Where Wes Moore Comes From
Why Maryland's new governor wants to reclaim patriotism, plus an announcement!
My new piece in TIME is a profile of Wes Moore, the newly elected Democratic governor of Maryland who’s widely seen as the party’s most talented newcomer since Barack Obama.
Headlines already speculate he’ll be the second Black President. The party’s leading figures clamor to associate themselves with him: President Biden held a rally with him right before the November election, and Obama himself cut an ad on Moore’s behalf. Representative Steny Hoyer, the former House majority leader, puts Moore in a category with Obama, Bill Clinton, and John F. Kennedy. “Wes lifts people up from their cynicism into their optimism and gives them a sense of the possible,” says Hoyer, who endorsed Moore and barnstormed his Maryland district for him despite planning to stay out of last year’s crowded gubernatorial primary.
Moore has a fascinating—and somewhat disputed—backstory. He’s taken as his central political theme the idea of patriotism, which he wants to reclaim on behalf of his party:
In the popular imagination, patriot is a right-wing term, redolent of camo, pickup trucks, and guns. To Moore, that’s an outrage. “I’m just truly offended when I hear people call themselves patriots whose definition is trying to destroy democracy,” he tells me. “What’s patriotic about trying to overturn elections? What’s patriotic about saying that your neighbors don’t deserve support? I’m not just confused by it. I’m amazingly bothered and pissed off by it. Because I know what patriotism is. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I saw it with the paratroopers that I led in combat, people who were exemplifying bravery every single day.”
Moore is well acquainted with the case against America. His grandfather, born in South Carolina, fled the country as a child after Moore’s great-grandfather spoke out against racial injustice and was targeted for lynching. Moore’s own father may have been killed by racism—an educated, middle-class Black man whose medical complaint was dismissed by doctors, only for him to die in front of his 3-year-old son the next day. “I can tell you countless instances of this country’s history of brutality, of inequity, of heartlessness,” he says. “But if I do that without also talking about the other elements of its history, that’s a selective memory that I think is dangerous. Because what this country has meant to my family is that I can literally be the grandson of a man that the Ku Klux Klan ran out, and also, in the same breath, be a person who’s about to become the first Black governor in the history of the state. Both of those things are true. And we can’t look at one without understanding the other.”
Read the piece to find out what Oprah was doing on Jan. 6, 2021; hear what Condi Rice thinks of Moore; and learn the story behind some very distinctive socks!
Also: In the near future, I’m going to start writing a regular weekly feature—a reported column based on my eclectic mix of interests. I’d love to hear your ideas, tips and input! Just reply to this email or write to molly.ball@time.com.