Wes Moore is an American author, United States Army veteran, entrepreneur and television producer. He was born on October 15, 1978, in Maryland. He served as the CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation from 2017 to 2021. He launched his campaign to become the Democratic candidate for Maryland governor on June 7, 2021.  If elected, he would become Maryland’s first black governor.

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Moore was born to Willian Westley Moore Jr. and Joy Thomas Moore. He studied International Relations and Economics at Johns Hopkins University and graduated Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Beta Kappa in 2001. He earned a master’s degree in International Relations as a Rhodes Scholar from Wolfson College, Oxford. 

He is the writer of ‘The Other Wes Moore’ and ‘The Work’. Both the books are New York Times Bestsellers. He was the executive producer and a writer for ‘Coming Back with Wes Moore’ on PBS. Moore is the founder and CEO of BridgeEdU. 

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He interned for Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke in 1998 and 1999. In 2013 he mentioned that he had “no interest” in running for public office, instead focusing on his business and volunteer work. Moore was seen as a potential candidate in the 2016 Baltimore Mayor elections. He declined to run in September of that year. He stated, “the best way for me to serve is to fulfill the promise I’ve made to the students at BridgeEdU”.

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In 2021, Moore announced that he was “seriously considering” a run for Governor of Maryland in the 2022 elections.  Moore received endorsements from Angela Alsobrooks, Steny Hoyer, Oprah Winfrey and former Governor Parris Glendening during the primary. He also gained backing from Maryland State Education Association and VoteVets.org. 

“Will we settle for the broken politics and policies of the past, or will we move forward together and build a state where we leave no one behind?” tweeted Wes Moore on July 19 with his campaign video.