Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to speak at Detroit NAACP dinner later this month

Carson Swick, The Baltimore Sun on Jun 13, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Weeks after returning from South Carolina, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will hit the road again — this time as a featured speaker at the Detroit NAACP Dinner on Sunday, June 29.

Moore’s senior press secretary, Carter Elliott, told The Baltimore Sun Friday that the governor “believes it’s important as the only Black governor” to speak to “one of the oldest NAACP chapters in the country.”

Elliott added that the governor’s reelection campaign funds will cover the cost of his trip to Michigan, meaning Maryland taxpayers are not directly on the hook. Moore has not yet officially filed to run for another term in 2026, but has more than $4 million in cash on hand.

Though Moore has publicly maintained he is “not running” for president in 2028, his Detroit dinner speech marks another appearance in a state with a relatively early and important Democratic primary. In late May, Moore headlined the South Carolina Democratic Party’s Blue Palmetto Dinner and attended Rep. Jim Clyburn’s “World Famous Fish Fry” — both historically important events for Democratic candidates seeking to woo the state’s large base of Black voters.

Michigan is home to auto manufacturing titans like Ford and General Motors, which employ thousands of blue-collar workers whose votes carry considerable weight nationally. More narrowly, the Detroit metropolitan area has a high population of Arab and Muslim Americans who traditionally vote for Democrats but largely soured on the party last year amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

Moore told Politico theme of his speech will be “the work of repair” — perhaps a catch-all term for his economic agenda since taking office in 2023.

“The theme of the speech is going to be the work of repair, and it’s really highlighting some of the work we are doing here in the state of Maryland that we’re really proud of,” Moore told the outlet. “There is no state that has moved with a sense of urgency to be able to do the work of repair like the state of Maryland the past two years.”

The word “repair” has been used in a different context by Black Baltimore leaders like Rev. Dr. Robert Turner, who criticized Moore’s May 16 veto of a bill that would have studied reparations for slavery in Maryland. The reparations issue prompted a South Carolina lawmaker, state Rep. John King, to call for Moore to be disinvited from the Blue Palmetto Dinner before the governor ultimately headlined the event.

Moore’s trip to the Detroit NAACP is not his only upcoming appearance that will address issues impacting the Black community. He has said he will visit Maryland’s Eastern Shore on Juneteenth next Thursday to announce a plan to end the state’s racial wealth gap.

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