After years as the nation’s only Black governor, Moore tells theGrio why he’s celebrating a new era of Black political leadership and the responsibility that comes with it.
For the past four years, Wes Moore has been America’s lone Black governor.
“It was never a title that I wanted. It was never a title that I liked, and I want to be the last person to ever have to say that I’m the only,” Moore told theGrio during a recent post-midterm election interview.
The 48-year-old Maryland governor, who was resoundingly re-elected for a second term, cheerfully added, “I’m really proud that that’s exactly what we were able to get done.”
In addition to campaigning for re-election and helping Maryland Democrats down the ballot this past election cycle, Moore raised or donated millions of dollars and devoted considerable time traveling across the country to help the campaigns of several Democratic gubernatorial candidates.
Moore tells theGrio he is particularly proud to have supported the campaigns of Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was elected Georgia’s first Black governor and the first Black woman governor in U.S. history; David Crowley, who was elected Wisconsin’s first Black governor; and Aaron Ford, who was elected as the first Black governor of Nevada.
Bottoms, Crowley, and Ford were joined by Stacey Plaskett, who was elected the U.S. Virgin Islands’ first Black female governor, and Byron Donalds, a Republican, who was elected the first Black governor of Florida.
As chair of the National Governors Association, Moore especially “campaigned hard” for Bottoms, Crowley, and Ford.
“I know the type of leaders that they are, I know that they’re very clear that they’re all now going to be history makers, and that’s incredibly powerful, but they also understand that making history is not the assignment,” the Maryland leader and rumored 2028 presidential candidate told theGrio.
Moore said he and his soon-to-be cohort of Black governors share a goal of using their powerful offices to bring real change to their states, especially in Black communities that have historically been underserved.
“These are remarkable public servants and people who I know are going to go in there and just disrupt the status quo to make life better for the people in their states,” said Moore. “Our states really are these laboratories for best practices. They’re the places where we can find the most effective way to address issues of affordability within our state, issues of educational opportunity inside of our states, issues of energy, and how we’re thinking about economic advancement inside of our state.”
Moore said having governors like Bottoms in Georgia, Crowley in Wisconsin, and Ford in Nevada also adds to the slate of governors willing and able to push back against the Trump administration.
“We’ve seen that the president will stop at nothing to be able to try to make this pain that he is causing permanent,” said the Maryland governor, who has repeatedly clashed with President Donald Trump over the past two years.
Moore believes this “new crop” of Black governors understands “what people had to do before us, to fight for us, to have the right to vote and for us to have the right to lead.”
Reflecting on his own history in Maryland, Moore said he’s less concerned about being the first Black governor than being the first governor to solve the state’s most pressing socio-economic problems.
“When my time as governor is over, I want people to talk about what we did to make Maryland the first state in the country that has a service year option for all of our high school graduates,” said the now two-term governor.
He continued, “I want to talk about the person who led Maryland to make child poverty history. I want to talk about the fact that we’re able to make income inequality history, and then at the very end of that, and say, and by the way, he happened to be the first Black governor in the history of the state of Maryland.”
Saluting last week’s historic elections, Gov. Moore added, “That’s how these other leaders are thinking about it, and that’s why I’m so excited about this leadership.”
More About:Politics
Weekly New Episodes
Stream Now
