Hogan’s GOP brand lost to Trump-style politics. He doesn’t see defeat.

Cox, who questioned whether there was an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and has called public schools “indoctrination centers,” represents everything Hogan has railed against in his dozens of TV appearances positioning himself as a Republican alternative to Trump.

Maryland Republicans and national strategists described it as tough loss, evidence that Hogan’s influence may be waning in the party. That is, unless you’re talking to Larry Hogan himself, who doesn’t see a loss at all.

“There was no repudiation,” Hogan said in an interview. “I mean, I think I’m stronger than ever,” he said, noting recent polling that showed he is highly popular in the state.

Republican strategist Bill Kristol, who once encouraged the second-term governor to challenge Trump in the 2020 primary, agreed that “Hogan is popular in Maryland.”

But he added, “Hoganism, I’m afraid, as of now, is not very popular within the Republican Party in Maryland. And frankly, it’s not popular across the country right now.”

If Hogan couldn’t convince primary voters who know him and like him to embrace his vision of appealing to moderates and independents to grow the Republican Party, strategists asked, how could he sell that to GOP primary voters who have never met him?

Maryland House Minority Whip Haven N. Shoemaker Jr. (R-Carroll) said Hogan’s reign over Maryland Republicans seemed to end Tuesday.

“What we saw from the results yesterday is that there’s considerable Hogan fatigue amongst Republican primary voters in Maryland,” Shoemaker said. “A lot of it is vitriol that stems from the lockdowns that we saw during the global pandemic, and a lot of it stems from the invective that the governor directed at President Trump. You can’t win a Republican primary running from the left. And I think the results yesterday demonstrated that fact.”

Primary voters overlooked Hogan’s political mentee — former state commerce secretary Kelly Schulz — and instead elevated someone the governor has openly called “crazy”: Cox. The state lawmaker attended the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol and once called former vice president Mike Pence “a traitor” (though he later expressed regret for his language).

Cox tried to impeach Hogan over coronavirus restrictions and campaigned on auditing the 2020 presidential election, restricting abortion rights, excluding transgender athletes from female sports, and enhancing parental control over sex education and the teaching of race in public schools.

Hogan argued for Schulz, a longtime friend who hewed to Hogan’s electoral playbook of emphasizing crime…