When Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) took the stage at the annual Gridiron Club dinner on Saturday night, he mockingly made mention of the thing Democrats have been buzzing about for months: his presidential ambitions.
“If I actually wanted to be president, I wouldn’t do any of this,” Moore said. “Instead I would take my case directly to the people who are in charge of our democracy. The Kremlin.”
The comment, made at a dinner where the motto is “singe not burn” and journalists mingle with lawmakers from both parties, got a rousing reaction from Democrats.
Moore’s political prospects have only gained steam in the party in recent months, as Democrats desperately try to find someone to lead them out of the wilderness, to save them.
Lately, the 46-year-old’s name is among the first to come up in conversation.
“Wes Moore is the Captain America of Democratic politics,” said Jamal Simmons, a prominent party strategist who worked for former Vice President Kamala Harris. “He’s a veteran, an athlete and a Rhodes Scholar who still connects with everyday people.
“He’s the best of us but doesn’t act like he’s better than any of us,” Simmons said.
As they seek to rebuild — and in some ways, reinvent — their party, Democrats have been testing the waters on a number of potential candidates for 2028.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, now a mayoral candidate for New York City, are admired for their bullishness.
Democrats find Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro interesting for their appeal in the swingiest of swing states.
Moore, many Democrats think, is worthy of the spotlight because of his authenticity and his appeal to a wide swath of voters.
“Look at his Instagram,” one Democratic strategist said. “He is us.”
There he is throwing his hands in the air, spinning around, and rooting for the Baltimore Ravens.
In another frame he’s wishing his mom a happy birthday.
And then there are the reels of his workouts and the images of Moore — a former wide receiver — playing football with the University of Maryland football team.
John Ronquillo, the director of the Institute for Public Leadership and a professor at the University of Maryland, said Moore has “given us a master class on how to draw attention to oneself.”
“I can’t think of another governor of Maryland who has gotten so much attention,” Ronquillo said. “He’s crafting an image of someone who has an interesting story to tell.”
In some ways, Ronquillo said, Moore is reminiscent of another young upstart who came out of nowhere, quickly rose through the ranks and inevitably ended up in the White House: Barack Obama.
“While I want to be careful with comparisons — Barack Obama is Barack Obama and Wes Moore is Wes Moore — there’s no denying that they’ve both had a meteoric ascent to political prominence,” Ronquillo said.
“They’ve been outside disruptors that have skillfully permeated the Democratic establishment. They’ve both turned heads with a confident demeanor evoking a calm amidst a storm that says, ‘I’ve got this.’”
But that part also gives Democrats some pause.
“We’re always in search of the next Barack Obama, and on the surface I wonder if we’re pinning all our hopes and dreams on this guy because he looks good on paper,” the Democratic strategist said. “I’m a little skeptical.”
Moore has sought to step up in the early weeks of the Trump administration, at a time when Democrats are begging the party’s leadership to take an active role in opposing the president.
After a meeting at the White House last month, Moore quickly landed upon the decision that not only could he not work with President Trump, he said Maryland and other states have to rally to oppose layoffs and other decisions imposed by Trump.
“I come back from Washington with no illusion about what kind of partnership that this administration is trying to forge with our nation’s governors,” Moore told reporters, according to the news site Maryland Matters. “And … with a clear understanding that if this first month is any indication of where things are going, we as lawmakers had better take this moment seriously and make sure that we’re moving forward.”
Maryland was also one of 20 states that decided to legally challenge the Trump administration on the dismissal of 1,300 workers at the Department of Education, and Moore opposed the administration’s implementation of tariffs.
“Tariffs are a tool. They’re not an ideology, but this administration is using it like an ideology,” Moore said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” earlier this week. “The decisions are being made — made not with us, they’re being made to us.”
At the Gridiron dinner, as Democrats continued to whisper about his future prospects, Moore made several attempts to speak about his rising-star status within his party — with good humor.
“In the middle of the chaos, people are asking if I will be the new leader of the resistance,” he began.
“My answer is always the same: That job is filled. And I wanna thank Sen. Mitch McConnell for fighting the good fight.”
