manufacturer’s work with China, but some critics viewed his objections as political positioning for a potential GOP primary in 2024.
Youngkin is also pushing for further individual and corporate tax cuts in Virginia but is running up against opposition from Democrats, who hold a majority in the state Senate.
