Governor Wes Moore

I'm in the State House of Maryland, where I just had a conversation with Wesmore, the charismatic governor of Maryland. He said he was definitely going to run for reelection two years. He also said he hasn't decided whether he's going to run for president of the United States, but there are many people who think he'd be an excellent candidate in four years. My conversation with him was one of the most interesting ones I've had with any.

Governor in recent years.

You were asleep one night and somebody, I think woke you up and said that the key Bridge was collapsing.

Who woke you up? And what did you say?

It was our fantastic chief of Staff, Fagan Harris, at two o two in the morning called and he said, the key Bridge is gone. And that key Bridge is you know, it's over two miles long. It is literally it's in the skyline of every picture of Baltimore and it's been there since I've been born. And when I said to him, I said, what do you mean gone? And he said it collapsed. And immediately we began mobilizing. We were on the phone with the FBI trying to

So, as it turned out, a number of people were working in the middle of the night on the bridge, and I guess most of them, if not all of them, lost their lives. And now the bridge is now going to be repaired. Somehow you managed to get the federal government to pay.

For all of it by partisan support.

So when will the bridge reopen?

It will reopen in twenty twenty eight. We will have that bridge done.

And why is it important to Maryland and Baltimore to have the Key bridge anyway?

Well, you know the Port of Baltimore. It really is America's gateway. It's one of the most important, not just maritime facilities, but just port entries that we have in the country. Two thirds of the country get its goods from the Port of Baltimore as its main entry point. But there's only really three main arteries to the Port of Baltimore. You have the Harbor Tunnel, you have you have the Baltimore Tunnel, and then you have the Key Bridge. The problem is that all has matt materials, oil, oil,

So right now as we talk, there have been fires in California. Do you have any advice for your fellow Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom about how to handle crises like these?

Yeah, I mean it's heartbreaking what's going on in southern California. And I know, you know, I reached out to Gavin as soon as I heard about happened and offered our support and offered our resources as well, because I was really humbled how many governors reached out to me right after the Key Bridge and did the same. And so

What caused the ship to collapse or crash into the bridge?

What was the cause?

Well, they're still going through that now. In fact, there's litigation that our Attorney General has filed, and so we're going through the process of identification. The thing that we know is that bridges don't just collapse. There's negligence that caused that bridge to collapse on March twenty six.

Maryland has had a reputation in this metropolitan area of being a higher tax state than Virginia. Recently, you have announced a three billion dollar budget gap that you're trying to deal with, and part of it is you're increasing taxes on wealthier people.

Yeah, but what we're doing is this, no one agrees that the tax code makes sense in the state of Maryland, and so I said, we've got to be able to reform the tax code to make us more competitive and to make taxes simpler, fare and pro growth. And so I just announced a budget plan. And it is kind of intuitive, but I explain to people to deal with the budget deficit, the structural deficit that we inherited, we're actually going to give two thursd of Marylanders a tax cut.

So, as we talk, Donald Trump is about to be inaugurated again as President of the United States. So, as a democratic leader and a democratic governor of Maryland, a very democratic state, do you feel like you're a leader of the opposition or do you feel like your job is to cooperate with him? Or how do you view Donald Trump as somebody that you work with or oppose.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not the leader of the resistance. I'm the governor of Maryland. I've got six and a half million people who I answer to, and some of whom voted for Donald Trump, some of whom did not vote for Donald Trump. But the thing that I know is that the thing they all have in common is they're Marylanders. And so the way I'm going to approach this working with the new administration is the way that

Why do you think Maryland has now become such a liberal state, such a democratic state?

We tell people that we are. This is the northernmost southern state. I'm one of the only democratic southern governors inside of the country. That the bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place in the state of Maryland. I'm the first black governor in the history of the state of Maryland. That literally down the street is the docks of the Annapolis Docks, which was one of the country's

Now, you ran for governor initially in twenty twenty two, and we're elected overwhelmingly. You're up for reelection in twenty two twenty six. Yes, you haven't announced yet. I don't think that you're running.

I can announce now I'm running for re elections.

Okay, so you're running for reelection as governor. I think you're likely to win based on everything I known about Maryland politics. But the question you'll be asked is are you thinking of running as well for President of the United States?

And the answer to that question is no.

