On Tuesday morning, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stood as the nation’s only Black governor with two Black county executives in the state. By Wednesday, voters brought forth four new Black governors-elect nationwide who will stand alongside Moore, along with a growing cohort of Black county executives in Maryland.
“Maryland has been leading the way in a number of ways this election cycle,” said Niambi Carter, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.
Whether it’s taken for granted or not by people in Maryland depends more on the perception someone might have, but she says it’s something that hasn’t gone unnoticed outside of the state.
“I hear from you know my friends that live in New York. ‘Oh, I saw your senator. Oh, I saw your governor,’ often, right? We are not unknowns outside of the state of Maryland,” Carter said. “I think there are a lot of people in office, prominently in office — chief executives, members of the Senate, and people don’t know who they are. People know who our senators are. People know who our congressmen are. People know who our governor and our lieutenant governor is.”
It’s something Moore’s campaign boasted proudly about after Tuesday. But the governor said the reason for the success was more substantive than stylish.
“It’s important that we have … diverse leaders who represent every part of our state and every background within our state,” Moore said. “The other big thing I think is important, though, is I think you have leaders who are delivering results and who are moving fast to delivering results.
Moore said that’s one of the reasons he threw his support behind the likes of Will Jawando and Julian Jones, the new county executives in Montgomery and Baltimore counties. Joining them as Black county executives in Maryland who won on Election Day are Vanessa Atterbeary in Howard County and Ernest Davis in Wicomico County.
Moore’s belief is that focusing on the issues that matter is why Black leaders did so well in local elections, and why more Black leaders will fill statehouse seats in Annapolis in 2027, too.
“It’s really focusing on the issues that, in some cases, have been around for a long period of time, but have not been addressed by the people who are sitting in the seats,” Moore said.
He cited the pardons of 175,000 misdemeanor cannabis convictions as one example of that. Carter said other leaders in Maryland also have good stories to tell. She cited the work Angela Alsbrooks did in Prince George’s County before she became the state’s first Black female U.S. Senator, and the declines in violent crime in Baltimore City under Mayor Brandon Scott.
“People outside of here know who we are as a state and who our leadership team is,” she said. “I think there’s a temptation to sort of say, ‘Oh, Maryland’s only important in the sort of mid-Atlantic corridor.’ No, Maryland is important nationally.”
Moore said those people aren’t just paying attention to diverse leaders; they’re paying attention to results too, listing off improvements in violent crime, reading and math scores, teacher vacancy rates and the creation of new businesses in recent years.
“I think they pay attention to all that stuff, and I think that does matter,” Moore said.
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