Wes Moore

the election in 2026.

The second piece is important for people to remember is this, is our elections are not run by the federal government.

They're run by states.

And so the guarantees that we have that I can give to the people of Maryland is that there is an independent body

that focus on making sure that our elections are safe and our elections are transparent.

Those are the instructions that people should be listening to.

And frankly, any violations of the guidelines that they have laid out to include making sure that you are putting armed personnel anywhere near voting booths is a violation of the law and will be treated as such.

Oh, well, they're very clear that the right people means people that vote for them.

The right people means people that look and think like them.

The right people are people who they know does not actually represent what our democracy is supposed to look like.

You know, we need to make sure that people know that this is the line that we will hold.

that if we are going to continue being a democracy, that part of that foundation means having free and fair and safe elections.

And that has to be something that our state leaders and our state governments have got to take seriously.

Thank God that the founding fathers, when they laid this out, they took it out of the hands.

of the federal government.

And they did it for this exact reason.

And so us as chief executives of our states and as other lawmakers and legislators within our states, we have to make sure that that responsibility, that heirloom of responsibility that we have is one that we take seriously and is one that we will protect.

Absolutely.

And let's be clear when we're talking about ICE, what we're talking about.

We're talking about an agency that who in 2024, their budget was $10 billion.