Republican governor in Maryland casts write-in vote for Ronald Reagan

‘I thought it was important to just cast a vote that showed the kind of person I’d like to see in office’

The Republican governor of Maryland voted by mail last week and cast a write-in ballot for former President Ronald Reagan, who he described in a new interview as his “hero in politics” while explaining his decision not to support President Donald Trump in his bid for re-election.

Larry Hogan, the Republican governor seen as a possible presidential contender in 2024, told the Washington Post his write-in vote for the deceased former president was “simply symbolic” and added: “It’s not going to change the outcome in my state.”

“But I thought it was important to just cast a vote that showed the kind of person I’d like to see in office”, he said.

It was a rare act of defiance from a sitting Republican governor against Mr Trump, who has managed to coalesce the vast majority of GOP officials behind his re-election campaign nationwide.

But in Maryland, former Vice President Joe Biden was leading Mr Trump by nearly 30 points in the latest polls, and the governor has become increasingly popular throughout his tenure for at times speaking out against the president and his conservative agenda.

“I’m a lifelong conservative Republican,” Mr Hogan told the newspaper this week about his decision to cast a write-in ballot. “Reagan was the guy. I marched around as a college kid on the floor of the convention with a Reagan hat and a Reagan sign.”

While Mr Hogan remains widely popular in his largely Democratic state, he has not endorsed former VIce President Joe Biden. 

On Thursday, he told the Washington Post he would not be interested in serving in Mr Biden’s administration should he win the presidency come November.

However, he did tell the newspaper that he believed voters “want someone who’s pragmatic” and “who’s not afraid to compromise” as he decried what he said was the “extremes” Democrats and Republicans alike had taken on a variety of national issues.

Mr Hogan previously cast a write-in ballot for his father, Larry Hogan Sr — a notable Republican lawmaker who died in 2017 — during the 2016 elections.