Abortion rights could complicate Republican Larry Hogan's Senate bid in deep blue Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Republicans hoping to pick up an open U.S. Senate seat in deep blue Maryland have the most competitive candidate they've fielded for decades. But former Gov. Larry Hogan will need more than GOP support to overcome sustained outrage about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down constitutional protections for abortion.

With Maryland voters set to decide whether to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution in November, it may be harder for Hogan to reassemble the bipartisan coalition that elected him to the governor's office in 2014 and kept him there four years later.

His task was laid out vividly by Lynn Johnson Langer, a Democrat walking to lunch in downtown Annapolis several days after Hogan announced his Senate bid. Hogan is likable enough to have won her vote in his second campaign for governor, but the stakes are too high for her to support handing Republicans another win in a closely divided Senate.

“We need more Democrats, so, sorry Hogan,” Langer said. ”I don’t think he’s a bad guy. Like I said, I don’t always agree with him. In fact, a lot I don’t agree with him.”