Former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele said Monday that he won’t run for Maryland governor, but will remain part of the national political conversation and wants to see the GOP better define what it stands for.
“I made the decision to stand down this round,” said Steele, a Republican commentator on MSNBC and ardent critic of former President Donald Trump, also a Republican.
“It’s not something the family wants me to do right now,” the Prince George’s County resident said in an interview. “My wife has never been a big fan of the political landscape. At the end of the day, you can’t be governor without the first lady.”
Steele’s decision leaves Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz and Del. Dan Cox as the most prominent Republicans in the June 28 primary election field. Schulz, a former Republican delegate from Frederick County and a longtime member of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s cabinet, is transitioning out of the post this month to mount her campaign. Cox is a conservative who has received Trump’s endorsement.
In a state in which Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 2-1, Steele’s best pitch may have been that — like Hogan — he appeals to crossover Democratic voters. The primary may have been particularly challenging because the conservative GOP base typically votes in high numbers.
Steele, 63, who was the first Black national Republican Party chairman, said the GOP has departed from guiding principles and the sort of outreach to minority voters that he often touted as the national GOP leader.
“I’m concerned about the drift that’s taking away from democratic principles,” he said, citing Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him. “I’m concerned people believe in the big lie, because why would you ever want to believe a lie? There was no corruption in this last election, there was no fraud.”
But Steele said his decision not to run wasn’t affected by the support Trump continues to draw from Republicans in Maryland and elsewhere.
“If you don’t know how to run a campaign through that gauntlet, then you shouldn’t be in the game,” he said. “That was never a consideration for me to try to figure out how to navigate that. The Republicans in Maryland know me.”
Steele plans to continue as an MSNBC commentator while he works at his strategic communications firm.
The Democratic candidates in the race — or planning to enter — are former Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, former nonprofit executive Jon Baron, Comptroller Peter Franchot, former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, former Obama administration official Ashwani Jain, former U.S. Education Secretary John B. King, author and former nonprofit executive Wes Moore, and former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
