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Editorâs note: Maryland Matters reporters sat down with some of the candidates for governor at the recent Maryland Association of Counties conference. Interviews with these candidates have appeared over the past few days. And we will bring you interviews with other gubernatorial contenders as the campaign unfolds.Â
- One-on-one with Kelly Schulz: Commerce secretary brings business focus to gubernatorial bid
- John King: Government should be a âforce for good in peopleâs livesâ
Wes Moore likes to say he comes âfrom a long line of preachers and teachers.â
But over a coffee recently in Ocean City, one particular preacher in his lineage came to mind: his grandfather.
His grandfather was the first on his motherâs side to be born in the U.S.
But his great-grandfather, a vocal minister, was run out of the country by threats from the Ku Klux Klan, resettling his family in Jamaica.
Years later, Mooreâs grandfather would return â âHe always said I was born here and no one has the right to take away my American-nessâ â and become the first Black minister in the Dutch Reformed Church.
But despite a righteous life that revolved around giving back to others, his grandfather was unable to accumulate wealth, something thatâs held in common by too many generations of Black Americans, Moore says.
âThis is a person who devoted his entire life to his family, his entire life to his country, who was maybe the most patriotic man Iâve ever met in my life â and he wasnât able to hand over anything to his children and grandchildren,â Moore said.
Moore sums up his focus in seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022 alliteratively: âWork, wages and wealth will really be the north stars.â
What does that mean? Those concepts touch on everything a state administration should be focused on, from the training that students will receive in schools to getting rid of transportation deserts, to thinking of housing in new ways, and eradicating health care bills as the leading cause of bankruptcy in the state.
âWe can be so much better when you think about the assets that this state has,â Moore said.
He notes that Prince Georgeâs County âhas a real stake to claimâ for being the nationâs highest-income African American jurisdiction, but still struggles with issues like high foreclosure rates and low wealth.
âAnd itâs a core distinction between saying we have high income and saying we have high wealth. Those are two different things,â Moore said.
The pandemic has brought issues of inequity into stark relief. In the coming weeks, Moore plans to release a set of equity-focused policy proposals on the campaignâs core topics of work, wages and wealth.
âFor some people this past year was an inconvenience. And for some people this past year was catastrophic.â
One policy Moore wants to enact quickly is an acceleration of the stateâs move to a $15 minimum wage.
âThe fact that we are talking about putting together a $15 minimum wage by 2025 is absurd,â Moore said of the stateâs current policy. âIt will not [take] until 2025 in my administration. Itâs something that Maryland should have already had done.â
Moore said the state also needs more direction when it comes to universal plans for improving peoplesâ lives.
âWe have a state that is asset rich, and strategy poor,â Moore says, listing some of the things that make Maryland great: the Chesapeake Bay, Johns Hopkins, NASA, and more. âWe have all these assets that are sitting there and no strategy about how theyâre interacting, how theyâre coordinating, how we have a school system thatâs actually preparing our students to take advantage of those assets.â
While recognizing the governorâs limited ability to drive education policy in Maryland â with a state school board and superintendent, as well as elected local school boards â Moore said he would drive support for education reform as governor.
âConstitutional indirect responsibility does not mean abdication of responsibility,â he said, alluding to Republican Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.âs veto of the multi-billion-dollar Blueprint education reforms. ââŚThe constitutional responsibility of the governor to be able to think about our educational system has never been more pronounced.â
There are some issues with the implementation of the Blueprint â particularly the large local contributions required of Prince Georgeâs County and the city of Baltimore, he said. But âaddressing those things in the operationalization and implementation should not come to the detriment of actually getting stuff done.â
The plan includes universal best practices that all Maryland children deserve, Moore said, not just the wealthiest ones.
âWe should be implementing a universal pre-K system in the state. All the data continues to reinforce that the earlier we can get kids inside of classrooms, in a structured educational environment, it is the best thing not only for the child, but it is the best thing for the family.â
The Blueprint will be the âcore driver of ⌠the future of the stateâs economy, the future of the stateâs workforce, and whatâs the future of the stateâs prospects,â he said.
Moore has never held elected office, but âmy entire professional career I have been involved in government: state government, local government, federal government,â he said, noting his careers as an Army paratrooper and officer, head of an organization that guided first-generation and disadvantaged college students, and running one of the largest nonprofits in the country, Robin Hood, which he left earlier this year to run for governor.
Some of the things heâs most proud of during his four years at Robin Hood âwerenât just the allocations of cashâ but changes in public policy, including an adjustment to make the child tax credit fully refundable.
âLiterally we cut the child poverty rate in almost half in the stroke of a pen,â Moore said.
Earlier this year, he advocated for a bill to provide state financial assistance to close the âappraisal gapâ in some neighborhoods, or the gap between the cost of construction or renovation of a home versus the potential sale price, a dynamic exacerbated by historic red-lining practices.
âIâve worked with state government, for my entire professional career, and Iâve been public service, my entire professional career,â Moore said. âI just havenât been a politician.â
dgaines@marylandmatters.org
 our interview this week with Republican Kelly Schulz.  our interview this week with Democrat John King.
