WASHINGTON — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) urged his party to adopt a more aggressive governing posture, arguing that Democrats have become too reliant on study and delay when Americans need action now.
“The Democrats have got to stop being the party of no and slow and start being the party of yes and now,” Moore said during a town hall moderated by CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell that aired Sunday. “Everything cannot be a 10-year study, everything cannot be a 15-year analysis.”
Moore’s comments come as Democrats grapple with dismal approval ratings and internal divisions over how to oppose the Trump administration while offering a compelling alternative vision. A Quinnipiac University poll released in December found just 18 percent of respondents—including less than half of Democrats—approve of how congressional Democrats are handling their jobs.
‘Meet People Where They Are’
The first-term governor illustrated his point with a series of hypotheticals:
When a parent says their child’s school “is not preparing them for the world,” Moore said, a Democrat’s response should not be, “Let me just make sure that I put a commission together, to analyze that.”
“If I’m telling you, ‘You know what? I feel like housing prices are just going out of control,’ I don’t want you to tell me, ‘Let me figure out how we can do an analysis, a 10-year analysis about how we can build more housing,'” he added. “No, what I need you to do is build more housing now.”
Moore pointed to an unlikely model for this approach: Donald Trump.
“Do you know, ironically, who gets that? Donald Trump. Because he does not waste time,” Moore said.
‘Do You See Me?’
Moore framed the party’s challenge as fundamentally about connection and recognition.
“That is the thing that people are just asking us: ‘Do you see me? Do you understand what I am going through? Do you understand what my family has been dealing with?'” he said. “And if your answer to that is, ‘I do, and that’s why I’m going to do a five-year commission,’ then I’m going to look back at you and say, ‘Then you don’t understand.'”
Political Future
Despite his frequent television appearances and rising national profile, Moore reiterated last year that he will not run for president in 2028. That hasn’t stopped speculation—or tension with Trump.
The president recently declined to invite Moore to a black-tie dinner at the White House next weekend alongside other governors and their families, the latest exchange in what Moore has described as a one-sided feud.
For now, Moore is focused on Maryland—and on pushing his party toward what he calls “a sense of urgency.”
“There’s something that we have to make sure that we do better,” he said, “and that’s actually meet people where they are and move with a sense of urgency.”
