Dem Gov. Wes Moore says party ‘just gave up' on certain parts of US in 2024 campaign
Former DNC chair Jaime Harrison spoke to Moore on his podcast 'At Our Table' and asked the Democratic governor if there was anything former Vice President Kamala Harris or the campaign should have done differently.
Moore replied, 'I don't know…. It's always challenging if such a large percentage of the country, rightly or wrongly, feel the country is going in the wrong direction. It's just difficult to be the vice president, to come into that. I don't know what she could have done differently, or whatever happened.
'The thing I think we have to remember to do though, is, I've been deeply disappointed where it feels like there are certain areas and communities that we almost seemingly just gave up on.'
He added, 'We just stopped competing. We stopped making the case. We came up with this philosophy where, listen, it all comes down to three states.'
3 Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., speaks during a taping of FOX News Channel's Special Report with Bret Baier, Friday, July 18, 2025, in Washington.
AP
Harrison agreed and added, 'We cede ground.'
'And it's like, do you know who hears this thing is only going to come down to three states? The other 47. Like, 'we don't even matter, man.' When we hear, 'We need to make sure we go after the working voter in Pennsylvania,' and that's the key, do you know who hears that? Everybody you're not talking about. And I just think we ceded a lot of ground,' Moore said.
Moore argued that a lot of key Democratic voters felt taken for granted in 2024.
3 President Joe Biden waves with Vice President Kamala Harris at the Pennsylvania Democratic Party's 3rd Annual Independence Dinner in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022.
AP
'And then we get upset, and then we're like, what happened with this group? What happened with that group? And they're saying like, 'Yo, what happened to the party?' I think there needs to be a real level setting about who is our base, man. And who are we fighting for?
'This is not a game for people. This is not game theory. This is not checkers. They're real life. These are real lives,' Moore continued.
Moore spoke to Fox News' Bret Baier earlier this month and said he was not considering running for president in 2028.
3 Governor of Maryland Wes Moore speaks onstage during the 2025 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture presented by Coca-Cola – Day 3 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 06, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Getty Images for ESSENCE
'And the thing is, I think that anybody who's talking about 2028 is not taking 2025 very seriously,' he added.
Harrison recently spoke to Gov. Tim Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in 2024, about the Democratic Party.
Walz wondered why the party comes off as being anti-success during their conversation.
'We, as Democrats, we want people to pay their fair share, but why are we against people being successful like that? We can't be. Why are we against? We should talk about businesses. Not all businesses exploit their workers, and we get ourselves stuck in that. And I think we lose them,' Walz said.
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