Larry Hogan delivers speech at Principles First Event Commemorating 50th Anniversary of Watergate

by more than 5 to one Larry Hogan pulled off the biggest upset in America on that election night becoming only the second Republican governor elected in Maryland in 50 years once in office Governor Hogan quickly became an example of leadership uh for the entire nation accomplish accomplishing what many believed were no longer was no longer possible bipartisanship and Common Sense Solutions as Governor Larry Hogan cut taxes for eight years in a row by $4.7 billion including the largest tax cuts in State history overall after inheriting a $5.1 billion structural uh budget deficit the governor left office with a record 5.5 billion in reserves uh that's uh pretty unheard of a more than 10 billion swing uh under his leadership Maryland produced the greatest economic turnaround in America going from 49th out of 50 states to number six He restored peace and order to Baltimore City during the Riots of 2015 reduced the cost of health care premiums by over 30% made historic investments in education Transportation infrastructure and protecting the environment and was the only Republican governor in the country to overturn a democratic uh Jerry mandard map uh and I also want to just mention in the room tonight we have uh Mr uh Walter Olsen here here at the table who was he's many of you may know him he's at the KO Institute was involved in those um it works very closely as a scholar of of Jerry mandering and and how to appropriately abortion districts and I know has been involved in in drawing some of the maps uh and Advising the legislature here in Maryland on that uh Walter it's great to have you here um but you know as Governor Larry Hogan even achieved all this obviously while overcoming a very personal uh battle against cancer U so if it was wasn't enough to achieve all of those Feats just imagine trying to do it while also defeating cancer um quite quite something uh after four years of economic success and bipartisan progress in one of the bluest states in America Governor Hogan uh then got uh received an overwhelming endorsement from the the citizens of Maryland who overwhelmingly reelected him to a second term in 2018 making him only the second Republican uh to do that in the entire history of Maryland um uh Mr Larry Hogan is someone who I greatly admire and respect he's someone that I've looked up to as a leader in public life at a time I think when there are not so many leaders out there that we can uh look up to uh with with confidence um and so it is my distinct honor and privilege please join me in welcoming Mr Larry Hogan to the [Applause] stage thank you please thank you thank you very much well thank you thank you much much too kind thank you very very much uh Heath thank you for the kind introduction uh very much appreciated thank you for your leadership you know before we get uh started tonight I just want to take a moment uh to talk about the horrific shooting today in Georgia at Appalachia appalachi High School I I reached out to Governor Brian Kemp earlier today and just to let him know that all of us are have have them in our prayers and in our thoughts and if it's okay with you um you know in the wake of this terrible tragedy I'd like to take a moment of s silence for all of the victims and their families and the people of Georgia thank you very much um it's great to have everybody here um uh thank you for coming to the University of Maryland we're we're happy to have you here in our state and thank you for your leadership and I'm very proud to have your service to the state it's been amazing and thanks for bragging about the TPS I appreciate that um very much want to thank uh principles first for uh giving me this invitation to join you tonight uh most importantly I just really want to thank you all uh for all of the work that you're doing to build a movement uh to help return us to American principles at a time when when it seems as if uh they're mostly forgotten and as we engage in that important work we should remember that the challenges our country has been through before and that video we just saw a few moments ago was one of those times and our nation has been through many times of turmoil uh that video really hits home for me I got a little almost a little teary eyed I got choked up in that inaugural address when I mentioned my dad who was sitting behind me and I got a little little teary ey just watching the video but um you know the history of Watergate is uh isn't just history for me it's personal and it had some impact and kind of shaped me into the man that I am today you know 50 years ago it's hard to believe it's been 50 years by the way but 50 years ago my dad uh made that very tough decision while he was on the house Judiciary Committee during the impeachment of President Nixon and he was a guy who loved Nixon he was a strong Nixon supporter who campaigned with him in in three political campaigns and he thought he had was accomplishing a lot domestically and with foreign policy he was one of the people that was arguing the most that he'd be treated fairly and that he could cross-examine Witnesses and provide for his defense but my dad was a tough FBI agent and uh Georgetown trained lawyer and after seeing all the evidence um he answered the demands of his conscience he put aside partisanship and uh answered the demands to do what he thought was right for the country that he loved and uh he put aside Party politics and his own uh personal considerations uh to step up and do the right thing for the nation and as you heard him say and you know I'll repeat a couple of these because you know he said Party Loyalty he said and personal affections and precedents of the past Must Fall before the Arbiter of men's actions the law itself and that famous line that we've heard over and over again for 50 years was no man not even the president of the United States is above the law and he said for our system of justice to survive uh we must pledge our highest allegiance to the strength of the law and not to the common frailties of man and with those words he became the first Republican to come out for Nixon's impeachment he was actually the only Republican to vote for all three articles of impeachment and that decision cost him dearly I mean he lost friends and supporters and his party's nomination for governor that year uh but it earned him something more valuable a quiet conscience and an honored place in history and it's uh it's hard to deny the Striking parallels between that time and today however there seemed to be far fewer Profiles in Courage in Washington and today Washington is completely broken because that kind of leadership and that kind of willingness to put country over party has become far too rare now like all of you in the room I'm completely fed up with Politics as Usual and with politicians who seem to care more about winning their next election than doing the right thing for the country from cable newsrooms to State houses and to the Senate cloak room um for nearly a decade I've been hearing so-called leaders who say one thing in private and then something completely different in public this culture of fear is a plague on our party and on our political system that we can't afford to ignore now I learned a lot about in rity and public service from my dad and I've tried to live by the example that he set from the moment that Donald Trump came down the escalator until today I have always made it clear exactly where I stand and unlike many Republicans I have never wavered and never backed down based on polls or public attacks or fear of