‘Hell yeah, vote like he’s on the ballot’: Wes Moore takes aim at Trump ahead of midterms
TheGrio...
The Maryland governor criticized federal cuts and warned about threats to Black political power while urging voters to turn out in November.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore is slamming President Donald Trump, whose policies have negatively impacted Black voters across the country, in the final weeks before the midterm elections.
“I want people to come out and treat this like this is a presidential year,” Moore told a room of news outlets, including theGrio, while discussing the stakes ahead of Election Day at the 55th Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
As a result of Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce, health care, and safety net programs, Black Americans are seeing persistently high unemployment and financial strain, as they also navigate high gas and food prices as a result of his war in Iran and tariffs on global imports.
Referencing Trump’s recent remarks at the GOP Convention Center midterms last week, in which the president told Republican voters, “Pretend I’m on the ballot,” Governor Moore said, “Hell yeah, vote like he’s on the ballot.”
Moore lamented the continued attacks on Black political power, telling reporters, “The importance of CBC and the work that’s happening now, it could not be more pressing. We’re finding ourselves in a time when we are watching Black voter disenfranchisement becoming something that is almost a hobby of this administration.”
“We find ourselves at a time when disillusionment is running high because I think people are realizing that the same frustrations that so many of us have felt for many of us for our entire life about a system and it not working, we are seeing it in living color,” he said.
The governor and rumored 2028 presidential candidate noted that no state has been more impacted by Trump’s policies than Maryland, where federal job cuts and cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other federal resources have stretched the state thin. Moore said the state has seen 31,000 Marylanders fired by the federal government, which he noted was more than any state in this country; over 200,000 people lost their health care, and about 680,000 kids lost food assistance as a result of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed on July 4, 2025.
“There is almost a beastly nature that we are seeing from this federal administration, particularly when it comes to attacking our children, and particularly when it comes to attacking Black and Brown communities, repeatedly,” said Moore.
The governor urged voters who are frustrated with the outcome of the second Trump administration to “make your voice heard.”
But aside from Trump’s job performance being on the ballot, Moore reminded that Democratic congressional candidates, governors, mayors, and county executives are also on the ballot and willing to push back against the White House’s actions.
“[We] have a unique opportunity to be able to not just push back against Donald Trump, but actually push forward,” he said. “If we do not take this moment seriously, they will make this a pain point. That is their intention, and we have to make sure that we are actually protecting our future. And I think come November 3, we’ll have an opportunity to do it.”
Moore also came to the defense of progressive Democratic nominees, like Florida U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon, heading into November who have faced headwinds from within their own party. He argued that it was the voters who elected them as their party’s nominees and it will be the voters who have the final say in November.
“I remember when I first ran for office, it wasn’t like the Democratic Party asked me to…In fact, they told me not to, and I had millions of dollars put against me to stop me from winning,” the governor recalled. “The Democratic Party never made me the governor of Maryland. The people of Maryland did.”
He added, “A lot of people might look at an Angie Nixon or someone else and say they don’t have a chance. My point is this: you never know who has a chance until election day.”