Maryland’s Wes Moore says he’s not running for president but high-profile stops keep chatter alive

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, often mentioned among Democrats as a potential presidential candidate, has been saying for months that he isn’t running for the White House in 2028.

That hasn’t stopped persistent talk about his future political plans, especially when he continues to make appearances outside Maryland that raise his national profile. On Friday, he’s traveling to speak at the Blue Palmetto Dinner in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina.

When asked about 2028, though, the governor is clear.

“I’m not running,” Moore told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. He also said, when asked, that he isn’t trying to get his name in the conversation for a potential vice presidential candidacy, either.

The trip to South Carolina includes meetings with business prospects, Moore said.

“And people should get very used to me going all over the country bringing business back to Maryland, because that’s exactly what I plan on doing as long as I’m the governor of the state,” Moore said after a dedication in Annapolis for a memorial to former Rep. Parren Mitchell, the state’s first Black congressman.

In the third year of his first term, Moore plans to run for reelection next year in heavily Democratic Maryland. He says being the state’s governor during a challenging time has his full attention.

That includes working to navigate the difficulties of dramatic federal downsizing under the Trump administration, which poses an outsized economic impact on Maryland. The state is home to a large number of federal workers toiling in the shadow of the nation’s capital — about 256,000 Marylanders received a federal W-2 in 2021, representing about 8% of taxpayers, according to an analysis by the state’s comptroller.

Earlier this month, Maryland lost its triple-A bond rating from the Moody’s economic rating agency. State officials had cited the rating for more than 50 years as a sign of strong fiscal stewardship that enabled the state to pay the lowest rates when it sells bonds to pay for infrastructure. Two other rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, have recently affirmed the state’s triple-A bond rating.

Moore and other leading Democrats in the state blamed the Trump administration’s downsizing for the Moody’s downgrade.

The governor just had the most challenging legislative session of his tenure. Facing a $3.3 billion budget deficit, he worked with the legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, to reach a balanced budget that included about $2 billion in spending cuts throughout state government and about $1.6 billion in new revenues through tax and fee increases.

Most of the tax increases were imposed on high-income residents, including two new higher tax brackets for people who make more than $500,000 and a new 2% tax on capital gains for people with income over $350,000. The governor has said most Marylanders won’t see a tax increase, and some will receive a modest tax cut. Still, Maryland Republicans have been pouncing on the tax increases — an issue sure to be raised often by the GOP’s next nominee for governor.

Moore, 46, is the state’s first Black governor, and the only Black governor currently serving. He is the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty nonprofit. He also is a Rhodes scholar and a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan.

The buzz around Moore has persisted since the bestselling author won Maryland’s governorship in his first bid for public office in a landslide in 2022, after prevailing in a crowded Democratic primary that included former national party chairman and former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez.

In a state that is about 30% Black, Moore was recently criticized by the state’s Legislative Black Caucus for vetoing a bill to study potential reparations for slavery. Moore said the idea has been studied enough and now is the time to “focus on the work itself” of building a better economy for all. That includes narrowing the racial wealth gap, expanding homeownership, uplifting entrepreneurs of color and closing the foundational disparities that lead to inequality — from food insecurity to education.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in Maryland, making the state largely safe for Democratic incumbents.

Still, former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan won the first of his two terms by campaigning heavily against tax increases approved during the tenure of his Democratic predecessor, prompting some to wonder if the popular Hogan might run for governor again. Maryland limits a governor to two consecutive terms, but a former two-term governor could seek another term after sitting out one.