I've got the best job around and I love the momentum we're actually seeing in the state of Maryland. You know, I think about when I was first elected, Maryland was ranked forty third in the country in unemployment. Now Maryland's going on fifteen straight months of amongst the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country. When I was elected governor, Maryland was in the middle of a scourge of violent crime. Over an eight year period, Maryland saw our homicide rate

Suppose people come to you and say, you did a great job as Maryland governor. You just talked about some of the things you've done. You've been reelected overwhelmingly. The party really needs a charismatic figure to be the leader in the post Donald Trump era.

You would say, I would say people should pay attention to what we're doing here in Maryland, Okay, because I think the momentum we're seeing here in Maryland, and I know, you know, Maryland are seemed very happy. Our numbers are very strong here. But people seem to people understand that the momentum we're we're having here is really big and important.

To me.

The biggest city in the state is Baltimore. Why is Baltimore so important to you.

It's our state's largest city, and if your state's largest city is not thriving, your state can't thrive. And that is just a mathematical equation because the only way this is going to be Maryland's decade is if it's Baltimore's time. And so that's why we did focus on things like being able to extend the Oriole's lease and make sure the Oreos could be it for thirty years. It's the reason we focus on things like the Preakness and keeping

Okay, let's talk about your background, which is quite unusual.

Where were you born.

I was born in Maryland in Tacoma Park, Maryland.

Okay, And your parents did what.

My father was a radio journalist and my mother actually was his assistant.

So your father died when you were only three years old.

Yeah, he died from something called acute epicatitis, which is basically, you know the epiglottis that all of us have. It's a flat that sits over your wind pipe and every time you breathe and talk, and his became so swollen that it just sat on top of his windpipe. So basically, his body suffocated itself and he actually died in front of me.

And did you realize what was happening when it was going on you're only three years old.

I did, And in fact, my mother tells a story about how at his funeral, my uncle Vin took me up to go see his body for the final time in the casket, and I actually touched him and I asked him if he was going to come with us. So even at that time, I still had no idea what had fully happened, and didn't really process until I got older.

So you have siblings, I do.

I have an older sister and a younger sister, and my mother had a really tough time with the transition, and she didn't feel safe in the neighborhood she didn't feel safe in the house, and so she called up her parents, my grandparents.

And then you grew up there and were you a great student? Were you're a great athlete?

I was not a great student. But what was really interesting was that the work actually came easy to me. The attention into detail and the interest in doing it did not. And so by the time I was eleven years old, I had handcuffoer risks. By the time I was thirteen, I was kicked out of my school and I was sent to a military school in Pennsylvania. So I had a really difficult time transitioning when I was younger.

So you went to the military school and it was sort of a college and a high school combined.

It was it was it was a junior college, so it was a two year college and also a middle school in a high school. That's the thing that changed everything for me at the military school was they put me in charge of something and I was actually accountable to other people from my actions. And that's why I just believed deeply in accountability because I think that's actually it's one of the things I helped to save my life.

So you went into the military, the Army, and you were there for a year or so before you went to Hopkins.

So I went to I was there for two I was in two years, so I finished up. I got my associates degree. So in fact, I want the only governors in the country actually with a two year college degree. That's actually this ring right here. And then I transferred after finishing my associate's degree, and then I went to Johns Hopkins to finish my mindorgrad.

So who told you you should apply for a Rhodes scholarship.

It was actually actually a mutual friend of ours, Kirchmoke. I interned with Kirchmok who at that time was the mayor of Baltimore. And in fact, I have a picture in my office of him pointing to a picture in his office back when I was a young intern and i'd hair and he was a young mayor he had hair, and the picture he's pointing to is actually his Rhodes Scholarship class. And it was in that moment that he was telling me, I want you to apply for the Rhodes Scholarship.

So you got a Rhodes scholarship, which is only thirty two Americans every year get them you went to Oxford. When you got there, did you study anything?

I actually studied. I got my amlet or master's in international relations, and I actually started the DFIL. So right now I'm all by dissertation for my doctorate in international relations.

Okay.

So, usually when people finish their Rhodes scholarships and they get degrees, or they don't get degrees, they come back and they run for office, They go to a private equity firm, they go to an investment banking firm, they teach at someplace. You did something different. What did you do after your Rhodes scholarship?

