In 1992, Hogan was the Republican nominee for Maryland's 5th congressional district, running against Democratic incumbent Steny Hoyer. Hoyer outspent Hogan by a 6-to-1 margin. The race was the closest in Hoyer's tenure. Hogan won four of the district's five counties and 44% of the vote to Hoyer's 53%, with William Johnston (Independent) at 3%. Hogan took a four-year leave of absence from his business to serve as Maryland's secretary of appointments in Bob Ehrlich's administration from 2003 to 2007. In this capacity, Hogan appointed over 7,000 people to positions in the Maryland government. In 2011, Hogan founded Change Maryland, a nonprofit anti-tax advocacy organization that was used to criticize Governor Martin O'Malley's administration. The organization promoted Hogan's gubernatorial run, and his campaign eventually purchased its assets. The Maryland Democratic Party alleged that Hogan had improperly received campaign benefits from the nonprofit; the State Board of Elections dismissed two of the complaints but found Hogan's campaign had not properly disclosed the value of a poll the nonprofit did before purchasing its assets. Governor of Maryland Elections Hogan began his campaign for governor of Maryland on January 21, 2014. On January 29, 2014, he announced former Maryland secretary of general services Boyd Rutherford as his running mate. On June 24, 2014, Hogan and Rutherford won the Republican primary with 43% of the vote. In the November 4 general election, they defeated Anthony Brown, the Democratic nominee and incumbent lieutenant governor, 51% to 47%. Hogan is the first governor to be elected from Anne Arundel County in over 100 years. In the 2018 gubernatorial election, Hogan faced Democratic nominee Ben Jealous, a former NAACP president. Hogan enjoyed significant polling and fundraising leads over Jealous throughout the campaign. He defeated Jealous, 55% to 43%, becoming only the second Republican governor in Maryland history to be reelected, and the first since Theodore McKeldin in 1954. Hogan won the most votes of any governor in Maryland history. As Hogan was term-limited, he did not run in the 2022 gubernatorial election. In November 2021, he endorsed the campaign of his commerce secretary, Kelly Schulz. After Schulz lost the Republican primary to state delegate Dan Cox, who was much farther to the right than the generally centrist Hogan, he said that he would not support Cox in the general election. Hogan blamed "collusion" between the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and former president Donald Trump for Cox's primary