Some GOP senators want the Republican National Committee to put up with Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan's anti-Donald Trump rhetoric in order to win the Senate majority, Punchbowl News is reporting.
The issue was brought to a head when Hogan posted on X after Trump was found guilty on 34 counts.
"Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process," Hogan wrote. "At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law."
But RNC co-chair Lara Trump, Donald Trump's daughter-in-law, fired back during an appearance on CNN on Sunday. Lara Trump called Hogan's comments "ridiculous."
"I'll tell you one thing, I don't support what he just said there," she said. "I think it's ridiculous.
"He doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly, anybody in America, if that's the way you feel. That's very upsetting to hear that."
Now some GOP senators are urging the RNC to let Hogan break from the former president.
"We've got to give him latitude to win his race in Maryland," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. said. "What we don't want to do is have a scenario where we win the White House, and we don't have a majority in the Senate.
"That would make no sense at all. President Trump would get nothing done.”
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines, R-Mont., agreed.
"Larry Hogan is running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland, not Mississippi," Daines said.
But Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, warned Hogan is alienating Trump-backing GOP voters, even in a blue state of Maryland.
"He is going to run a different campaign than I would run, but, look, when he says things that alienate the majority of Republicans," Vance said.
"I think it's certainly reasonable to criticize him. I still hope he wins."
The Washington Examiner noted Hogan was a rare Republican who defended Trump's convictions.