So what was interesting? Initially? I actually went into the world of finance. And I remember getting a phone call from a friend of mine who was at that time a major, and he called me, and a major in the army, he just finished twenty Rock. He was getting ready to deployed to Afghanistan. And he called me and he said, when are you going to get in the fight? And that was such an indicting question because he was

How many years were you in Afghanistan?

I was there for almost a full year. I was thankful for the people I was serving with. The eighty second is some of the best, some of the best and most hard charging soldiers that the Army's ever created. And there were really hard days.

So you came back and then what did you do when you came back?

I actually did a White House Fellowship and part of it was was my deputy brigade commander was also a former White House Fellow.

After you finished your White House Fellowship, then what did you do?

Went to City City Bank at that point, and so then I spent about I spent closet to five years working for City doing investment banking, doing M and A, and also doing technology.

Okay, she did that for a number of years and then an organization came along called robin Hood and they said we want you to head it up. What is Robinhood and why did you take that job?

It's one of the nation's largest poverty fighting organizations. It started really over thirty years ago, and it started with an initial idea of saying, what if you could take analytics and data the same way we take analytics and data when we're making trading decisions when we're buying companies, and put that towards the poverty fight.

So, after four years at Robinhood, you decide to run for governor of Maryland, never having run for anything else before, Never did you think you had a chance.

The data didn't seem to show I had a chance. I mean I was pulling at one percent in our first poll. I mean, I say it is true, literally, I'm not voting, was polling higher than Wesmore. And so the data showed I was running against statewide elected officials. I was running against the former head of the DNC. I was running against two cabinet secretaries. One of the people I was running against was actually on my board

So when you get elected governor, do you actually say, I'm really happy now I'm governor.

You took the job.

In the first day you're sworn in, did you realize that the responsibilities are much greater than you thought or you actually thought. Wasn't that difficult a job?

No? I mean it's a hard job because also I think there were things that we inherited that we did not that we didn't anticipate. You I remember coming in and being able to re reports that you realize after you came on board about the fiscal crisis that we are getting ready to inherit that you know, we're currently navigating the worst fiscal crisis that Maryland has seen in twenty years. And it's something that has been predicted since

So what is your typical day as a governor? You do some interviews, maybe on an interview like this, but you are, let's say, at the beginning, every morning, is I understand it, you go over to the Naval Academy and you work out with the Navy midshipment, and I mean you're a little bit older than them.

Is that a little day wouldn't know it?

I do, And honestly I love the fact that the Naval Academy is down the street from here. And as an army guy, I always say, I just need to figure out who to talk to. They have that beat army stuff all over the place.

So you can keep up with them.

Oh yes, oh, there is no way as an army guy there's no way I'm letting maybe smoke me.

No way.

So I'm not going to get you to say you're going to run for president.

I can know that.

But you are going to play a role I assume in the Democratic Party over the next couple of years beyond just Maryland.

I assume right, absolutely absolutely.

And do you think people who are governors are more qualified to be presidents than people who are senators?

I think. I think if people want to find inspiration, look at the states, because we just get stuff done. You know, we don't. We don't we don't play the partisan game. I don't do the you know I think about I've introduced twenty six pieces of legislation since I've been the governor. Not only have we gone twenty six for twenty six, We've gone twenty six for twenty six by partisan, with both Democrat and Republican support on every

So if somebody is watching this and they're not from Maryland, but they want to know a little bit about Maryland, what would you encapsulate in a paragraph or two about what people should know about the state of Maryland.

I would say Maryland really is American miniature. You tell me what you want to do, and no matter where you're standing in the state of Maryland, I can tell you where to have a world class experience within two hours. If you want to go to the beaches, if you want to go skiing, if you want to visit Farmland, if you want to go see r O's win, tell me what you want to do, and I can tell you how to get there within two hours. And I think about you know we are. We're the home of innovation.

So final question, how can you bottle the happiness you have? How do you get to be so happy all the time and smiling all the time?

Is that?

Does anybody ever can make you feel bad about something?

You know? One of the things I lean on a lot is history, And even in really dark times or really challenging moments, I'm a history buff and I think about having a chance to read about one of our most famous Marylanders, Harriet Tubman, And on my toughest days, I will go back to my office in my house and I'll read on Harriet Tubman, and then I think

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