Thoughts on a U.S. President from Maryland by David Reel 

To date, no individual born or living in Maryland has been elected to serve as President of the United States.

Ever since Governor Wes Moore was elected in 2022, he has been viewed by many as a rising star in the Democratic Party, despite never having run for any public office at any level.

Many of his admirers have even suggested he has the potential to be the Democratic Party’s 2028 candidate for President.

That is not surprising. Wes Moore is a charismatic, progressive, and relatively young elected official at a time when both major political parties are struggling mightily with internal divides between long-time and elderly party leaders and emerging younger leaders.

Despite that political chatter, Moore has repeatedly said he will not run for President in 2028.

Instead, he has said he is eager and ready to run for re-election as Governor for a second four-year term.

That said, if Wes Moore does have future national ambitions, they may ultimately be delayed or derailed by another charismatic Maryland Democratic elected official — U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen.

Van Hollen has had a long career in politics, starting with elections to serve as a Democratic member in the Maryland House of Delegates and in the Maryland Senate.

He was then elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Democratic representative from Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.

In 2016, he was elected to the United States Senate, re-elected to a second term in 2022, and is now the senior U.S. Senator from Maryland.

Van Hollen has not said anything about whether or not he may run for president, but his actions speak louder than silence on this matter.

Van Hollen has regularly and aggressively challenged a wide range of decisions and actions of the second Trump administration, including but not limited to federal government spending cuts, immigration deportments, and closing or relocating federal agencies.

Van Hollen has opposed the Trump administration’s efforts to detain and deport El Salvador native Kilmar Abrego Garcia, maintaining that Garcia has been denied due process in these efforts.

In September, he was the keynote speaker at a Democratic Steak Fry in Polk County, Iowa.

Iowa is a long-time early testing ground on the popularity and viability of presidential candidates from both major parties.

Van Hollen has also been a guest on Yahoo News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, and The Hill.

Between now and the next two election cycles, a lot can happen in the Maryland and national political arenas.

In Maryland, Wes Moore is widely expected to win a second term next year, but in today’s volatile and unpredictable political environment, that is not a given.

Next year, Maryland’s Republican voters may nominate a candidate who unites, energizes, and mobilizes their base voters. Those voters, combined with enough Democratic and unaffiliated voters, could result in Wes Moore losing in the next election. That is unlikely, but not impossible.

In 2014, Democratic candidate and former Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown was almost universally expected to be elected governor, but he lost in a historic upset to Larry Hogan.

Key elements of a winning political campaign always include messaging, money, and meeting expectations.

In his upcoming re-election effort, Wes Moore will have no problem with messaging and raising campaign contributions.

He may find meeting or exceeding expectations to be a challenge.

His rising star status could be greatly diminished if, in a deep blue state, his re-election vote margin is significantly lower than his landslide win for the governorship the first time, when he received 64.5 % of the votes cast.

One unanswered question for Wes Moore and or Chris Van Hollen is if either would agree to be nominated as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2028.

Historically, candidates have not publicly announced or overtly pursued a nomination for the vice presidency. Instead, presidential nominees for both major parties announce their choice for a vice-presidential running mate and their choice is ratified at their party’s national convention.

That was the case when Richard Nixon chose Maryland’s former governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate in 1968. Agnew served in that role until 1973 until he resigned in disgrace.

Serving as a vice president as a pathway to nomination and election as president has had mixed success. Only six have done so since 1948 – Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Joseph Biden.

Ultimately, only time will tell if either Wes Moore or Chris Van Hollen will be the first Marylander in history to be nominated or serve as President of the United States or be the second Marylander in history to be nominated or serve as a U.S. Vice President.

David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant. He is also a consultant to not-for-profit organizations on governance, leadership, and management matters. He lives in Easton.