As he ramps up political activities, Moore hires ex-Whitmer aide to helm campaign

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks at a stop on the "Driving Forward Blue Wall Bus Tour" at the MSU Union in East Lansing, Mich., on Oct. 17, 2024. The bus tour is lead by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Gov. Wes Moore (D) is turning to a strategist with close ties to a potential rival in the 2028 White House election to helm his 2026 reelection campaign in Maryland – and possibly a national campaign beyond that.

Moore has hired Ron Owens, a Michigander who has worked as a political operative and statehouse aide for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) to run his reelection campaign.

Many Democrats – in Moore’s political orbit and beyond – had expected Ned Miller, who ran Moore’s 2022 campaign, joined his administration and later oversaw his super PAC, to head the reelection effort. But Miller has moved to Georgia, to run former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ 2026 campaign for governor.

“I’m thrilled to have Ron Owens leading our reelection campaign as our campaign manager,” Moore said in a statement provided to Maryland Matters. “Ron brings immense experience to Maryland from his work all across the country – with him on our team we will create the most aggressive statewide operation in history to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot all across Maryland.”

Though only 29, Owens is a seasoned operative who worked most recently as a campaign adviser to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, helping Democratic Senate candidates, including now-Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), with strategy and campaign management.

In 2023, he was campaign manager to Brandon Presley, a former state utility regulator – and cousin of Elvis Presley’s – who was the Democratic nominee for governor of Mississippi. Presley ran a surprisingly strong race in a red state, losing to incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves by just 3.2 points.

Most of Owens’ political experience, however, is in Michigan, his home state. After a stint as a legislative aide to the state House Democratic leader, Owens was the deputy political director on Whitmer’s successful 2018 campaign for governor.

He spent two years as Whitmer’s public affairs specialist in her gubernatorial office, then was political director in her 2022 reelection campaign.

After Owens was hired to run Presley’s campaign, a leading Mississippi Republican cited the operative’s ties to Whitmer as a way of blasting the Democratic contender.

“COVID showed Americans that it certainly matters who serves as governor,” Henry Barbour, the Republican National Committeeman from Mississippi, told the Magnolia Tribune in 2023. “Democrats such as Gretchen Whitmer advanced their elitist, government-knows-best agenda that restricted Americans’ liberty. And Brandon Presley hired her top political operative.

“Don’t believe him for a minute when he tries to persuade you he’s not of the same political persuasion,” Barbour said.

Whitmer and Moore are both seen as top-tier potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. But while Whitmer is termed out of office at the end of 2026, Moore must first win reelection next year before he can fully focus on any hypothetical national campaign.

Still, in the early skirmishing leading up to the 2028 White House primaries, Owens’ decision to cast his lot with Moore, one of Whitmer’s potential rivals, is noteworthy, if only significant to insiders.

In a 2018 interview, Owens highlighted his work ethic and life philosophy.

“One thing that my mom instilled in my siblings and me was to, one, always be kind to other people, two, always work twice as hard as anyone else and, three, whenever you’re working you should always be doing something that is benefiting others,” Owens said in an nterview with Pride Source, a Michigan LGBTQ+ publication.

“We are fortunate to have him as our leader as we seek to continue our mission to create a Maryland that leaves no one behind,” Moore said.

At this stage, Moore still has a pretty skeletal campaign operation as the 2026 election ramps up, though that is likely to change soon. But he will enter a potentially perilous campaign season without Miller, who, after guiding the governor’s first statewide campaign, became a senior adviser and director of engagement for his administration.

In the middle of last year, Miller left state government to oversee Moore’s Unity First PAC and also played a leadership role in Freedom in Reproduction – Maryland Inc., the entity that helped pass the ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Moore appears to have also lost the services of his finance director, Patrick Denny, who was with the campaign since 2021.

The Moore campaign has not yet indicated who will replace Denny as finance director and it is not known who will oversee the governor’s PAC, which he largely used during the 2024 election cycle to attack Republican congressional candidates in Maryland. The PAC is now airing ads touting Moore’s economic record.

Even though he has publicly insisted in recent weeks that he is not running for president in 2028, Moore continues to behave like a possible national candidate. His trip in late May to South Carolina, site of an early and critical presidential primary, won wide attention from national political insiders and commentators.

Strategists on the popular “Hacks on Tap” podcast subsequently called Moore a “top 10” contender for 2028, and Chuck Todd, the former political director of NBC News, recently opined that Moore has the strongest resume and most gold-plated Rolodex of any of the hypothetical Democratic presidential candidates.

Moore appeared last week as a guest on “Pod Save America,” the breezy podcast hosted by former Obama administration officials. There, he explained why he’s not making plans to run for president, saying he never anticipated a career in politics and is enjoying serving as governor after starting the 2022 campaign as a relative unknown.

“I’m playing with house money right now and I love the work we’re doing in Maryland,” he said. The governor added that he will “go anywhere and everywhere” to tout the state’s progress.

Bold-faced names

Moore’s out-of-state travels continue this month, and include a recent gathering with Democrats in Virginia, which is holding closely watched statewide elections this year.

Moore is headed to a fundraising brunch in Aspen, Colorado,on Saturday, hosted by Damian O’Doherty, the former Maryland political operative and co-founder of KO Public Affairs in Baltimore, who lives now in the Rocky Mountains but often returns to his home state.

The host committee of the event, which O’Doherty has informally dubbed “A Whole Lotta Skiers For Maryland Governor Wes Moore,” includes David Baugh, the executive director of the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club, and a former superintendent of the Aspen School District; Rich Benenson, managing partner of the Denver office of the law firm and lobbying powerhouse Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; Gordon Bronson, chief business officer at Continuum Partners, a real estate development and financing firm; Adam Goers, a former Democratic operative with ties to former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and now the Denver-based senior vice president for corporate affairs for Columbia Care, a cannabis company; and Michael Stratton, a senior Colorado-based Democratic and corporate strategist.

Moore’s fundraiser in Colorado coincides with the Aspen Ideas Festival, the signature annual event of the Aspen Institute. According to the festival website, the confab “brings brilliant minds from around the globe to discuss the ideas that will shape tomorrow and help us understand today. From sunup to sundown, we’ll explore critical issues and uncover ideas that spark wonder.”

The festival schedule shows Moore discussing “bold, purposeful leadership” on Saturday afternoon with Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, moderated by CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson.

“Big thinkers and doers share fresh ideas, challenge assumptions and ignite conversations that ripple far beyond [the Aspen conference venue],” the conference website says of the panel discussion with Moore and the other dignitaries. “Curiosity required.”

Moore is then scheduled to travel to Detroit, where he will deliver the keynote address at the Detroit NAACP’s 70th anniversary dinner on Sunday evening. That appearance was first reported by Politico.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.