The Freedom Caucus wants to remake Maryland’s GOP, one primary at a time

Weeks before Maryland’s June primary, the first of what would become a hailstorm of negative campaign mailers landed in Margaret Hornberger’s Cecil County mailbox.

The glossy, jumbo postcards, paid for by the Maryland Freedom Caucus Slate, painted her son, GOP Del. Kevin Hornberger, as a “liberal Republican,” and labeled its pick, Derek Howell, as the “Real Conservative.”

One showed doctored images of Joe Biden and Wes Moore holding Hornberger’s campaign signs and called him Democrats’ “clear choice,” shaming him for voting across the aisle.

“What is this nonsense?” Margaret Hornberger, a Republican, recalled thinking at the time. “Why would anyone spend money on these ridiculous mailers?”

But the mailers were effective: Kevin Hornberger lost his bid for a fourth term.

It’s a playbook that has been used around the country by a coordinated network of 15 state Freedom Caucus groups. Members claim they are the gatekeepers of GOP values and pursue Republicans who diverge on compromise or emblematic votes.

The President Donald Trump-aligned coalition seeks to challenge those in charge and advocates for smaller government, lower taxes, fossil-fueled energy production, banning transgender girls from sports teams and school choice. They’re modeled on the congressional Freedom Caucus, led by Maryland Rep. Andy Harris.

Hornberger is the first Maryland incumbent ousted since the state’s Freedom Caucus formed in 2025. Freedom Caucus endorsements for new members to the House of Delegates went three for three.

Should Howell and two other Maryland Freedom Caucus-backed primary winners — Jake Taylor in Harford County and Steve Patten in Carroll County — win in November, the group will grow to 10 members — about one-quarter of House of Delegates Republicans.

Democrats in the General Assembly hold a supermajority, outnumbering Republicans more than 2-to-1. Even with the victories, the Freedom Caucus is a minority of a minority party.

Freedom Caucus success can take different forms depending on which party is in charge, said Matthew Green, a politics professor at The Catholic University of America, who has studied the caucuses’ spread across the country.

In GOP-led states like Wyoming, powerful Freedom Caucus members dominate the lower chamber, allowing them to set agendas and pick leadership. The Wyoming House of Representatives is eyeing a supermajority, and their house speaker is a member.

Some have suggested Freedom Caucuses are training grounds for higher office. Caucuses have boasted several alumni seeking secretary of state positions. One of the founders of Arizona’s Freedom Caucus ran and lost a 2026 primary bid for a U.S. House seat.

For those Freedom Caucuses in Democratic-led states like Illinois and Maryland, the “fear of influencing elections is sufficient,” Green said.

GOP vs. Freedom Caucus

Other states have seen the Freedom Caucus’ rising influence in GOP primaries for several cycles, and Republicans’ say the group has shifted the politics.

South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Newton has faced down Freedom Caucus challengers and said his GOP caucus makes plans long in advance of Election Day, anticipating the onslaught of negative ads. He advised his fellow Republican state lawmakers to treat your primaries “as if they’re an all-out war.”

Wyoming state Sen. Evie Brennan, a non-Freedom Caucus Republican, has backed bills for school choice expansion and abortion pill bans. The ICU nurse is facing a primary challenge on Aug. 18 from a former Wyoming state House Freedom Caucus member.

She said the Republican infighting limits the majority’s ability to get things done and lamented the loss of “good healthy debate.”

“There’s not room to work together as a group of people who want the same goal but might have differing thoughts on how to get there,” she said.

Railing against the status quo plays better with voters come election time, Green said, especially with loyal primary voters.

The “outsider-versus-insider” dynamic has played out across parties and goes back years, he said, naming the 2018 defeat of New York Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley by then-progressive newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A similar debate ensued in a Baltimore state Senate primary won by centrist Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson over progressive social media influencer Bobby LaPin.

“It’s always something that an incumbent has to worry about because the longer you’re in a legislature, the more compromises you make,” Green said.

But it doesn’t always work. Oklahoma and South Carolina Republicans have beaten back Freedom Caucus attempts to win Republican seats.

