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In a wide-ranging town hall televised Tuesday evening, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore predicted that the Washington Commanders would keep the team’s stadium in Landover and said using public cash to build it will be part of ongoing negotiations with the team’s new leadership.
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During other segments of the hour-long program aired on WUSA-9, Moore (D) emphasized the need to retool the state’s public education system and pledged to cut tax rates for some retirees. He also said he wanted to make Maryland a leader in artificial intelligence, home to the future FBI headquarters, a place that embraces immigrants and “the offshore wind capital of the planet.”
When asked how he would persuade the Democratic-dominated General Assembly to implement his other self-described “bold” goals, Moore responded, “You know why we’re going to get lawmakers onboard? Because we’re going to have the people. That’s where my power comes from, the people. And that’s why I know we’ll be able to make the advancements we need to make.”
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When it came to the football team, Moore celebrated the ownership transition from Daniel Snyder to the group led by private equity and sports investor Josh Harris, with the governor saying he’s “incredibly excited.”
How Josh Harris’s Washington roots inspired him to buy the Commanders
“People are seeing that a new life has already been breathed into this franchise, which is a long and storied franchise,” Moore said in some of his most expansive public comments about the new ownership. Based on early conversations with new team officials, Moore added, he believes they share his desire for the team to bring wealth to other entrepreneurs and residents around the stadium.
“I believe this stadium should be in Prince George’s County. I believe it will be in Prince George’s County. I know that we’re excited to support the endeavor to make that happen,” Moore said.
National Football League owners ratified the record $6.05 billion sale of the Commanders last month, ending Daniel Snyder’s tumultuous tenure and injecting new urgency into the question of where the team will call home. The existing FedEx Field in Landover is widely considered a crumbling eyesore, and officials in D.C., Virginia and Maryland have jousted over whom should host the new one.
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“For me, it’s not just about [winning] on the field,” said Moore, a sports fan who was a star wide receiver at Johns Hopkins University.
“It’s about producing a winner outside the stadium, too,” Moore said. “Are we building economic growth to everyone’s benefit? Are we building new businesses? New entrepreneurs? New pathways to work and wages? Well, the beautiful thing about this new leadership team and the conversations we’ve already had is: They believe in that.”
When pressed about providing state cash through the Maryland Stadium Authority to construct a stadium itself — rather than investing in infrastructure around it — Moore opened the door to using public money, provided that it creates “generational” benefits for the community.
“That’s part of the conversation, part of the negotiation that’s coming up now … that’s going to be led by the team owners,” he said.
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The governor responded to questions drafted by news anchors and members of the community in the first of what his staff hopes will be several public town hall forums conducted before the end of his first year in office. He held court with a friendly crowd, primarily made up of people from Maryland’s deep-blue suburbs of D.C., that applauded at several of his answers.
Moore described how a landmark — yet costly — education change known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future would help implement his goals to launch universal preschool sooner and help older students recognize earlier in their academic careers if they would best be served in a vocational or noncollegiate route.
“While we have some of the best four-year institutions in America,” Moore said, “I also know that not all of our students need to attend one in order to be successful, in order to have a prosperous life.”
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He also talked about creating social equity in the newly legalized cannabis industry and more cuts to retiree income taxes, such as the limited one passed this year to benefit military veterans.
Moore heralds modest tax breaks for veterans — and promises more
“I can tell you that we’re here and ready to do more,” Moore said. “We know we’ve got to do more.”
The governor pledged that “Maryland would lead” on the issue of spreading wealth from the cannabis industry to communities harmed by the war on drugs, saying the state’s approach to giving out additional business licenses next year will be a national “gold standard.”
On gun violence, Moore echoed his “all-of-the-above approach” that includes punishing violent offenders, reducing access to illegal guns, and investing heavily in ending poverty and other root causes crime, including examining why the state disproportionately incarcerates young Black men.
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“You show me a community that does not have hope, you are also showing a community that is living in violence,” he said. At another point, he said, “This is one of the reasons that I decided to run for governor in the first place, because nobody should be fearful of the neighborhood they live in.”
After Baltimore shooting, Moore calls for more police, tougher sentences
The governor sidestepped two questions about whether he has an opinion on a controversy in Montgomery County over whether parents should be allowed to opt their students out of LGBTQ+ lessons.
“These are local jurisdictional issues, and I respect that,” Moore said, emphasizing the importance of the relationships between parents and school boards. “We have to have an education system that is preparing our children for the world, and we have to have an education system that lets all of our children know that they’re loved and they’re seen.”
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When pressed, he added: “All local jurisdictions are the ones who have the final say on how that works. Governors of a state cannot mandate or dictate that.”
Moore also pledged to take the state on an “eight-year roadshow” to entice more private companies to Maryland. He noted that two open jobs exist for every person applying for unemployment insurance and explained that it is because “our economy continues to shift and move, but our educational processes are not keeping pace.”
Moderator and anchor Lesli Foster’s last question to Moore noted that the coronavirus pandemic was a shared trauma for the public. “And so I wonder from all your vast experiences, both life and professional, what you think the new, the next future looks like for all of us?”
Moore answered at length and said that “it means that we as a state, that we’re going to have to be bold, we’re going to have to be thoughtful.”
He concluded with the type of soaring rhetoric he displayed on the campaign trail last year, saying: “In this time of political divisiveness and vitriol, in this time where there are people who have business models that are intended to separate us because they benefit, I believe deeply that we have to be a state that gets to know each other.”
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