Is Billy Shreve Recruiting a Challenger to Governor Hogan?

Red Maryland has heard from multiple sources that Frederick County Councilman Billy Shreve is attempting to recruit a candidate to challenge Governor Larry Hogan in the 2018 Republican Gubernatorial Primary.

The impetus for Shreve’s attempt to recruit a challenger appears to goes back to Shreve’s role in the Trump Campaign, with his belief that Governor Hogan didn’t “do enough” during the 2016 gubernatorial election. Remember that Shreve trashed Governor Hogan to the Baltimore Sun back in July, so his animosity to the Governor has existed for quite some time.

That Shreve would be on a quixotic quest to find a challenger to the Governor should not be a surprise to anybody who followed Shreve’s bizarre 2016. During his time as Chairman of the Frederick County Republican Central Committee, Shreve not only trashed Governor Hogan but also saw the County Lincoln-Reagan Day dinner canceled for unknown reasons. After that, Shreve attempted to illegally funnel money from the Frederick County Republican Central Committee to the Trump Campaign, an escapade that wound up costing the Maryland Republican Party $12,000.

Shreve of course was also honored as Red Maryland’s Least Valuable Conservative of 2016.

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We have reached out to Shreve for a comment on this rumor. But let us hope that the rumor is 100% untrue, even if it would fit with Shreve’s previous actions of disruption in the Republican Party. Any effort put toward recruiting a challenger to Governor Hogan for 2018 is a waste of everybody’s time. This election, as we have stated at Red Maryland repeatedly, is the most important election of our lives. Every second that is spent messing around on gubernatorial primary politics is a second that’s not spent trying to win more Republican seats in the State Senate and the House of Delegates. Every dollar that Governor Hogan would theoretically have to spend in the primary is a dollar that’s not spent on whichever of the Seven Dwarfs the Democrats ultimately nominate.

Let us hope that this rumor is just a rumor. But if it’s not, that is a situation that will need to be addressed.