The 2024 GOP presidential primary season kicks off. Here’s the potential field.
The former governor of Maryland openly weighs a run for 2024 after eight years as a moderate GOP head of a blue state, Maryland. He left office in January.
Long at odds with Trump and critical of his endorsed candidates during the midterm elections, Hogan has said he sees new space for critics of the ex-president in the GOP. His team recently created a federal political action committee. But many Republicans see a tough path for candidates like Hogan given the desire of many GOP primary voters for someone farther to the right.
Hutchinson, who spent eight years as governor of Arkansas and just left office, has hit the road in Iowa to declare his ambitions for 2024, telling 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 cemented GOP doubts, and in January said the ex-president’s role in storming the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, “disqualified him for a new term.
Hutchinson and other lesser-known candidates work to raise their profile and raise money for a grueling campaign. Hutchinson has spoken to donors and gauged his ability to raise money for what he sees as an “endurance race.”
Her team is already eyeing potential rivals on the national scene, with an adviser pitting her against DeSantis late last year and a spokesperson openly criticizing the Florida governor’s record on abortion. But it’s not clear that Noem will take the plunge, and so will she recently told CBS News that she is “unconvinced” that she should run for president, but that she also believes “that this country needs someone to lead us who has a vision.”
The governor of New Hampshire — an important early state primary — won his fourth term in November by a 15-point margin, and has expressed interest in a presidential run. Sununu, a vocal critic of Trump, labeled the former president “f*cking crazy” at last year’s Gridiron Club dinner. (But even as Sununu has distanced himself from Trump, he supported a Senate candidate who helped spread Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.)
Sununu made it clear in a recent interview with Fox News that he’s looking at a run but is in no rush to decide. “A lot of people come to me. Many people want me to run. They are definitely conversations we are having.” He said there is “no timetable for making decisions.”
young girl, the governor of Virginia who turned the office in 2021 has repeatedly said he is “humiliated” by speculation that he could run for president without committing to anything. The former executive of a private equity firm made headlines recently for rejecting the possibility of a Ford electric battery plant opening in his state; Youngkin expressed concern about the automaker’s work with China, but some critics viewed his objections as political positioning for a potential GOP primary in 2024.
Youngkin also pushes for further tax cuts for individuals and businesses in Virginia, but faces opposition from Democrats, who have a majority in the state senate.