Wes Moore will in all likelihood be the next governor of Maryland. A month before election day, one poll gave him a 32-point lead over his Republican opponent, Dan Cox.
If successful, Moore will be the state’s first Black governor – and only the third Black governor of any state. He stresses the need for bipartisan support in a time of divide.
He says: “The only way you’re going to see polling results like that is if you’re showing a measure of support not just among Democrats, but amongst independents and amongst Republicans.
“I think you’re seeing how the state … is rallying behind that idea that we can go further together, that people are tired and exhausted, frankly, of being at each other’s throats, that we are going to build a new type of coalition inside the state that incorporates people from a variety of political parties.”
At 43, Moore’s résumé includes a Rhodes scholarship, a tour of Afghanistan, a Bush White House job and corporate and non-profit experience. He is part of a diverse crop of new leaders in a Democratic party headed by a 79-year-old president, Joe Biden, and congressional leaders among whom Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, is a spring chicken at 71.
He insists: “We’re taking nothing for granted. We are running every day like we’re 10 points behind. I believe that’s how we were able to win the primary. And I believe that’s how we’re going to be able to win the general as well.”
Moore emerged from a bruising, nine-strong primary field. In the general election it’s him versus Cox, and here’s the crux: the Republican, a state representative, attended Donald Trump’s rally near the White House on January 6, before the Capitol riot. The Maga hardcore will back him, but it is unlikely many others will.
“There are issues on the ballot,” Moore says. “You have very clear distinctions about where we are when it comes to reproductive health, when we talk about things like economic growth, when we talk about how to support education.
“But I do think one of the things on the ballot in this election is this idea of patriotism, where we have not just very different views, but very different histories when it comes to what it means to defend the values of your country and fight for a better future.
“I have an opponent who talks about backing the blue, but was supportive of a group of people who stormed the Capitol and were risking the lives of police officers. Someone who says they believe in freedom, yet at the same time would criminalise abortions, for both patients and providers, even in cases of incest and rape.
“You have someone who’s talking about patriotism but their definition of patriotism is putting on a baseball cap and calling the vice-president a traitor, while a mob asks for him to be hung.
“I think this bastardisation of the idea of patriotism will not be tolerated … I am running against someone who is an insurrectionist. I won’t be lectured by him, nor anyone else in this wing of the Republican party who wants to define patriotism as people who are willing to fight for the overturning of the government.
“That’s not patriotism. My definition of patriotism was serving as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan and leading paratroopers in combat.”
Moore is “confident” he will get Republican votes, in part because “we’re campaigning all over the state, in Democratic areas, independent areas, Republican areas … I’m going to the areas where there’s not a lot of Democrats but I tell people, ‘Listen, there’s a lot of Marylanders. And I plan on being their governor too.’
“In the military, we learned a basic mantra: leave no one behind. And I live by it. I never once asked my soldiers ‘What’s your political party?’ Because it didn’t matter. My goal was to unify everyone around a single mission. And that’s exactly what I plan on doing as governor.”
Maryland is currently governed by a Republican, Larry Hogan, a lonely moderate in a party in Trump’s grip. In 2020, rather than vote for Trump or Biden, Hogan wrote in Ronald Reagan. In 2022, he has spoken forcefully against Cox but has not said he will vote for Moore or endorse him.
Given Moore’s focus on patriotism, a concept generally easier for Republicans to wield in elections, is he disappointed Hogan has not told Republicans to cross the divide?
“Well, I think Governor Hogan has been very clear on the fact that he’s not going to support his party’s nominee. Governor Hogan has said that not only does he think that my opponent is mentally unstable – he’s called him a ‘QAnon whack job’ – he has said, ‘I wouldn’t even give him a tour of the governor’s office.’
“So the governor has been full-throated in his displeasure with where the party went. I’d love the governor’s vote, I hope that he would vote for me in the general election. But I also know that there’s been no nuance in the governor’s displeasure on who the Republican nominee is.”
A spokesman for Hogan did not respond to a query about any endorsement of Moore.
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Moore hopes to work to instill “progressive patriotism” via a programme to encourage voluntary service after high school, “essentially democratising the gap-year process that only certain students can take advantage of” without government support.
Such a programme, he says, is “absolutely achievable and absolutely fundable because we’re going to use … state and federal resources in addition to public-private partnerships”.
The need for partnerships extends to Moore’s own party, where at least for now he is holding progressives and moderates together.
“I haven’t been a politician,” he says. “I didn’t come up in this political world where people are placed in boxes and get their talking points from the box that they live in. I came up from a perspective where I built alliances and allegiances across the board and across sectors, and across political parties, because my whole focus throughout my entire career has been get big things done.
“We’ve been able to build a very interesting coalition of people, from leaders in the business community to labor leaders, from Progressive Maryland to the Fraternal Order of Police. I’m offering them all the same thing: a chance to be involved in the policymaking conversation.”
The last Democratic governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, agrees. In an email, he said Moore “has the ability, because of his victory, his candidacy, and his message, to unite all the various factions of the Democratic party”.
After two terms in Annapolis, O’Malley ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. Some expect Moore to take a similar path. He is focused on the task at hand.
He says: “I understand, as chief executive, I’ve got to make decisions. And I will make decisions every single day and wake up the next morning and make some more. But the thing I am offering everybody as part of our coalition is that you are going to have a seat at the table as we push forward for the same collective goal.”
