On the menu today: This past weekend, South Carolina Democrats attended Congressman James Clyburn’s fish fry in Columbia, an event that is traditionally seen as an early audition for the Palmetto State’s Democratic presidential primary. The big-name headliners for the night were Governors Wes Moore of Maryland and . . . Tim Walz of Minnesota. With Moore’s two years and change of being governor under his belt, we can start to draw some conclusions about his ability to run a state government, and as for Walz, well, your guess is as good as mine as to why he was there. Maybe someone left the back door unlocked.
Democrats Have Moore Work to Do
Imagine how inspired South Carolina Democrats must have been this past Friday night when they attended Clyburn’s fish fry in Columbia and were greeted by the sight of Governors Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota awkwardly wearing tight, blue Clyburn T-shirts atop their collared dress shirts, sleeves rolled up.
Wes Moore keeps telling interviewers that he’s not running for president, and the media keeps not believing him. (Back on January 22, 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama appeared on Meet the Press and categorically ruled out running for president in 2008.)
But as former South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges told the New York Times at the fish fry, “They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t interested [in running for president].”
It’s easy to see why Democrats would be intrigued by the idea of nominating the 46-year-old Moore; big-name party leaders have been talking him up as a potential presidential candidate since his first month in office. Back in 2023, I wrote:
Credit Moore for a genuinely inspiring tale of overcoming childhood adversity — he says he may not have pulled his life together without attending Valley Forge Military Academy — and yes, his résumé shines: He “graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2001 and then received a master’s degree in international relations from Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, in 2004. After graduating, he was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and a captain in the United States Army and did a combat tour in Afghanistan.” Throw in the right oratorical gifts and the friendship with Oprah and voilà — instant presidential-candidate buzz.
But there’s just one little detail that hasn’t been addressed, and it’s revealing that it’s such a nonfactor or afterthought to those already talking up Moore as a future president. How well can he run a state government?
A bit more than two years later, the initial answer is, not great.
In May, Moody’s downgraded the state’s credit rating:
The state’s financial performance has lagged top-rated peers, a trend that is expected to continue because of Maryland’s susceptibility to changes in federal policies and employment, analysts at Moody’s said in a statement.
Though state lawmakers closed a budget gap by increasing taxes and restraining expenses, further “corrective steps may arise directly from federal funding cuts or the economic consequences of federal layoffs and other policy shifts, to which Maryland has a very high degree of exposure,” analysts led by Ted Hampton said.
Moore argued, “This is a Trump downgrade,” an answer that will no doubt satisfy the state’s Democrats, but the state government still lives with the consequences. For decades, Maryland enjoyed the advantage of lots of federal workers living in the suburbs and financing the state’s budget through income and sales taxes. With the federal government now laying off workers and closing various offices, the state is attempting to play catch-up in diversifying its economy and tax-revenue sources.
Speaking of taxes, in the state legislature, the Democratic supermajority “passed a spending plan that includes more than $1.6 billion in taxes and fees. Included in that is a 3 percent tech tax that is projected to raise $500 million.” Maryland’s tax system was already rated the 46th-most competitive in the country, with “eight tax brackets, a low standard deduction and personal exemption, and no adjustment of income tax provisions for inflation. High-rate county income taxes, at rates up to 3.2 percent, yield a substantially above-average income tax burden for Maryland residents.” Moore and legislative Democrats will boast that, under the tax changes, 92 percent of taxpayers will see a refund. They will be quieter about the fact that, on average, the refund will be $50–$65. Don’t spend it all in one place, Marylanders.
In one week, Prince George’s County, Md., lost both the Washington Commanders and a Six Flags amusement park. Last November, the FBI announced a plan to move its headquarters to Greenbelt, Md., but President Trump opposes the move and declared he won’t let it happen. (There are genuine reasons to object to the Greenbelt location.)
And the shine is off Moore in a few other ways. In a July interview, he told ABC News that he had privately advised Joe Biden to not run for another term while publicly insisting that Biden was fine and he deserved another four years. In August, the New York Times reported that Moore had claimed military medals and badges he had not yet earned:
However, when Mr. Moore submitted the [White House fellowship] application in January 2006, he had not been awarded either the Bronze Star or the Combat Action Badge. He was awarded the badge in May 2006 for an episode the previous December, but there is no record showing that he ever received a Bronze Star, an Army spokeswoman said.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Moore, now 45, said the Bronze Star description had been “an honest mistake” and expressed contrition. As long as the U.S. military has bestowed awards, it has been considered a serious breach of protocol to claim an honor that has not been given.
Mr. Moore also said for the first time that he regretted failing to correct the interviewers who had described him as a recipient of the award.
He owed $21,000 in delinquent water bills.
The Walz Come Tumbling Down
But at least Moore represents a fresh face on the national scene. Democrats have even fairer questions about what the heck Tim Walz is doing at an event that is often seen as an early audition for the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary. (Ramesh, in March: “‘vote for me, sorry I was in a bewildered daze when last in the national spotlight’ does not seem like a good 2028 campaign slogan.”)
Walz also appeared on Saturday at a Democratic event in California, and offered more of his standard postelection rah-rah routine: “We’ve got to find some goddamn guts to fight for working people.” “That last election was a primal scream on so many fronts.”
In these speeches and remarks, Walz keeps warning Democrats to not repeat the mistakes of 2024 . . . when there’s a strong case that he himself was one of the mistakes of 2024! No, Harris didn’t lose entirely because of him, but he did her no favors in those “blue wall” states and didn’t help among men.
By the way, in the 2024 cycle, did you ever hear any Democrat acknowledge that the Minnesota state government was full of fraud scandals and glaring mismanagement on his watch? (To its credit, CNN finally did a deep dive on Walz’s record as governor in early October.)
CNN’s most recent poll found that “58 percent now say that the government should do more to solve the country’s problems — a record high in more than 30 years of CNN’s polling.” Only 41 percent said the government was doing too many things. But the same survey found that the public doesn’t have much faith in either party to get things done:
While neither political party is viewed as especially strong or effective, skepticism weighs particularly heavily on the Democratic Party. Americans are far more likely to see Republicans than Democrats as the party with strong leaders: 40 percent say this descriptor applies more to the GOP, with just 16% saying it applies to the Democrats. They’re also more likely to call Republicans the party that can get things done by 36 percent to 19 percent, and the party of change, by 32 percent to 25 percent.
Crazy idea, fellas. What if you tried governing well? I mean, really well — so well that even your state’s Republicans are impressed. What if, after (at least) four years of being governor somewhere, you could point to lower unemployment, higher wages, a more affordable cost of living, higher test scores in schools, lower crime rates, infrastructure that isn’t full of potholes, and a general satisfaction with public services? What if your state government was prepared for natural disasters?
Yeah, that would be difficult to achieve. But that is, you know, the core duty of government. If you demonstrated competence at governing, people might trust you with the presidency and like-minded congressional majorities!
I mean, maybe that stuff matters more than ensuring local police never cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that males can participate in high school girls’ sports, and free bus rides, and so on.
Finally, note that Kamala Harris did not attend the 2025 California Democratic Party convention. This woman may still be considering a run for governor of the state in 2026, but she sure as heck is not acting like someone who intends to compete in an already-crowded Democratic primary, to be held on June 2, 2026.)
ADDENDUM: From a chat over at that other Washington publication I write for: Ukraine’s recent military operation, sneaking remote-control drones into Russia and destroying 41 Russian bomber planes, “was the finest operational secrecy since the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers.”