Wes Moore heads to Virginia to stump for Democrats in key House

Wes Moore says he isn't running for president in 2028, but this weekend he’s campaigning in Virginia like someone who wants to be on every television screen between now and then. The Maryland governor is making the short trip across the border to stump for Democrats in some of the House races that will decide the majority. We’re supposed to take his word that he’s just a concerned party man offering his thoughtful voice. Fine. But he’s not running for president in the same way a thirsty man isn’t running for a glass of water.

What exactly is Moore selling? He runs a state that keeps getting more expensive, with a cost-of-living problem and a crime reputation that isn’t getting better. Now he wants his neighboring Virginia to try more of the same. It’s a strange message: “Virginia, take your cues from the fellow whose state ranks near the bottom of business climate rankings.” Youngkin voters aren’t asking for that, and even many Democrats have to wonder why they’re importing a message from Annapolis when they have local issues that actually matter.

This trip tells us more about the Democratic Party’s mood than about Moore’s future. They are sending their only vaguely fresh face into a swing state before the 2024 election has even cooled off. The quiet panic is real. Moore says he wants to be part of the conversations about his party’s future, which is polite language for flexing national ambitions while denying them. That may well work inside the Beltway. Virginia voters, though, are smart enough to know a mortgage payment is more important than Moore’s next chapter. He’s not the future of anything in Virginia. Just another out-of-state politician looking for applause.