BALTIMORE — In the only chance Maryland voters will have to see the candidates for governor face off in a televised debate, Democrat Wes Moore painted Republican Dan Cox as an extremist who will restrict abortion rights and bankrupt the state as Cox reiterated specific and false claims against his opponent while vowing to “restore freedoms” and implement parental rights in schools.
Cox, an attorney and first-term state delegate, and Moore, an author and former nonprofit leader, laid out their visions Wednesday for a post-Gov. Larry Hogan Maryland while targeting each other’s experience and platforms.
For Moore, who recent polls have shown has a large double-digit lead in the race, that meant taking aim at Cox’s longtime support of former President Donald Trump, including his attendance at the Jan. 6, 2021, “stop the steal” rally outside the White House and his unwillingness to say whether he’ll accept the results of their race this fall.
“I’m standing on stage with an extremist election-denier whose rhetoric and whose policies are not just dangerous and divisive but will take this state backwards,” said Moore, who within minutes of the debate started reading aloud Cox’s tweet about hosting buses of his constituents to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6.
Cox, as he has repeatedly done in recent weeks, refused to say he would accept the outcome of this year’s election, equating it to saying a surgery went well before it takes place.
Cox also leaned into claims that he’s presented before with little evidence — including that Moore has lied about where he was born and that Moore supports policies that take funding from police.
“We are bigger than middle school name-calling, sir,” Cox said moments after calling Moore a “phony” for what he alleged were statements in Moore’s book, “The Other Wes Moore,” that were “completely false.”
Moore has not advocated for “defund the police” initiatives and pointed to his endorsements from law enforcement. He also, earlier this year, addressed allegations that he had been untruthful in his 2010 book and in interviews about being born and raised in West Baltimore. The book accurately recounts his early childhood in Takoma Park and then in the Bronx, though an error on the back-cover synopsis was later corrected.
“They know that what he is saying is not true,” Moore said of law enforcement that support him. “So there’s no need for me to just continue to say what he’s saying is not true, because the majority of what he’s saying is not true.”
The public sparring was a long time coming as Moore has declined all other invitations to go head-to-head with Cox in public forums. Cox has routinely criticized Moore for that decision, saying he’s doing a disservice to voters ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Moore, who turns 44 this week, is making his first bid for public office after a diversified career in the military, philanthropy, finance, government, public speaking and writing. He narrowly won a crowded Democratic primary in July after building a well-funded and energetic organizing campaign.
In a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-1 and supported President Joe Biden by large margins in 2020, political observers say he has a solid chance of defeating Cox, a far-right conservative who continues to align himself with Trump.
Cox, 48, defeated Hogan’s political protege, Kelly Schulz, in the primary after building support from a conservative base that was frustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic measures and the curriculum of public schools. As a freshman delegate, Cox sued and tried to impeach Hogan, who has vowed not to support his candidacy.
In the debate hosted Wednesday by Maryland Public Television, Cox said he has “stood with” Hogan consistently on almost everything other than the pandemic, such as education, crime and tax issues. Moore, meanwhile, used Hogan’s lack of support for Cox several times to make a point about why he had to refute Cox’s statements during the debate.
“What Gov. Hogan said about you being unfit to be in this office, you are putting on full display right now,” Moore said.
Another major disagreement during the debate was over the future of abortion rights in the state and nationally.
Cox has introduced and supported legislation in Annapolis that would effectively ban abortion, and he celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year to overturn Roe v. Wade. He did not answer a direct question about whether he supports federal efforts by some Republicans to implement nationwide restrictions on abortions. He also did not directly say he would not take steps to change Maryland’s laws protecting abortion rights, as Hogan has said.
“I will defend unborn life but not take into … my power something that is not constitutional,” said Cox, adding that Moore would like to allow abortions “all the way through” the third trimester. “It’s absolutely disgusting to think that that’s the position of my opponent. It’s extreme, and I will instead follow the law.”
Moore talked about making Maryland “a safe haven for abortion care” and that he would not interfere in the roughly 1% of abortions that occur at the end of a pregnancy, often for medical emergencies. He said Cox is on record supporting a ban for abortion even in the cases of rape, incest and the health of the woman — while Cox said he supports those exceptions.
“I do not believe that lawyers and politicians and judges should be getting in the way of the relationship between a woman and her doctor,” Moore said.
Other arguments that led to crosstalk, shaking heads and demands for additional time to respond included discussions around equity and potential reparations for Black Marylanders and the candidates’ economic plans.
“There is nothing in my plan that calls for the raising of taxes. None. Not a word,” Moore said in response to Cox’s accusations. “Now, the thing that I do know is my opponent’s economic plan that he has put out there would literally defund the police, defund education and bankrupt the state.”
Cox, responding to that accusation after the debate, said he believes his menu of proposed tax cuts — including property taxes and corporate income taxes — would not affect the state’s ability to fund the budget in part because of the billions of dollars in federal aid waiting to be spent.
“We have plenty of surplus to make sure that we can reduce that and once you reduce it, especially with the corporate rate, you attract those jobs and businesses, and you will have immediate balancing of the tax that that brings us as a state,” Cox said.
On the impact of racial disparities and the wealth gap between Black and white residents, Cox initially shifted the discussion to the original business shutdowns at the beginning of the pandemic.
“The only thing we need to talk about with reparations is making sure that the people who were robbed of their business and their wealth the last two years, with an authority that my opponent supports — and that is a lockdown authority — we need to make sure that we’re back in the position to prosper once again,” Cox said.
Cox went on to say he does not agree with policies that transfer wealth or give a leg up to businesses based on race, and he repeatedly claimed Moore said he supported reparations when he did not.
Moore instead talked about how the racial wealth gap is “real” and said he will focus on raising the minimum wage, addressing “unfair appraisal values in historically redlined neighborhoods” and getting the state up to its goals on providing contracts to minority-owned businesses.
After the contentious debate, both candidates told reporters that their opponent had been untruthful throughout the debate and the campaign in general.
Moore, asked if he wished he had agreed to more than this single debate, responded simply, “No. I’m good.”
The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 18. One week of early in-person voting begins Oct. 27, the deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Nov. 1, and Election Day is Nov. 8.