political retribution and I never will um I had the honor of yeah thank you thank you you know I had the honor of uh serving as governor under three presidents and I worked with each of them uh to try to get things done for the people that I represented but I also stood up to them when it was right for Maryland and for the nation regardless of the political consequences during Co I had had the job of leading the nation's Governors uh Republicans and Democrats as the chairman of the national Governors Association and even when others were afraid to I pushed back against the president when he said things that were wrong dangerous or divisive because it was my job to represent all of my colleagues and because my most important job as governor was to keep marylanders safe on January 6th when the president was watching the chaos on television I was the first leader in America to send in the National Guard to protect our nation's capital and our [Applause] democracy that day I was receiving desperate calls from the leaders of Congress who were begging and pleading with me as the governor of Maryland in the state next door for the assistance of the National Guard and the Maryland State Police because the capital was under assault and the capital police were overwhelmed and the men and women of the Maryland State Police and the Maryland National Guard were the first to arrive in Washington to protect the capital the very next day I said president Trump should resign and let vice president Pence take over so that he could lead a peaceful transition of power America is once again at a dangerous cross roads and most Americans are thoroughly convinced that we're hopelessly divided that Washington is completely dysfunctional and that our entire political system is fundamentally broken the ex the voices of the exhausted majority are often ignored in deference to the demands of the loudest and angriest few who seem hellbent on tearing America apart now I just left office last January and I was very proud of the job that our team did and I just want to again give a shout out to my partner that helped make all that happen lieutenant governor Boyd Rutherford did an amazing [Applause] job and we've got some other members of our team my former Chief of Staff Amilia Chris Shank who was our policy guy there's a some folks here that really helped us for the8 years years but thank you very much for all your hard work helping make it happen and I left office uh with a 77% job approval and in in one of the most Democratic states in America and I was very satisfied with the job that our team did and all the work that we accomplished and quite frankly I thought I was done with politics um I was actually enjoying being out of it and being in the private sector and I was passionate about some things I was working on and I was spending time with my kids and grandkids um I didn't really get into this race because I had a burning desire to be a senator I didn't certainly need another title I wasn't looking for a job but I've never been more concerned about the direction of the country and I felt that the dangerous lack of political courage and principled leadership in Washington was putting our nation at risk the final straw for me came in February two days before the filing deadline when I was not planning to run for the Senate and uh there was a bipartisan compromise to make progress on securing the border and to provide critical Aid to our allies in Israel Ukraine and Taiwan and there were Senators who supported the bill and all the things that it was trying to accomplish but they voted against it simply because Donald Trump told them to and that was the FI this when I made the decision I have to go down there and try to do something about this mess America is at a critical Tipping Point the nation is literally a Tinder Box and the failure of our leaders to put what is right ahead of what is politically expedient isn't just wrong it's dangerous and nothing is going to change unless we're willing to elect leaders who say enough is enough and who can be a voice for sanity and change and none of our problems can be fixed by blind partisanship from either side of the aisle so look we can continue to go down this dark Road of extremism and toxic politics and hatred and violence or we can recognize that we rise and fall together as one nation now my opponent in the race for the United States Senate only wants to spew partisan rhetoric about red versus blue and I think it's time we get back to focusing on the red white and blue you know I learned from my dad that one person can actually make a difference and history has proven that again and again from folks like my dad John McCain and so many other great Great American leaders and we all I believe have a responsibility to follow in their footsteps and to stand up for what is right now I have the if I have the privilege of serving in the United States Senate I will be your strongest Ally in this fight to put principles first and I will reach across the aisle to try to find common ground for the common good just like I did for eight years as the governor of Maryland and I will never be just one more Capitol Hill politician and I will continue to have the courage to put people over politics and to put country over party and I have proven over and over again that I'm willing to stand up to the former president to the current president and that I'll stand up to the next president and to the Democratic party or the Republican party to do what's right for the country and I will will continue to to always do what I believe is right for my state of Maryland and for the country and I'll be the same strong independent leader for Maryland that I always have been I believe that I can be that critical independent Swing Vote that will be a roadblock to the crazy and the extremes from both sides of the aisle in order to finally work to deliver Common Sense bipartisan Solutions on the important problems that face [Applause] America look no one of us has all the answers or all the power and let's face it one party alone can't fix this mess John F Kennedy once said sometimes Party Loyalty demands too much this is one of those moments this is an important fight to fix the broken politics in America if you're complet completely fed up with the divisiveness and dysfunction in Washington and you want change then we have to finally do something different the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result yeah I don't know if they were cheering for insanity or but look together we can clean up the mess in Washington and you the Washington politicians win by per perpetuating polarization and paralysis but our state of Maryland is known as the state of middle temperament and we believe in common decency and Common Sense and we know that what unites us as marylanders and as Americans is greater than that which divides us ladies and gentlemen this isn't just about the differences between the right and the left this is about the difference between right and wrong and this isn't just your typical fight between Republicans and Democrats it's more important than that this is literally a fight for America's future so ladies and gentlemen I really appreciate you inviting me here tonight with your help we can win this race we can make a difference in Washington we can send a loud and clear message to all the politicians in Washington that they're going to hear all across the country so thank you very much for having me tonight [Applause] what a great example of uh of principal leadership um at this time we're going to welcome up to um the podium a panel um I guess we'll have Heath in