Strategy comes from outside Maryland

Maryland’s Freedom Caucus members are Dels. Matt Morgan of St. Mary’s County, Mark N. Fisher of Charles County, Kathy Szeliga, Ryan Nawrocki and Robin Grammer of Baltimore County, Lauren Arikan of Harford County and Brian Chisholm of Anne Arundel County.

They excel at seeking attention. Through hyperbolic social media posts, podcasts and floor speeches, Maryland’s seven members successfully killed a 2025 Democratic bill that would have decriminalized contraception distribution in schools. Caucus members launched a vigorous campaign, condemning the bill as “condoms for kiddies.”

As in other states, members often blindside Republican leadership with amendments during floor debate. The Freedom Caucus slate raised more than $171,000 in campaign contributions this cycle, according to state records.

The group strategizes with the help of an outside organization, the State Freedom Caucus Network, supplying members with policy experts, paid staff and training. Founded by veteran Republican operatives, their goal is to have a Freedom Caucus in every state, according a top organizer.

“From Election Integrity to Critical Race Theory, the most important fights of today are happening in the states,” a line from the website reads. “SFCN will provide conservatives in state capitals nationwide the resources they need to win.”

Maryland conservatives wanted in

Green analyzed why a Freedom Caucus may pop up in any given state. One of many factors: whether a House Freedom Caucus member reps one of its congressional districts.

Maryland has Harris.

“We go where there are conservatives that want to start a Freedom Caucus,” said Andy Roth, the network’s president.

Roth said in an interview that Harris played a key role in the group’s early conversations and remains a top adviser to Maryland’s members. Roth said he’s known Szeliga for years, the caucus’ vice chair — one reason why Maryland has a Freedom Caucus but Alabama and Tennessee do not.

Roth sees the state teams as an underdog, battling the establishment no matter which party is in control. But his main issue is with non-Freedom Caucus Republicans, who he said are the same across the country.

The “single biggest problem” in the GOP, he said, is “Republicans telling their voters that they are tried and true fiscal and cultural conservatives, and then they go to the Capitol and vote like liberals.”

“A lot of them are captured by the majority, whether it’s a Democrat majority or a Republican supermajority,” he said. “By that I mean they simply do whatever the leadership tells them to do, even if it’s contrary to the Republican platform.”

It’s part of the Freedom Caucuses’ mission to educate voters when their GOP representatives are straying from what they consider Republican ideals, he said. That’s what happened with Hornberger, he said.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus took over the House in their state by being “vocal,” he said, “and the voters listened.”

“It’s not any more complicated than that.”

Hornberger: A case study

In Hornberger’s case, the Freedom Caucus turned votes he cast to pass the state budget against him. In at least one case, dozens of other Republicans, including some members of the Freedom Caucus, voted the same way as Hornberger.

“Those budgets had no tax increases and funded our state and a number of initiatives, obviously in Cecil County,” he said, adding the one he voted against in 2025 contained tax hikes.

The budget is the one bill lawmakers must pass each year, though individual lawmakers are not required to vote for it. Since the Freedom Caucus formed in 2025, they’ve voted as a bloc against Gov. Wes Moore and Democrats’ spending plans.

Hornberger was also criticized for twice approving a bill that would make November 14 “Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day” in Maryland and require the state education department, at no cost, to make learning materials available to schools.

The famous first grader was the first African American student to integrate her all-white elementary school on November 14, 1960. The bill did not advance.

The Freedom Caucus mailer said Hornberger voted yes to “force ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ (DEI) indoctrination on Marylanders.”

Hornberger said the bill sought to raise awareness about a key milestone in America’s civil rights history, voting for it was a “no brainer.”

“But this group has turned it into a divisive wedge issue that it shouldn’t be.”

Szeliga said in an interview that schools should focus on reading, writing and math and not teaching “social justice” issues.

The 45-year-old father of two fought back on social media. He told constituents he voted to support first responders; the 2nd Amendment; and his leadership on a Trump-inspired election law requiring proof of citizenship to vote. He flashed endorsements from the National Rifle Association, a pro-life political action committee and former GOP Gov. Robert Ehrlich.

But for now his political career is on hold.

Having witnessed her son’s previous elections Margaret Hornberger said this one was different and “mean spirited.”

She wondered how any candidate could fight back against the flash flood of negative messaging so close to an election and wondered aloud what has happened to “honest debate.”

“It’s a sad side of politics,” she said.