Senate Republicans have mixed feelings about Maryland GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan’s tempered response to former President Donald Trump’s felony conviction in his hush money trial, but they still want to see him win in November.

Sen. J.D. Vance, Ohio Republican and ally of Mr. Trump, said Mr. Hogan’s statement calling on Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process “was a huge mistake” because a majority of voters believe the prosecution was politically motivated.

“Larry’s running in a blue state. He obviously is going to run a different campaign than I would run or other folks run,” Mr. Vance said. “But look, when he says things that alienate the majority of Republicans and the gross majority of Republicans, I think it’s totally reasonable to criticize him. I still hope he wins.”

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A Manhattan jury found Mr. Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Hogan, a former governor who is running an uphill Senate race in Maryland against Democratic Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, avoided direct comment on the guilty verdict, instead releasing a statement moments before the jury’s decision was announced that urged Americans to “respect the verdict and the legal process.”

“At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Mr. Hogan said. “We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”

Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita panned Mr. Hogan for failing to criticize a judicial process most Republicans have derided as a “sham” trial.

“You just ended your campaign,” Mr. LaCivita wrote on X.

Republican senators wouldn’t go that far, even though several disagreed with Mr. Hogan’s approach.

“I’m not going to give him advice on how to run his campaign, but I do think Republicans need to be truthful,” Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, said. “And the truth is that this so-called crime is not a crime. It’s been charged by no prosecutor at any level against any defendant ever, except for Donald Trump. And it is a terrible abuse of the rule of law.”

Mr. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee, attacked Mr. Hogan during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.

“I think it’s ridiculous and I think anybody who’s not speaking up in the face of really something that should never again have seen the light of day at trial, that would never have been brought against any other person aside from Donald Trump, doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone,” she said.

However, Mrs. Trump demurred on whether the RNC would ditch the former Maryland governor in his Senate bid, telling the CNN host she would have to circle back “on all the specifics monetarily.”

Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a critic of the former president, was taken aback by a reporter asking if Mr. Hogan should be allowed in the Republican Party.

“Should Larry Hogan be allowed in the party?” she said, befuddled.

When the reporter responded the RNC suggested he should not be, Mrs. Murkowski shook her head in disgust but did not respond further.

Mr. Hogan is a prime recruit for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which would not normally focus any attention on a Maryland Senate race. But since Mr. Hogan has won statewide races for governor and has name recognition and a bipartisan record to run on, GOP leaders feel there’s an outside chance Mr. Hogan could flip the long-held Democratic Senate seat.

Sen. Steve Daines, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, suggested Mr. Hogan’s response to the verdict was targeted at the types of moderate voters he will need to win in a blue state.

“Larry Hogan is running for the United States Senate in Maryland, not Mississippi,” Mr. Daines, Montana Republican, said.

Asked if it is harmful for Mr. Trump’s campaign to criticize Mr. Hogan for his response, Mr. Daines reiterated his personal view that the hush money trial was a “sham,” but he said that it’s OK for there to be differences in how the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and some Senate candidates run their campaigns.

“President Trump has his race to run,” Mr. Daines said. “Larry Hogan has his race to run.”

Mr. Vance, however, said he thinks Mr. Hogan risks losing support from more voters than he will win with his muted stance.

“I don’t know what person in the state of Maryland is open to voting for Larry Hogan but is really going to be persuaded because he endorsed what I think is frankly a sham prosecution,” he said. “I don’t think anybody. I think a lot of Republicans are going to be turned off by that.”