Democrat Wes Moore was elected governor of Maryland yesterday by a huge margin, beating first-term state legislator Dan Cox, whose MAGA extremism — he chartered buses to the January 6 rally/putsch — and endorsement by Donald Trump didn't go over well at all in a state with twice as many Democrats as Republicans. Cox, one of many election deniers who lost yesterday, couldn't even get the support of Gov. Larry Hogan, who may be a Republican but who nonetheless refused to endorse Cox, calling him "a QAnon whack job" who wasn't fit to hold office.
With 89 percent of votes counted, Moore had 59.8 percent of the vote, while Cox received only 37.1 percent. Moore will be Maryland's first Black governor, and just the third Black governor in the US (as massive politics nerds, you surely already knew the previous two were Virginia's Douglas Wilder in 1989 and Massachusetts's Deval Patrick in 2006).
Here's Moore's victory speech, in which he thanks the hotel staff who put the room and the party together before he thanked his volunteers, which strikes us as a hell of a good gesture.
This was Moore's first run for political office after a career that included being a Rhodes Scholar, leading combat troops as an Army officer in Afghanistan, being CEO of the New York anti-poverty nonprofit Robin Hood, producing TV shows for public TV and for Oprah Winfrey, who endorsed him, and writing several books.
The AP notes that his campaign theme borrowed from his time in the military, adapted to the fight for social justice: "Leave no one behind." During his victory speech, Moore said, "When I was an Army captain and led soldiers into combat in Afghanistan, we lived by a simple principle: Leave no one behind. But for too long, Maryland, [we've been] leaving too many of our family and our neighbors behind."
And that is where Dok's electricity went out and he texted that he had to go find "power." I, the Editrix, will add that Cox was one of the far-Right candidates that Democrats took a risk in elevating in the primary — although their "elevating," which a lot of folks were mad about, took the form of saying "look at this crazy asshole." And it paid off.
WHEW. THE END.
Mark this happy day with CASH, if you are able! You already feel good, and it will make you feel even better!
"Has anyone else had their non-comments marked as spam for no apparent reason recently? I had three just last night. I thought we were supposed to be whitelisted or something so that didn't happen?"
Did you forget to pay your $8 Sorosbucks for your verified blue check?
Well, it is definitely NOT in my front yard, or anything, so don't bother looking there.