Larry Hogan

Larry Hogan
Hogan in December 2015
62nd Governor of Maryland
Incumbent
Assumed office January 21, 2015
Lieutenant	Boyd Rutherford
Preceded by	Martin O'Malley
Personal details
Born	Lawrence Joseph Hogan, Jr. (1956-05-25) May 25, 1956 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Yumi Hogan (m. 2004–present)
Children	3
Residence	Government House
Alma mater	Florida State University, Tallahassee
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	governor.maryland.gov

Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Hogan, Jr. (born May 25, 1956) is an American politician who currently serves as the 62nd Governor of Maryland, in office since January 2015. He is only the second Republican governor in Maryland in nearly 50 years, and the first Maryland governor from Anne Arundel County to be elected in over 100 years. He previously served as Secretary of Appointments in the administration of Governor Bob Ehrlich from 2003 to 2007. In 2011, Hogan founded the grassroots organization Change Maryland.

On June 22, 2015, Hogan announced to the press that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Five months later, intensive chemotherapy had put the disease into remission.

Early life and education

Hogan was born in 1956 in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Landover, Maryland, attending Saint Ambrose Catholic School and DeMatha Catholic High School. He moved to Florida with his mother after his parents divorced in 1972 and graduated from Father Lopez Catholic High School in 1974. Hogan's father, Lawrence Hogan, Sr., served as a U.S. Congressman from Maryland's 5th Congressional District from 1969 to 1975 and as Prince George's County Executive from 1978 to 1982.

Hogan attended Florida State University from 1974 to 1978 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and political science. While in college, Hogan worked in the Florida State Legislature and upon graduation, worked on Capitol Hill. Hogan helped his father run a successful campaign in 1978 for Prince George's County Executive and later worked for his father as a low-paid 'intergovernmental liaison'.

Business career

Hogan founded his real estate business, Hogan Companies, in 1985. He would spend the next eighteen years in the private sector.

Civic and political career

As the son of a U.S. Congressman, Hogan was exposed to politics at a young age and worked in many aspects of politics including political campaigns and citizen referendums. Hogan served as a Delegate to the Republican National Convention in the seventies and eighties.

1981 Congressional special election

A 24-year-old Hogan first ran for office in the 1981 special election to fill the vacancy in Maryland's 5th Congressional District left by Gladys Noon Spellman. Spellman had succeeded Hogan's father in the congressional seat. Hogan finished second out of twelve candidates in the Republican primary with 22.38% of the votes to Audrey Scott's 63.26%.

Congressional nominee

In the 1992 election cycle, Hogan was the Republican nominee for Maryland's 5th Congressional District, running against Democratic incumbent Steny Hoyer. The race was the closest in Hoyer's tenure, with Hogan winning four out of the district's five counties and taking 45% of the vote to Hoyer's 55%. No other challenger has come as close to unseating Hoyer since.

Cabinet secretary

Hogan took a temporary leave of absence from his business to serve as Secretary of Appointments in the Bob Ehrlich Administration from 2003 to 2007. In this capacity, Hogan appointed over 7,000 individuals to positions at every level of government.

Change Maryland

In 2011, Hogan founded Change Maryland. The purpose of the anti-tax organization is to advocate for lower taxes and less government spending in Maryland. As the chairman of Change Maryland, Hogan has conducted numerous studies on the economic impact of the O'Malley-Brown administration and its passage of 40 consecutive tax and fee increases.

Governor of Maryland

2014 gubernatorial campaign

Hogan in November 2013

Main article: Maryland gubernatorial election, 2014

Hogan formally announced his campaign for Governor of Maryland on January 21, 2014. On January 29, 2014, Hogan announced his running mate, former Maryland Secretary of General Services Boyd Rutherford. On June 24, 2014, Hogan and Rutherford won the Republican primary, receiving 43% of the vote. They faced and defeated the Democratic nominee, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown on November 4, 2014.

Maryland gubernatorial election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Larry Hogan	884,400	51.03%	+9.24%
	Democratic	Anthony Brown	818,890	47.25%	-8.99%
	Libertarian	Shawn Quinn	25,382	1.46%	+0.70%
	Write-ins		4,505	0.26%	+0.15%
Turnout			1,733,177

Tenure

In the early months of his administration, Governor Hogan earned a reputation as a centrist and pragmatist. In an editorial after Hogan's first four months as Governor, the Baltimore Sun said, "Mr. Hogan may prove to be the nation's most pragmatic Republican governor, or at least its least predictable. But the one thing that's certain is that he's no ideologue." Maryland's other major newspaper, the The Washington Post, said, "Larry Hogan, who never held elective office before voters chose him last fall, was true to his promise to govern from the center in the first legislative session of his term."

