Gov. Wes Moore was set to formally begin his reelection campaign on Tuesday, asking Marylanders to send him back to Annapolis as his rising national profile fuels speculation that he could launch a bid for the White House halfway through his next term.
The Democrat’s pitch — in a video that his campaign prepared to share publicly on Tuesday morning — leaned into both his record in Maryland and his contrast with President Donald Trump.
“The games of Washington are exhausting. And worse, they’re hurting people,” Moore said in the video. “I’m not from that world.”
Moore entered office in 2023 after a campaign that featured a long list of ambitious promises, from starting a statewide public service program for young people to ending child poverty and eliminating the racial wealth gap. He’s made progress on many of his goals while coming up short on the full scope of the ideas he outlined during that campaign.
The reelection kickoff marks the first real test of how voters view that progress.
It comes not only as some Democrats look at Moore as a potential new national leader for their party, but also as Moore has faced his thorniest political challenges so far — such as raising taxes to help fill a $3.3 billion budget deficit and combating Trump’s impacts in a state closely tied to federal support.
In his announcement video, Moore referred to Trump’s firing of federal workers and targeting of Medicaid for budget cuts in addition to his own accomplishments at the state level.
“While we stand up for middle-class Marylanders, the president of the United States is bending over backwards for billionaires and big corporations, firing federal workers, gutting Medicaid, raising prices on everything from electricity to groceries,” Moore said.
His list of successes in Maryland includes responding to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, lowering the unemployment rate and lowering violent crime, he said. He also noted his push to “cut taxes for veterans and the middle class” — which came in the form of modest benefits during his first legislative session and this year — and turning a structural budget deficit into a surplus, which is true for the current fiscal year but not for projections afterward, according to independent state analysts.
“Y’all know I’m a person of action and I’m moving forward fast,” Moore said before asking for voters’ support.
Moore has maintained positive approval ratings, though his numbers have dipped slightly this year during the budget challenges. Political analysts have said any challenger will face an uphill battle against him, including the likely most formidable potential candidate — Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan.
Moore’s predecessor left office with high approval ratings and would be permitted to run again for a third non-consecutive term. Hogan has teased that he is considering another campaign but has not taken any formal steps to do so.
The list of Republicans currently in the race includes Baltimore businessman Ed Hale, who originally said he would challenge Moore in the Democratic primary but then switched parties after saying he believed Moore had locked up the primary election, which is set for next June. Del. Christopher Bouchat, farmer Kurt Wedekind and law enforcement veteran John Myrick are also in the Republican field.
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, a Queen Anne’s County Republican, said he was also launching an exploratory committee.
“At the end of the day, I think Marylanders deserve a real choice because we need to see balance in the form of government in Maryland,” Hershey told Fox45 News.
Hershey and others have focused their critiques on Moore’s handling of the state budget and his attention to national issues. Moore has said he is focused on Maryland and that he righted the state’s financial status after underlying financial conditions made a previous budget surplus — which was built on federal pandemic assistance — appear more rosy than it was in reality.
The Democrat has said repeatedly that he is “not running for president,” though he has taken some steps that other potential presidential hopefuls would take. In South Carolina in May, he spoke to local Democrats in one of the party’s most important primary states and connected with former aides to presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
Trump has even commented on Moore’s future prospects in recent weeks as the two engaged in a back-and-forth war of words that have included personal slights and threats to federal funding for the Key Bridge.
Moore, in perhaps a nod to voters’ discomfort with the chaotic political moment, repeatedly referred to his non-political background in his video announcement Tuesday. He pointed to his status as an Army veteran and former nonprofit leader, saying “career politicians had been telling us everything was great” when he entered office, and “we knew it wasn’t.”
Now three years into his time as a politician, Moore is listing off his own reasons to view his time at the helm positively.
“That’s why I’m asking you to reelect me governor,” Moore said.
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