BALTIMORE — The President of the United States was backstage, minutes from speaking in a hotel ballroom packed with House Democrats, their spouses and employees.

But at the front of the room, the line for a photo with Maryland’s young and new Democratic governor, Wes Moore, showed no sign of waning.

“We are going to have to suspend Wes Moore’s selfie line. Governor, we will have to ask you to take a seat shortly,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California joked from the podium. You will sit next to my wife. I’m sure she’ll ask for a couple of selfies there too.»

Moore was just sworn in as governor in January, but Democrats are already excited about this rising star as a future party leader and potential presidential candidate in 2028.

«I saw this young man, and I’ve been in politics for 120 years, and I was like, ‘This guy’s got it,'» quipped former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who introduced Moore. in the Democratic House of Representatives. annual conference on issues in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Just 44 years old and from a young family, he served in the Afghanistan war as an Army captain and paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, is a Rhodes Scholar, was executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation and made history as the first black governor of Maryland . His victory in November restored the governorship from the Republican Party.

In an interview after his speech, Moore said he is focused on doing the job he was elected to do.

“I am proud of the fact that… I was the first black governor in the history of the state and only the third elected in the history of this country. I also know that was not the task,” Moore said in response to a question about his ambitions, including a run for the White House. «TRUE? That the assignment, the reason the people of Maryland chose me, was because we have great things to do in the state of Maryland.»

Moore said he is pushing to make Maryland the first state to offer a «year of service» for all high school graduates and create new «economic pathways» for Marylanders who did not earn college degrees. He also wants the state to accelerate a $15-an-hour minimum wage for workers later this year and tie future increases to inflation.

“I’m excited to be there and continue to make good things happen for the state of Maryland,” he said. «And I’m excited for Maryland to be a national example of how we can create roads for everyone in the state and not just a few.»

The generational change is occurring in some sectors of the Democratic Party. Hakeem Jeffries of New York replaced Nancy Pelosi of California this year after her two-decade run as leader of the House Democrats. Hoyer and former Majority Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina have also resigned their top party posts.

But when asked whether 80-year-old Joe Biden, the nation’s oldest president, should represent the Democrats in the 2024 election, Moore did not hesitate to back him.

“I am excited to support the president in his re-election bid,” Moore said in the interview.

“Because if you just look at the first two years, the jobs that are being created, the economic activity that is being generated, and the fact that Maryland has been a central beneficiary of the work of this administration,” he said, “I’m excited to go and spread that. across the country about how important this administration has been to me as Governor, but also to the people of our state.»

Moderate Republican Larry Hogan had occupied the Governor’s Mansion for eight years before Moore’s election and had a limited term to run again. Moore said her campaign was successful because she traveled across the state and spoke to Democrats, Independents and Republicans. Democrats in Washington will succeed in 2024 if they follow that roadmap, she said.

“We went to every corner of the state, from western Maryland to the east coast and everywhere in between, and we were able to win not just the Democrats, we won the independents and we won a good chunk of the Republicans.” Moore said.

“We are going to be right on the issues when we talk about creating pathways to work, wages and wealth. When we talk about getting rid of the false options of saying we want a fair economy or a growing economy, that’s good for workers or good for business,” he continued, “we said you can have it all. But we need to make sure that we have a plan, and we need to make sure that we communicate with everyone.

«That’s what we did in 2022. And I think that’s what the Biden-Harris administration will do in 2024, and that’s why they’re going to succeed.»

Moore’s speech to House Democrats served as something of an introduction. He said that his father died when he was 3 years old. “I also felt handcuffs on my wrists when I was 11 years old,” he said, referring to an experience you have written about and spoke of being detained for graffiti. And her mother didn’t have a job with benefits until she was 14.

“By all accounts, it was not intended for public service. And he was definitely not destined to make me the 63rd governor of the state of Maryland,” he told Democrats.

But he said that teachers, sports coaches and ministers put him on the right track: “The only reason I can stand before you today is because there were people in my life who stepped up even when they weren’t called. … Those were the real patriots.»