Though he’s flirted with the idea for a while, on Sunday, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared he will not seek the GOP nomination for president in 2024.

Sitting for an interview with Robert Costa on CBS’ Face the Nation, Hogan asserted: “I didn’t want to have a pileup of a bunch of people fighting.”

BREAKING NEWS: Former MD @GovLarryHogan tells @costareports, in a @FaceTheNation with @margbrennan exclusive, that he will not seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. “I didn’t want to have a pileup of a bunch of people fighting,” he says. More at 10:30am ET. Tune in. pic.twitter.com/1voXeWfwTW

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 5, 2023

Hogan insists he did give serious thought to a run.

“I did give it serious consideration, and I talked to people everywhere, and I talked to my family, and it was a tough decision, but I’ve decided that I will not be a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.”

Hogan further maintains that his decision was not based on fear of facing off against former President Donald Trump.

“That really didn’t scare me. You’re right, it would be a tough race and he’s very tough, you know. But I beat life-threatening cancer, so having Trump call me names on Twitter didn’t really scare me off.”

The announcement comes as little surprise. There does not seem to be a measurable appetite for the moderate former governor among the GOP base. As RedState’s Joe Cunningham recently observed:

There is honestly very little that Hogan brings to the table. He was a relatively popular governor in his state but has very little name recognition outside of the northeast unless you pay a whole lot of attention to national politics. It’s not particularly clear what policies or issues he would bring that could compete on a stage against Trump.

…

What Hogan does have is a chance to divide the non-Trump vote, possibly preventing non-Trump candidates from gaining enough of a foothold to defeat Trump. And if preventing Trump from becoming the candidate is Hogan’s goal, then what he needs to do is throw support (and money) behind someone else more likely to. He can call his supporters and donors and direct their money somewhere else.

If it’s not really about stroking Hogan’s ego, then he knows he can do a better job outside the primary than in it.