Wes Moore

Listen, since I've been the governor, and I'm very proud of this, since I've been the governor, we have added over 35,000 new businesses to the state of Maryland, either businesses that have grown within Maryland or businesses that we've gone and stolen.

from other states.

So we're happy that we're actually making progress on that front.

Since I've been the governor, and this is despite watching what's happened with our federal workforce, which I talked about, we've added nearly 100,000 new jobs to the state of Maryland.

And by the way, that's a majority private sector jobs that have been added.

So we're very happy about that.

But I'm also very clear, we've got to move faster.

Because that economic diversification, being able to focus on these new industries of the future, the places that we can uniquely capture that type of alpha and that type of growth for our state is something that we can't compromise on.

And I think for too long, we've been a state that has relied on asking more of the people who were there and not producing enough to be able to keep them.

And I think if we can change that mindset and change that mentality, as we started making move towards, we know we have more work to do.

I think that's gonna be the right answer, particularly in the neighborhood that we call home as well.

And honestly, here's the thing.

I love my state and I love what it offers.

And honestly, do you know what I'm trying to do right now?

I want to make sure that you don't have to be in Palm Beach.

I want to make sure that every single Marylander doesn't feel like they have to go anywhere.

I want people to know that Maryland is a place that you don't just want to grow and stay and build, but you want to have your kids and your grandkids.

I'll say this.

One, and you're right, those people who you mentioned, they are friends.

And sometimes people are like, oh, they're political friends.