Wes Moore declares MD gubernatorial primary victory: ‘There is more work to do’

Listen to this article

Within minutes of polls closing Tuesday evening, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore was declared the winner of his Democratic primary race.

The Associated Press called the race between Moore and his sole challenger, physician Eric Felber, at 8:14 p.m. Tuesday evening. With only early voting ballots, as well as an initial round of mail-in ballots and a dozen Election Day precincts reporting after polls closed, Moore held nearly 90% of votes in the Democratic race for governor.

Felber, who runs a medical clinic in Bethesda and chose LaTrece Hawkins Lytes as his running mate, did not immediately concede the race on his campaign’s social media platforms.

Moore’s campaign declared victory shortly after the AP’s call, with the incumbent governor issuing a statement calling on Marylanders to elect him in November “to continue the progress we’ve seen throughout Maryland.”

“There is more work to do, but what we’ve done together is just the beginning of what it looks like to build a Maryland that leaves no one behind,” said Moore, who became Maryland’s first Black governor after a decisive victory in the 2022 general election. 

In a Tuesday evening statement through Maryland Democrats, his running mate, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, said: “Record drops in violent crime, a stronger economy, better public schools—that’s what we’ve been able to deliver for Maryland. But, we can’t stop there. And, if we are going to make this Maryland’s decade, then we must do the work necessary to continue those results.”

No decisive victors in the more crowded Republican primary for governor had emerged early Tuesday evening, though Dan Cox, whom Moore defeated in 2022 by more than 30 percentage points, held an early lead among the nine candidates. Ed Hale, another Republican frontrunner, trailed Cox by only about 5% of the counted ballots.

This story has been updated with Miller’s statement.