Maryland’s First Black Governor Gives Democrats Hope After a Biden White House

Christian Hall and Mario Parker
·6 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- As Democrats wring their hands about who might run — and win — once Joe Biden leaves office, Maryland Governor-elect Wes Moore emerges as if he were created in a political lab: a person of color who rose from poverty and served in combat. A Rhodes scholar and best-selling author on Oprah Winfrey’s radar. And through his work on Wall Street and the Robin Hood Foundation, he boasts a network of celebrity and hedge fund contacts.Moore has another trick up his sleeve. He embraces traditional Republican issues such as crime and the economy, a tactic that led him to the statehouse and offers his party a national blueprint for success. Moore scored a blowout November victory over Donald Trump-backed Republican Dan Cox to become the state’s first Black chief executive and just the third African-American ever elected governor.

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“We went all around the state, even in places that weren't Democratic areas. We went out and we talked about the importance of patriotism, not because it was the thing to talk about, because most people were not,” Moore said in an interview. “I talked about it because it was personal and added a measure of an element of urgency to why we needed people to take this moment very seriously,” he noted in a nod to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.“And people responded,” he added.

He also amassed a $14 million war chest sprinkled with the kind of names that boosts political careers. Winfrey cut an ad for him. His donor list includes hedge fund billionaires Paul Tudor Jones and Steven Cohen; Netflix Inc. co-founder Reed Hastings, Miguel and Jacklyn Bezos, the parents of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, as well as entertainers Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow. Moore is reminiscent of another governor of a small Southern state — Bill Clinton, like Moore a Rhodes scholar who rose to the presidency with a similar strategy of turning Republican-favored ideas into Democratic-sounding themes. And the comparisons to the first Black US president, Barack Obama, are unavoidable.”I think it's important for all of us to be unapologetic. I think it's important for all of us to be ourselves,” Moore said about discussing largely conservative themes like patriotism.

The 44-year-old married father of two is scheduled to be inaugurated Wednesday in Annapolis. His resounding victory, sprawling network and background have placed him on the relatively short Democratic list of possible presidential candidates that includes Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.Republicans are also looking to a younger generation of governors to fill their bench, including Florida’s Ron DeSantis, 44; South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, 51; Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin, 56 and Georgia’s Brian Kemp, 59.

In an especially divisive political time, Moore benefits by having a smooth transition from outgoing Republican Larry Hogan, who cast himself as a conservative alternative to the populist politics of Trump. He said he will present his budget two days after inauguration and unveil a legislative package the following day that will address education, transportation investments and filling a large number of state government vacancies.

But Moore also will be judged on how quickly he can jumpstart a Maryland economy that’s had a sluggish post-pandemic recovery. And he will have to navigate thorny issues like the state’s economic competitiveness, education and crime, bringing together progressives and law enforcement. That will determine whether he remains in the White House conversation.

Chryl Laird, a University of Maryland political scientist, said she felt Obama vibes immediately when she heard Moore’s victory called.

“I was like, ‘He’s giving Obama,’’’ she said. “He could have a good run at a time when the Democratic party has to be thinking about their young talent.”

In the interview, Moore insisted that he’s focused only on his new job and repeatedly demurred to any White House ambitions. But after prodding, he acknowledged that he’s heard the chatter.

“I'm humbled by the fact that people are paying attention to what took place in this race. I mean, we won Democrats, we won independents, we won a big chunk of Republicans. So it's humbling that people are paying attention to what we just pulled off,” he said. Maryland is a traditionally Democratic state that Biden won by a 2-to-1 margin.

It’s his cross-party appeal that gives national Democrats hope. During his campaign, Moore secured an endorsement from the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, a group that traditionally favors Republicans. Laird said Moore also brings to mind the late former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican.

Laird said that Moore takes the reins of a state in relatively solid shape, so he’ll be evaluated on his stewardship of it and needs to serve a full term in order to have a track record that he could use as a possible springboard to greater ambitions.

His background underscores his ability to succeed in disparate environments. Moore, of Jamaican ancestry, attended community college and Johns Hopkins University before attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He served as a US Army captain and paratrooper in Afghanistan.

And, as his best-selling memoir recounted, he had a brush with the law at age 11. Moore and a friend were spray painting around their neighborhood when a police officer pulled up and put them in handcuffs. The officer gave the “terrified” Moore a stern lecture, urging him to choose a different life. Moore’s mother convinced her parents to borrow money so she could send him to a military boarding school.

His book also outlined the divergent path of a Black man also named Wes Moore in Baltimore who didn’t have the same opportunities and was sent to prison with a life sentence.

Moore ended up working in finance for about six years before succeeding David Saltzman as chief executive officer of Robin Hood. Ray McGuire, one of Wall Street’s most senior Black executives and a mentor of Moore, said he can envision Maryland’s governor-elect as a White House aspirant.

“There is no ceiling for Wes Moore,” McGuire said. “Wes Moore has demonstrated the rare and unique ability to exist where the air is thin and the oxygen is limited.”

--With assistance from Bill Allison, Cecile Daurat and Alexandre Tanzi.

(Updates with additional color from memoir in third to last paragraph.)

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