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And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with your host, David Axelrod.

Larry Hogan is a rare species in American politics, a popular Republican governor of an overwhelmingly democratic state, Maryland,

who regularly bucks Republican Party orthodoxy in the age of Trump. Maybe he comes by it naturally.

His father, Larry Senior, was the first Republican on the House Judiciary Committee to announce his support for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

I spoke with Governor Hogan recently about all of this, his battle with cancer and other stories from his new memoir, Still Standing. Here's that conversation.

Governor Larry Hogan, so good to see you. Thank you. It's good to be with you.

There's so much to talk about that's going on right now, both involved both your role as a leader of the governors and as governor of Maryland.

But before we get to that, you have a great story. You just wrote a book called Still Standing. And it's an apt title because you've faced a bunch of challenges in your life.

But first, just a little history, your great grandparents on both sides came over from Ireland. So your classic immigrant story here.

Yeah, I think like so many people in America, we got that background. And you know, I all of my, I say I'm 100% Irish.

It's probably why I drink beer and eat potatoes. So I looked the way I do. But you know, I'm very proud.

I'd be the last to criticize governor. Yeah, I am very proud of my heritage. And you know, my, I heard a lot of stories from my grandparents.

But on both sides of the family, very Irish typical Irish Catholic family.

And your folks, you folks went to school together. I used to Catholic schools in in Washington.

Yeah, it was two separate. It was all boys. Catholic high school. My dad went to and kind of the sister school.

My mom went to a Catholic girl school in Washington, DC. But they were high school sweethearts. And then dad went on to, to, you know,

So you can separate, you can separate the boys and girls, but they find each other. Don't they find each other anyway? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

And, and your dad was, they were, they both worked so that he could go to college and then on to law school at Georgetown.

Yeah, that happened a lot back then. They didn't have any money. And he, he was the first in his family to, to go to college and, and go through law school.

But they both worked, you know, multiple jobs that try to be able to afford to do that. And he got a great education. I learned, you know, so much from both of my parents.

And they had a huge impact on my life. I talk a little bit about that early life in my book. Yeah.

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