Wes Moore Catches a Few Lumps....

Anirbar Basu, "America’s most disappointing governor"

Maryland Governor Wes Moore was inaugurated on Jan. 18, 2023. Enough time has passed that we can now ask, “Is Wes Moore America’s worst governor?” Admittedly, such comparisons are difficult. Each state has its idiosyncratic challenges, political dynamics and success metrics. But based on our state’s trajectory, the question is a reasonable one.

Of course, some will undoubtedly wonder if it is reasonable. After all, Governor Moore’s approval ratings remain lofty. According to Morning Consult, Maryland’s governor registered a net approval rating of 31 as of mid-July, meaning that the share of voters who approve of his performance exceeded the share who disapprove by 31 percentage points. While several governors have higher approval ratings (e.g., Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Josh Stein of North Carolina and Andy Beshear of Kentucky), Wes Moore remains among America’s most popular governors, though a new poll conducted late last month showed signs that his approval is slipping.

A lot goes into such ratings, including items largely unrelated to performance like charisma, favorable media coverage and lags in perception. Rather than consider those things, let’s focus on outcomes.

In 1973, Moody’s Investors Service assigned Maryland a AAA bond rating. Since that year, Maryland managed to maintain this rating from all three major rating agencies despite oil embargoes, global financial crises and COVID. But in May 2025, Moody’s downgraded our state’s financing rating to AA1.

Rather than accept accountability, Gov. Moore quickly blamed someone else. On May 14, the governor, along with other state leaders, declared, “To put it bluntly, this is a Trump downgrade.”

Here’s the thing. Roughly a year earlier, on May 31, 2024, Moody’s had reaffirmed Maryland’s AAA rating but downgraded its outlook from stable to negative. Donald Trump was not president then. Maryland’s financial situation was deteriorating before Trump’s recent assault on Maryland’s economy. Perhaps Gov. Moore can at least accept some responsibility for that. Maryland enjoyed a universal AAA rating for more than five decades. It took the Moore administration fewer than three years to undo that.

Let’s broaden the discussion by analyzing state budget dynamics. Having overspent during Moore’s first two budgets, Maryland faced a $3.3 billion fiscal shortfall during its most recent General Assembly.

While the governor insisted that he had a high threshold for tax increases, that standard thawed into a dew during his most recent budget. The governor signed a Fiscal Year 2026 budget that rains additional taxes on many Marylanders, including two new higher income tax brackets, increased excise taxes on sports wagering, table games and motor vehicles, an expanded local income tax rate cap of 3.3%, and a 3% sales tax on data and IT services. In total, this represents a $1.6 billion annual increase in state taxes for Marylanders, who were already among the most heavily taxed people in America.

But Maryland’s malaise extends beyond economics and finance. Recently, three top Maryland officials overseeing Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities were fired. A recent report alleged numerous issues inside those facilities, including illegal drugs, concerns regarding food quality, staffing shortages and assaults. As the Washington Post reported, the report was based on “observations from the first six months of the year, when former juvenile services secretary Vincent Schiraldi was still leading the department.” The report firmly laid blame for the problems “at the feet of Schiraldi’s team.”

As is well known, it took Gov. Moore months before Secretary Schiraldi handed in his resignation. Meanwhile, Marylanders have been plagued by juvenile crime. According to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, juvenile crime arrests increased 146% in 2024 compared to 2023. In Baltimore City, juvenile robbery cases surged to 246 during the first six months of 2024, up from 56 cases during the same period one year prior and just 17 two years earlier.

There’s more. As The Baltimore Sun recently reported, the governor’s office, state budget departments and several individual state agencies don’t even know how much money the state or their own agencies spend on nonprofits.

This is not to suggest that Maryland is deteriorating along all dimensions. For instance, the governor’s mansion is improving nicely. More than $2.3 million in state-funded repairs have been made to the structure since Gov. Wes Moore and his family moved in. “The most expensive repairs were a $737,000 project to replace the conservatory room windows and a $359,000 elevator replacement,” The Sun reported. “Other costs included $302,000 to renovate four of the mansion’s 12 bathrooms.”

While it may be unfair to say that Wes Moore is America’s worst governor, an argument could easily be made that he is its most disappointing.

...while, the Left reluctantly declaims Trump an Usurping Prophet of the Great Caucasian God (aka - Government)!

Who will be THEIR new Messiah?  Zohran Mamdani?  Wes Moore?