CNN reports that Democrat Wes Moore will be elected governor of Maryland, becoming the first black man to lead the state.
He will defeat Republican state Representative Dan Cox, an election denier backed by former President Donald Trump who is campaigning on a hard-line conservative platform. Retired Republican Gov. moderate Larry Hogan, who did not support Cox, defeated Hogan’s chosen successor in the Republican primary in July.
Moore will become the third black American to be elected governor in U.S. history, following Douglas Wilder of Virginia in 1989 and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts first elected in 2006. Served for two terms. Two others, New York’s David Patterson (who served from 2008 to 2010) and Louisiana’s Pincknippinchback (who served from 1872 to 1873 for a little over a year) resigned from their predecessors Or be promoted to governor after being expelled. Pinchback is a Republican, but the other three black governors are Democrats.
Moore is a Rhodes Scholar and former White House Fellow and former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, New York City’s largest anti-poverty nonprofit. He gained national recognition after writing the 2010 book “The Other Wes Moore,” an inspirational story of two boys with the same name and connections to Baltimore.
The first-time candidate is also a veteran who served as a captain and paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, where he led soldiers in Afghanistan.
Before winning the crowded Democratic primary in July, Moore had the support of establishment Democrats including Maryland House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the backing of Oprah Winfrey .
Moore, considered the Deep Blue State’s favorite to win, participated in only one debate with Cox hosted by Maryland Public Television on Oct. 12, in which the two sparred over policy and lashed out at each other.
Moore called Cox an “extremist election denier,” citing a tweet from the Republican candidate in which he touted Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 campaign sponsorship of a bus, which is Rally after his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Cox tweeted that he did it for “#StoptheSteal.”
Cox accused Moore of wanting to “fund the police,” to which the Democratic candidate responded: “That’s not true.”
Moore’s running mate, former State Del. Aruna Miller, who immigrated with her family from India as a child, will also make history as Maryland’s first Asian lieutenant governor. Governor and lieutenant governor nominees are elected on the same vote in Old Line states.
CNN’s Melissa Holzberg DePalo, Eric Bradner, and Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report.