BALTIMORE — Gov. Wes Moore is entering the two-year period leading up to his reelection bid with nearly $5 million in campaign cash after stepping up his fundraising efforts in 2024, which also included raising millions for other Democratic candidates, according to newly filed finance reports and the governor’s campaign team.
Moore saw his national profile grow in the last year as he traveled the country to campaign and fundraise for likeminded Democrats — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, mostly.
He pulled in more than $4.1 million for his own campaign while raising $1.5 million for the Maryland Democratic Party, $1.1 million for Harris in her race against President-elect Donald Trump and $1.3 million for Maryland candidates like now-U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks.
Moore’s campaign war chest gives him a significant head start ahead of his campaign for a second term, which he has indicated he will pursue but has not officially launched.
In his 2022 campaign, Moore vastly out-raised and out-spent Republican Del. Dan Cox on his way to a landslide victory. Moore raised $6.4 million and spent $5 million in the final months of the race while Cox raised about $730,000 and spent $940,000.
As a first-time candidate in 2022 whose background included investment banking and leading one of the country’s largest poverty-fighting nonprofits, Moore out-raised a crowded and more experienced field of Democratic candidates before he secured the nomination and won the general election.
He’s maintained a small campaign staff since his inauguration, raising money for his political action committee other than during the annual 90-day legislative session, when state officials are barred from holding fundraisers.
After that freeze at the beginning of 2024, committees run by Moore and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller collected roughly 10,000 donations, according to a review by The Baltimore Sun of data from annual campaign finance reports published Wednesday.
Moore’s campaign said in a statement that 80% of those contributions were worth $200 or less.
Moore’s top donors
Larger contributions of $6,000 — the maximum amount allowed under Maryland law — made up about a third of the total amount raised, about $1.3 million from 226 donors, The Sun’s review found.
Executives, consultants, lawyers and philanthropists from a wide variety of fields — from finance and health care to entertainment and education — were among the top donors.
They included Calvin Butler, the CEO of Exelon; Stuart Ingis, the chairman of the major national law firm Venable; Kurt Schmoke, the University of Baltimore president and former Baltimore mayor who was an early mentor for Moore; and Jessica Seinfeld, an author and nonprofit leader married to the comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
Companies who gave the maximum included Anheuser-Busch, the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Beverage Association, CFG Bank, Novo Nordisk, and Magic Johnson Enterprises, an investment company founded by the basketball Hall of Famer.
_______