Will Wes Moore resist the siren’s song of national politics?
Maryland has never had a governor like Wes Moore, the 44-year-old former investment banker, bestselling author, combat veteran and advocate for the poor. He is not only the state’s first Black governor — and only the third African American elected to that post in any U.S. state — but he has a trait uncommon in the Maryland State House: star power.
One could see it on the campaign trail as he and running mate Aruna Miller easily bested their Republican opponents, Del. Dan Cox and Gordana Schifanelli, by a margin not seen in decades. Moore stood out as the energetic, thoughtful, charismatic Rhodes scholar candidate untethered to local political bosses, entrenched lobbyists or special interest groups.
Now, as he takes his oath of office at noon on Wednesday, outside the Maryland State House, a challenge awaits in addition to all that comes with the job: finalizing his cabinet and other senior positions, rewriting his first state budget (it’s due to the legislature on Friday), crafting legislation to fulfill various campaign promises and reacting to the hundreds of bills lawmakers will continue to submit in the days ahead. Maryland’s new governor also is going to be in demand at the national political level because of all that star power. From CNN and the other news networks to Capitol Hill and major public events, one imagines the invitation list, particularly for D.C.-based events, will be long and flattering. Does one say “no” to President Joe Biden? To Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer? To his friend Oprah Winfrey? Not when you harbor national ambitions. Not when you seek to make an impact on your country.
To all this, we would caution to our new governor: Not so fast.
What Marylanders need right now is a little bit of assurance that their new leader, someone who has never previously held elected office, is entirely focused on their well-being and that the governorship is not some steppingstone toward higher office but a position in which Wes Moore intends to make a lasting impact. This may seem unfair. Did we similarly fret about Larry Hogan?
About Parris Glendening? About Martin O’Malley? They were part of the Maryland political establishment. Even now, the buzz among Democratic lawmakers is to speculate: How will he govern? Who will have his ear? What will be his priorities? He is, much more than his predecessors, something of an unknown. Oh, his resume is plenty public. And he knows the way around the place having attended Johns Hopkins University and once interned for Kurt Schmoke.
But he’s also served his time in network television production, at the New Yorkbased Robin Hood Foundation, and, yes, in the federal government (including as a White House Fellow). Where is his heart?
Let’s also be clear about the challenges ahead. Moore may be a Democrat with a supermajority in both the state Senate and House of Delegates, but ask anyone who served in previous Democratic administrations: It’s not always so easy to get everyone singing from the same hymnal page. There are some big lifts on his to-do list, including reviving Baltimore,
reducing gun violence, improving school performance and addressing chronic poverty and long-standing inequities. He is likely to win some of these battles, and he is likely to lose some. But what he can ill afford is to appear all about ambition and not about performance. William Donald Schaefer may have seemed quirky and quick to spend tax dollars, but he was all about Maryland and, at least in his whirlwind first term, he had impact on public policy that is still felt today.
Moore likely knows all this. He didn’t graduate Phi Beta Kappa from Hopkins for nothing. And many of his early appointees really know their stuff. But expectations are high, especially around Baltimore where his election has renewed hope despite crime and mismanagement and continuing despair. “Fighting for your convictions is important” is a useful line from Moore’s bestseller, “The Other Wes Moore,” to which we would add that fighting where you are especially needed right now is pretty important, too.