Talk to most top Democratic officials in Maryland about Wes Moore<\/a> and many are almost giddy about what the future could hold if the state elects a Democratic governor for the first time in eight years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Big investments in transit and clean energy. Fully funding and implementing a multibillion-dollar plan to reform public education<\/a>. Ensuring residents have health care, housing and good-paying jobs, women have access to abortions<\/a>, and communities are cleansed of violent crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Moore, 43, is heavily favored to win in the deeply blue state, which would return Annapolis to the one-party dominance Democrats enjoyed for most of the past 50 years. He\u2019s a best-selling author and former nonprofit chief who lacks a record in public office, a political newcomer who bested nine candidates in the July primary on the strength of his charisma and personal story.<\/a> On the campaign trail and in debates, he was never forced to lay out plans in detail because there were few policy differences between them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the ramp-up to Election Day, he\u2019s sharpening policy pitches to voters and targeting <\/b>lofty goals, including ending child poverty and closing the racial wealth gap, systemic problems that have long been intractable not only in Maryland, but across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His proposals span the political spectrum, weighing tax cuts alongside big initiatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He spells out particular <\/a>\u2014 and potentially costly \u2014 ways to meet his goals: implementing Maryland\u2019s $15 minimum wage two years earlier than scheduled; creating a \u201cbaby bonds\u201d program that deposits an amount, based on family income, into an account for each baby born; turning Morgan State University into a top-flight doctoral research institute; routing more state contracts to minority and women-owned businesses; aggressively ending discriminatory housing appraisals that undervalue Black-owned homes; and pouring cash into a long-underfunded affordable housing program, among many other particulars in 15 annotated policy documents on his website.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maryland voters, tell us what you want to hear from candidates for governor.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n He\u2019s outlined, in similar detail, ideas for climate change, transit, education, LGBTQ+ issues, the economy, public safety and civil rights, saying in a recent interview: \u201cThere\u2019s a cost to not doing these things.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Decisions will be made to \u201cprioritize certain investments,” he said, noting some elements of his platform already have money earmarked to pay for them. For others, he plans to work with lawmakers and local leaders to \u201cinvest\u201d (he doesn\u2019t use the word spend) in the programs and would likely use some of the state\u2019s surplus, federal funds and discretionary state funds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He said he does not anticipate raising taxes. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFor our state to be able to win we have to be more competitive and also make it more equitable,\u201d Moore said. \u201cGone should be the days of people who are working, and in some cases working multiple jobs, and still living below the poverty line. That\u2019s a leave no one [behind] agenda,\u201d referring to his political slogan and an idea he said is rooted in his military service in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His political philosophy, however, is more of a convener than a progressive ideologue. In the interview, he said he wants to examine eliminating either the estate or inheritance tax, since perhaps the state doesn\u2019t need both and <\/b>he wants Maryland to become more attractive to retirees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His Trump-endorsed Republican opponent, Del. Dan Cox<\/a>, casts him as a \u201csocialist,\u201d a label Moore rejects, noting his military service and his stint as an investment banker working on Wall Street.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At age 28, Moore described himself in an interview as \u201cprobably one of the more independent people that you\u2019ll ever find. \u2026 I\u2019m a social moderate, a strong fiscal conservative. \u2026 I have a little bit of Democrat in me and a little bit of Republican in me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sixteen years later, the former Rhodes Scholar and White House fellow under George W. Bush said he would have phrased his position on fiscal issues differently. \u201cI\u2019m fiscally responsible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Liberal and moderate Democrats nonetheless say they are eager to have Moore. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said the caucus doesn\u2019t have specific policies waiting in the wings they need a Democratic governor to pass. But with Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in office for the past eight years, Ferguson said, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly has been able to attack few complex, systemic problems. With Moore, Ferguson said, that changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019re able to tackle big questions that we <\/b>don\u2019t have answers to right now,\u201d Ferguson said of the prospect of a Moore administration working with a Democratic legislature. ” \u2026 We can start putting together bigger plans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moore said his agenda and approach as convener means \u201ceveryone\u2019s voice should be heard. I don\u2019t believe in the idea that when I walk into a room, I should ask people to separate themselves by their political party.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dan Cox was a backbench Md. lawmaker. Then the pandemic hit.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Moore gained the endorsement of the teachers union and many members of the establishment during the primary, he was not the choice of most unions or other progressive groups. (He has since gained their backing.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He\u2019s promised to glean data and ideas from lawmakers, members of the public, private and nonprofit sectors and that includes, he said, people he may not necessarily agree with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To the chagrin of some of the liberal members of the Democratic Party, Moore said that also includes giving the state Fraternal Order of Police, whose endorsement he received after his primary win, a seat at the table.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that you can be serious about actually implementing reforms if the agencies that have to be reformed are not part of process,\u201d said Moore, adding that he told the organization the same thing he has previously said about policing: \u201cWe need to have a police force that moves with appropriate intensity and absolute integrity and full accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Zakiya Sankara Jabar, co-founder of Racial Justice Now, a grass-roots, parent-led organization in Montgomery County, said she knew Moore was not promoting a progressive agenda, in her view, after learning early in the primary that he was not firmly opposed to police officers in schools.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe sounds a lot like President Biden did during his State of the Union\u201d when he talks about policing, Sankara Jabar said. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing. \u2026 The problem is the other side is worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sankara Jabar said she doesn\u2019t see people in her organization overly excited about Moore. Members of other progressive groups, who are more reliant on the establishment, are quietly grumbling, she said. \u201cI think the motivation is more so we can\u2019t let this other guy in, who Trump endorsed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Jared Schablein, an ardent Sen. Bernie Sanders supporter in his 2016 presidential bid and one of the founders of the Lower Shore Progressive Caucus, said he trusts Moore on issues important to the progressive movement \u2014 jobs that provide a livable wage, accessible health care and schools where teachers are highly paid and students learn skills that prepare them for college or careers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moore\u2019s poverty-fighting plan includes free pre-K for every child in need, larger investments in apprenticeship and trade programs, having a more diverse teaching pool and closing the racial wealth gap by, among other things, addressing the \u201cunfair appraisal values in historically redlined neighborhoods\u201d and \u201cfixing the broken procurement policies\u201d affecting minority businesses trying to obtain state contracts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moore has said his tenure at the nonprofit Robin Hood Foundation, where he was chief executive, informed his commitment to targeting child poverty. The rate of children living in poverty varies widely across Maryland, from more than 1 in 4 children in Baltimore City and Eastern Shore\u2019s Somerset County to just over 1 in 20 children in Howard and Calvert counties, according to 2020 data<\/a> from the <\/b>Annie B. Casey Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n