Maryland's governor-elect is Johns Hopkins University alumnus Wes Moore, who will lead the state as its first Black governor. A member of the Krieger School Class of 2001, Moore, a Democrat, earned an estimated 60% of the vote during Tuesday's midterm elections, though ballots were still being counted Wednesday. When he takes office in January, he will become the third Black governor in U.S. history.
An Army combat veteran, best-selling author, youth advocate, and small business owner, Moore, 44, succeeds outgoing two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
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Born in Takoma Park, Maryland, Moore and his sisters were raised from a young age by their widowed mother. Despite early academic and behavioral struggles, he graduated Phi Theta Kappa in 1998 as a commissioned officer from Valley Forge Military College, and Phi Beta Kappa in 2001 from Johns Hopkins, where he played football and earned a bachelor's degree in international studies. Moore was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and went on to study international relations at Oxford University in Oxford, England.
After his studies, Moore, a paratrooper and Captain in the United States Army, served a combat tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. He then served as a White House fellow to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In 2010, Moore published The Other Wes Moore, a story about the fragile nature of opportunity in America, which became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Moore went on to become CEO of the Robin Hood foundation, which has distributed more than $600 million to lift families out of poverty.
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In Maryland's 1st Congressional District, Republican Andy Harris, who like Moore is a Hopkins alumnus, was elected to a seventh term in office. Harris earned his bachelor's degree from the Krieger School in 1977, his medical degree from the School of Medicine in 1980, and a master's degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1995.
In Maryland's 7th Congressional District, Democrat Kweisi Mfume also won reelection. Mfume, a Baltimore native, earned a Hopkins masters degree in international studies in 1984.
Lauren Underwood, a 2009 graduate of the MSN/MPH program at the School of Nursing, won a third term in the remapped 14th Congressional District in Illinois
Sara Russell Rodriguez, who earned a BSN from Hopkins Nursing in 2003, was elected Lieutenant Governor in Wisconsin
Posted in Politics+Society, Alumni
