A Senate seat in deep blue Maryland is up for grabs – with a popular Republican vying for it

But ex-governor Larry Hogan faces a tough challenge against Angela Alsobrooks for the crucial Senate seat

At a conservative thinktank on 14th Street in Washington DC, awaiting Larry Hogan, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Maryland, one staffer turned to another. It's nice having something to vote for, for a change," the staffer wryly said. Shortly after, the former governor arrived for his speech at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (Jinsa), part of his campaign to win in a state that hasn't elected a Republican senator since 1980.

When he left the executive mansion in Annapolis last year, Hogan told his friendly audience, he had governed for eight years as a popular moderate but had not been looking for another job - And frankly, I didn't yearn to be a part of the divisiveness and dysfunction in Washington," he said.