When former Gov. Larry Hogan, now the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by retiring Sen. Ben Cardin, sat down with The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board on Tuesday in downtown Baltimore, one of the issues he made crystal clear to all was his continued disdain for building the Red Line, the proposed 14.1-mile-long east-west light rail line running from Woodlawn to Johns Hopkins Bayview and possibly beyond. This wasn’t a surprise. He killed the project in 2015 even though it meant returning to the federal government $900 million that would have helped pay for a third or more of the project and diverted more than $700 million in state transportation money elsewhere. But his thinking, then and now, is that it isn’t cost-effective and that precious transportation dollars are better spent elsewhere, most likely on roads and highways, which could potentially relieve heavy traffic.

Yet, hearing him repeat that assessment nine years later — despite Baltimore’s continuing economic challenges and his successor’s efforts to revive the project — was a bit jarring. Isn’t this a Republican running in one of the nation’s bluest states? Shouldn’t he be looking out for all of Maryland and not just the parts where his political support is strongest? The former governor said he’s been good for Baltimore, noting record funding for public schools (made possible by an educational reform plan he vetoed, incidentally). Why not at least leave the door open more than a crack and do more than offer to listen to Gov. Wes Moore on the Red Line? Moore has committed at least $150 million (most of it federal funds) to put a new version of the Red Line back on track in the design and planning stage.

Here’s a political assessment: It doesn’t pay for him to seem willing to spend billions of taxpayer dollars, especially on a project that benefits low-income neighborhoods where jobs (and viable transportation options) are scarce. It’s better to come off as parsimonious. The race between Hogan and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks isn’t going to be decided by the future of the Red Line. Abortion rights? Will Hogan, an anti-Trump Republican, be able to show his independent streak while caucusing with the GOP? Or, conversely, might Hogan give Maryland a voice in a Republican-controlled Senate? Might Alsobrooks be a historic choice as Maryland’s first senator of color and one of few Black women to serve in the U.S. Senate? Those high-profile issues could swing a crucial number of voters in a race that polls suggest remains close.

But, as former U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill once observed, all politics is local. As Baltimoreans fill out their mail-in ballots or show up for early voting later this month or at the polls on Nov. 5, they would be wise to ask themselves: “What’s in it for Baltimore?” It was one thing to have Ben Cardin, a born-and-raised Baltimorean, in the upper chamber (or fellow Baltimore native Barbara Mikulski in the seat before him); it’s quite another to elect someone who doesn’t see the city’s wholly inadequate public transportation system as a priority. The last time Maryland had no sitting senator with ties to Baltimore was in the early 1970s, but even then, U.S. Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr., a liberal Republican from Frederick, was a reliable supporter of the city and the cause of civil rights.

And we offer no free passes to Alsobrooks, whose campaign seems mostly focused on the Washington, D.C. suburbs in Maryland, abortion rights and keeping the Senate in Democratic control. Improving the economy for working families is on the list, but that’s boilerplate for every candidate in every race this year. She has said she supports the Red Line, but it’s not exactly a cornerstone of her campaign. She may be taking Baltimore votes for granted — Prince George’s County and the city tend to vote similarly in statewide races, including against Hogan in his two successful runs for governor.

Let’s be frank. The odds of the Red Line getting built anytime soon aren’t great. The chief obstacle is funding. The Transportation Trust Fund doesn’t have the $2 billion or more needed. But what’s just as daunting — if not arguably worse — is that candidates running for such a powerful office that could come down to a few thousand votes aren’t much interested in fighting concentrated poverty in the city that was once the center of political power in Maryland. That suggests it’s not just the Red Line in peril, it’s the future of Baltimore.