VIRGINIA BEACH — The congressman introducing Wes Moore in Virginia’s swingiest battleground district barely had said Moore’s name when a man in the crowd yelled: “2028! 2028!”
Moore, the only Black governor of a U.S. state, is up for reelection next month. But his Suburban with Maryland plates recently logged more than 650 miles crisscrossing Virginia, where he rallied Black and veteran voters in the commonwealth’s most competitive House districts instead of campaigning at home.
In the newly minted early presidential primary state, Moore also was fortifying his ties to Virginia’s Black political power structure ahead of a widely presumed 2028 presidential bid.
“He needs to run for president, that’s what he needs to do,” William Moore, no relation, said after hearing the Maryland governor speak this month at a Virginia Beach rally for Elaine Luria (D), who is running for Congress.
Wes Moore keeps demurring on his plans, while making moves that could build to a run for the presidential nomination.
“I can’t see anybody more qualified than he is” to be president, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), the first Black speaker of the state’s House of Delegates, said in an interview.
“He is an inspirational figure for African American voters at a time when some Black people feel like they’re under attack,” Scott continued.
The Black community, Scott said, is attuned to both President Donald Trump’s direct attacks on Moore — disinviting him to the White House and verbally sparring with him — and the broader focus on undoing diversity programs and voting rights protections won during the civil rights era, along with a disproportionate rise in Black unemployment during the second Trump term.
“He continues to show up in tough times and be an example of what strength looks like under attack,” Scott said of Moore. “Black voters are especially protective of him and inspired by him at the same time.”
Among the sprawling field of potential 2028 contenders, three, including Moore, share similar positioning in the midterms: Democratic governors facing reelection at the same time their party is trying to build a blue wave and take control of the House and Senate.
Moore is taking a different tack than the other two.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, running for a second term, has focused his star power at home, pouring attention and resources into flipping four swing districts held by Republicans, a feat that would bolster an argument that the centrist Democrat could win over more swing states and working-class voters in a presidential race.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, running for a third term, has donated a reported $38 million to Democrats’ midterm push, including personal donations — Pritzker is a billionaire — and roughly $20 million to his new “Ready for the Fight” political action committee, which Pritzker’s team described as focused on overlooked House races.
Moore’s reelection campaign does not call for a big political feat: He is facing the same MAGA-aligned opponent he beat by more than 30 points four years ago in a deeply blue state. He’s raised 70 times more money than his opponent, former state delegate Dan Cox (R).
While Moore’s approval ratings have been sliding a bit at home, they’re still high, and he leads Cox by a 2-to-1 margin in a recent poll by the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.
“There’s nothing really at home begging for Wes Moore’s attention,” said Clarence “C4” Mitchell IV, a Baltimore talk radio host from a prominent Maryland political family, who has endorsed both Republicans and Democrats.
Mitchell said Maryland voters don’t seem to begrudge Moore chasing national ambition: “He is floating at this point,” he said.
Moore is spending his political capital in a dozen states so far, hosting fundraisers, boosting candidates for governor and appearing in battleground districts, including in four of the six early presidential primary states — Nevada, South Carolina, Michigan and Virginia. He has stayed in Maryland for the final weeks of the midterm election cycle.
In early October, Moore hit all the Virginia swing districts that could help determine whether Democrats control the House, met with donors and content creators, and filmed videos aimed at rallying Black and Latino voters to the polls.
During the lone debate of his reelection campaign, held a few days after his trip to Virginia, Moore would not commit to a full second term. When pressed by a moderator, he would say only that he was committed to serving the people of Maryland.
Last week, he redeployed three-quarters of a million dollars’ worth of airtime that had been dedicated to his reelection bid. Now, voters in the D.C. suburbs — both the Maryland voters casting ballots next month and the Northern Virginia ones critical to a Democratic primary win in 2028 — will see messages from Moore asking them to stop Trump’s “illegal power grab” by endorsing a controversial redistricting measure he’s championed.
In Virginia Beach, a suite of political heavy-hitters had joined Luria, the former congresswoman trying to win back her seat from Rep. Jen Kiggans (R), for a private fundraiser and rally at a Crowne Plaza hotel beside the highway.
But Moore was the main draw.
“I came to see a young, energetic man like Wes Moore,” said Francine Olds, 63, an OB/GYN who texted photos of herself and the governor to friends during other politicians’ speeches, then ducked out the back as Luria began speaking.
“He does remember where he came from, and that’s lost for a lot of politicians,” she said.
At the next stop, a Charlottesville event for Tom Perriello, a former congressman who is trying to flip the seat held by Rep. John McGuire (R), Moore posed with members of a Black fraternity as Perriello joked to the smaller crowd around him that “I know you really wanted to see Wes.”
Portia Harris, 63, took the day off work to get a photo with Moore and lingered as she watched him work the crowd.
“He reminds me so much of President Obama,” Harris said. “If we have someone as motivating as him coming out, maybe we can flip this state back to where it belongs.”
Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Virginia) hosted a backyard event with Moore outside Richmond later that day and ended up carrying around a copy of Moore’s best-selling book “The Other Wes Moore,” so that he could autograph it for a constituent.
“He brings joy, which we desperately need,” she said. “I have tried to be a light in the dark, and he is a light in the dark.”
McClellan, though, isn’t yet sold that Moore is the best 2028 option.
“I want to see the full field and who I think is the right candidate for the right moment to really help us rebuild,” she said, adding that she’s surprised she hasn’t already seen more 2028 candidates come through the state, especially given its proximity to Washington.
Moore was one of four potential 2028 presidential candidates who reached out to her after the Democratic National Committee designated Virginia the sixth state to hold its 2028 primary, McClellan said.
On the third and final day of Moore’s visit, state Del. Joshua G. Cole (D-Fredericksburg) theatrically restrained his presidential enthusiasm when introducing Moore to canvass volunteers in Fredericksburg.
“Y’all put your hands together for the next presi—,” Cole said, truncating the word. He then introduced Moore as the governor of Maryland.
“I am ready to jump when he calls,” Cole said in an interview about Moore’s potential 2028 campaign.
He said he had a message for other potential 2028 hopefuls: “You need to get here.”
“If you want to win Virginia, you need to be boots on the ground,” Cole said.
Moore addressed the diversion from his own campaign when he took the mic from Cole to rally supporters of Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Virginia).
“People ask: ‘What you doing? Shouldn’t you be out campaigning?’” Moore said. “I said: ‘No, no, no, no. I’m fighting for democracy.’”
When Vindman took the microphone, he turned to Moore, “You know, Virginia is now an early-voting state, so hopefully this is not the last time we see you.”
Moore smiled.
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