Westley Watende Omari Moore (born October 15, 1978) is an American politician, businessman, author, and veteran, serving as the 63rd governor of Maryland since 2023.

He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and received a master's degree from Wolfson College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.

He also hosted Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network, and was executive producer and a writer for Coming Back with Wes Moore on PBS.

When his grades declined and he became involved in petty crime, his mother enrolled him in Valley Forge Military Academy and College.

[24] After graduating, he attended Wolfson College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he earned a master's degree in international relations in 2004[25] and submitted a thesis titled Rise and Ramifications of Radical Islam in the Western Hemisphere.

[26] He was activated in the Army following the September 11 attacks, and was deployed to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2006,[27] attaining the rank of captain while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division.

[34] In May 2014, he produced a three-part PBS series, Coming Back with Wes Moore, which followed the lives and experiences of returning veterans.

[42] In September 2016, Moore produced All the Difference, a PBS documentary that followed the lives of two young African-American men from the South Side of Chicago from high school through college and beyond.

[45][46][47] From June 2017 until May 2021, Moore was CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization that attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York City.

[51] Moore also sought to expand his advocacy to include America's poor and transform the organization into a national force in the poverty fight.

[65] He told The Baltimore Sun in October 2022 that he felt the idea of holding elected office "only started to feel like a real possibility in 2020, when he was about to leave his job running Robin Hood".

[68] Later that year, Attorney General Doug Gansler said that he considered choosing Moore as his running mate in the 2014 Maryland gubernatorial election, in which he ran with state delegate Jolene Ivey.

"[71] Moore attended the funeral for Freddie Gray but left early to catch a plane to Boston for a speech he was giving on urban poverty.

[73] In February 2017, Governor Larry Hogan nominated Moore to serve on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents.

Moore told The Sun that he was unaware of any issues with the home's taxes and wanted to pay what they owed immediately.

[85][86] In August 2024, The New York Times reported that Moore had falsely claimed that he was awarded the Bronze Star for his military service in his 2006 application for a White House fellowship, which he said was an "honest mistake" and that his commanding officer, Michael R. Fenzel, suggested he should do it, believing that Moore had earned it and was going through the paperwork to process it, and expressed remorse for the error and for failing to correct interviewers.

[89] Moore left Green Thumb Industries in March 2022,[90] and said in October that he would use a blind trust to hold his assets and resign from every board position if elected governor.

[101] During the primary, Moore was endorsed by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer,[102] Prince George's County executive Angela Alsobrooks,[103] television host Oprah Winfrey,[104] and former Governor Parris Glendening.

[122][123] The morning before his inauguration, Moore participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial at the Annapolis City Dock to "acknowledge the journey" that led to him becoming the third elected Black governor in U.S.

[129] During his first term, his legislative priorities included establishing a "service year option" for high school graduates,[130] removing regulations around new housing development,[131] and supporting military families through health care benefits, tax cuts, and employment opportunities.

[132][133] He has also sought to undo many of his predecessor's decisions, including the cancellation of the Baltimore Red Line,[134] the withholding of state funding for training abortion care providers,[135] and plans to expand portions of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270 using high-occupancy toll lanes.

[136] The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse occurred during Moore's tenure, after which he supported and signed into law legislation to provide financial assistance to workers and businesses affected by the subsequent closure of the Port of Baltimore.

[137] Following the disaster, Moore has urged Congress to pass legislation that would have the federal government cover the costs of rebuilding the bridge.

[142][143] He finished announcing his cabinet nominees on April 12, 2023, with the nomination of Sanjay Rai as Secretary for the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

[159] All but two of Moore's cabinet nominees were unanimously confirmed by the Maryland Senate: Schiraldi, who faced opposition from Republicans over his policies toward juvenile justice reform;[160] and Butler, whose critics claimed had not done enough to address complaints of racism and disparate treatment of Black officers in the Maryland State Police.

[170] He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution; his ancestor Prince Ames served in the Massachusetts Militia in the Revolutionary War.