Larry Hogan’s rocket to the upper echelon of Maryland political power a decade ago — and, in many ways, his enduring appeal afterward — was fueled by an economic message almost singularly focused on anti-tax sentiments.

From the “Change Maryland” advocacy organization he founded to his 2014 campaign and then two terms as governor, combating state taxes and fees have been a hallmark of his brand and resonated with Maryland voters.

“This is his identity,” said Mileah Kromer, the director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Institute of Politics who wrote a book on Hogan’s rare electoral success as a Republican in heavily Democratic Maryland.

Now running for U.S. Senate at a time when voters are concerned about rising costs, Hogan hasn’t only evoked his history of cutting tolls and stifling new fees as governor. He’s railed against what he’s said are “338 new Maryland taxes and fees” enacted since he passed the torch to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.

The fees, he’s said, are targeting workers and businesses, putting a burden on families so that “almost everything is going to cost more” — from vehicle registrations to “a fee for changing your address.”

But the list of fees — developed by Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly and picked up by Hogan as a campaign talking point — is not exactly as advertised.

An analysis of the list by The Baltimore Sun found about 10% of the fees are new, and just four of those could directly impact some consumers.

The rest are increases of existing fees, though many are counted several times for either increases over multiple years or because of nuances in the law that identify multiple different fees for the same license or activity. About one-third of the list represents fees on distinctly different licenses, permits or activities, The Sun’s analysis found.

The “fee for changing your address,” for example, came from a proposed regulation about real estate broker business licenses, but it was eliminated from the final regulation. A separate but related fee — $5 for a brokerage firm to change the business address on its license — was proposed and enacted.

Hogan’s campaign did not answer specific questions about how the candidate has discussed the list during his campaign against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks.

His spokesman, Mike Ricci, said in a statement that the list “is an illustration of the number one problem Gov. Hogan hears about on the campaign trail (which) is the burden of rising prices, taxes, and fees.”

“If anything, with legislators already stating that more tax hikes and more fees will be passed in 2025, the report does not go far enough in detailing the additional burdens Marylanders will face in the coming years,” he said.

Kromer said she’s not surprised Hogan is leaning into that theme after his “undeniably efficient message” that propelled him to the governor’s mansion 10 years ago. In that campaign, Hogan targeted a stormwater management fee, dubbing it the “rain tax” and used it to spread a broader anti-tax sentiment after eight years of Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley.

“Republicans have been complaining about taxes and fees forever. It’s a perennial issue,” Kromer said. “But Hogan was pretty politically savvy and picked the one fee … and branded it with a clever moniker, which was really memorable. It’s amazing to me the power of that rain tax branding.”

The attempt to revive that strategy could be effective again now, when cost-of-living issues are a particularly salient topic, said Kromer, who conducts regular statewide polling in Maryland.

While year-over-year inflation has declined since it spiked to its highest modern-day level in June 2022, it remains a top concern for voters, according to recent polls.

In interviews, billboards and ads, Hogan has emphasized the increasing costs of everyday goods and said he will work in the Senate to curb government spending and tax hikes — and he’s used the list of Maryland fee increases to make his case.

A 10-second video he posted on Facebook laments the “new taxes and fees” while the list skims quickly in the background. A public letter he sent to Alsobrooks in July calls on her to oppose the fees — Alsobrooks, as the Prince George’s County executive, did not have a role in creating the state-level fees — and lists car registration, paint, barbers, salons, Uber rides and the non-existent “fee for changing your address” among a list of “regressive taxes and fees.”

Kromer said Hogan has been consistent with his approach, one that focuses on a few fees and develops a larger feeling that can miss some of the nuances in terms of the actual impacts of each one.

The question for him now — facing more voters in a presidential year and a Maryland electorate that does not want to see Republicans return to power in Washington, D.C. — is whether that strategy can do what it did for him before.