In an attempt to balance pollution regulations on the Maryland's farming industry, in February 2015 Hogan brought together agricultural and environmental stakeholders and enacted the most important environmental initiative in a generation to protect the Chesapeake Bay: the "Maryland Agriculture Phosphorus Initiative," creating both looser and stricter regulations for farmers on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Described by the administration as "enhanced phosphorus management tool regulations," the proposal came with two key elements: A process to give farmers more time to reduce phosphorus output on their farms and a measure that immediately stopped many farmers from contributing more to the ongoing problem of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

Following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland, civil unrest broke out in Baltimore city on April 27, 2015. To address the growing unrest, Governor Hogan declared a state of emergency and activated the Maryland National Guard. Major General Linda Singh of the Maryland National Guard commented that there would be a "massive number" of soldiers in Maryland on the night of April 27, and that up to 5,000 soldiers were eventually deployed. Maryland State Police activated 500 officers for duty in Baltimore, and requested an additional state police officers from other states. During the unrest, Gov. Hogan temporarily moved his office from Annapolis to Baltimore, where the Governor and his staff remained throughout the State of Emergency.

In June 2015, Hogan cancelled the Baltimore Red Line, instead choosing to reallocate money to road construction across Maryland, fulfilling a campaign promise to voters who elected him in 2014. Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn described the Red Line proposal as "fatally flawed" and argued that the light rail line would not connect with other public transportation hubs in Baltimore and would require the construction of a $1 billion tunnel through the heart of the city. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake criticized the scrapping of "a project that would have expanded economic development, created thousands of jobs, increased access to thousands more, and offered residents better health care, child care and educational opportunities." At the same time, Hogan conditionally approved funding for the Purple Line in Maryland's Washington, D.C. suburbs, subject to increased contributions from Montgomery County and Prince George's County.

The anticipated reduction in Purple Line costs, combined with the availability of funding allocated for the Red Line, made it possible for the Hogan administration to commit to $1.97 billion for highways and bridges across the state of Maryland, including rural areas in both Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore, as well as the densely populated counties near Baltimore and Washington D.C. The projects, which will get underway by 2018, include $1.35 billion in new projects going to construction and $625 million in preserved projects. The $1.35 billion in new projects includes $845 million for major projects and $500 million to fix bridges and improve roads. Governor Hogan shut down the decrepit Baltimore City Detention Center, and re-opened the Maryland State Police Barrack in Annapolis.

Governor Hogan currently holds a 71% approval rating in a 2–1 Democratic state, despite some friction with the state's Democratic legislature.

Personal life

Hogan resides in Anne Arundel County with his wife Yumi, a Korean-American artist and adjunct instructor at Maryland Institute College of Art. The couple met in 2001 and married in 2004. Yumi is the mother of three adult daughters – Kim Velez, Jaymi Sterling, and Julie Kim – with whom Hogan immediately formed father-daughter relationships. Hogan's brother, Patrick N. Hogan, represented a Frederick County district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2003 to 2007 and 2011 to 2015.

On June 22, 2015, Hogan announced that he had been diagnosed with late stage 3 non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which he described as "very advanced and very aggressive". Talking about his cancer diagnosis, Hogan said, "It's one that responds very aggressively to chemotherapy treatment. There's a strong chance of success." Bone marrow test results announced several days later showed that the cancer was at stage 3; Hogan began four days of chemotherapy on June 27, 2015 and completed his treatment on October 13, 2015 after six rounds. Hogan announced on November 16, 2015, that medical scans showed no sign of the cancer that he was diagnosed with five months earlier, indicating that 18 weeks of intensive chemotherapy put the disease into remission.

External links

• The Office of Governor Larry Hogan
• Campaign website
• Appearances on C-SPAN

Party political offices
Preceded by Bob Ehrlich	Republican nominee for Governor of Maryland 2014	Most recent
Political offices
Preceded by Martin O'Malley	Governor of Maryland 2015–present	Incumbent