Wes Moore, Maryland’s Democratic governor, was enthusiastically greeting guests as his aide guided him out of an afternoon cocktail party held at an Italian restaurant overlooking the Chicago River. Accompanied by a team of aides and security personnel, he and his wife, Dawn, exited through a side door, navigating through a narrow hallway lined with platters of meatballs and lamb chops, before finding their way into a spacious service elevator.
The Democratic National Convention is not just a gathering; it also presents an ongoing logistical challenge for prominent officials like Moore, whose presence is highly sought after.
“You see a lot of back kitchens,” Moore remarked. “There’s a slogan we learned in the military: ‘Stay frosty.’ Because things are going to move and shift, and I think there’s been a lot of that, that we’ve seen from the convention.”
At 45 years old and a former Army captain who served in Afghanistan, Moore was a guest of honor at the cocktail event organized by With Honor PAC, an organization that supports veterans in Congress. He had just come from a panel discussion hosted by the Black Economic Alliance, where he addressed topics such as patriotism, his family, and his initiatives on criminal justice reform. Numerous hands were shaken throughout the day.