Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a moderate Republican, has announced that he will not run as a GOP challenger against Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), dashing hopes that the seat could be flipped. Because Hogan’s second term—the final term allowed to him under the Maryland state constitution—ends in 2023, and because of his significant popularity in the otherwise blue state, some Republicans saw a unique opportunity to flip the seat. If Hogan had run and won the race, it would be a historic reversal. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton received 60.33 percent of the vote, compared to only 33.91 percent for Trump. In the 2020 election, Trump fared even worse, receiving only 32.15 percent of the vote compared to Biden’s 65.36 percent. The state has not elected a Republican to the Senate in over four decades. Its last GOP senator, the late Charles Mathias, was reelected to a final term in 1980; since then, …