Gov. Wes Moore isn’t ruling out a presidential run in 2028 but said he’s concentrating on Maryland.

“I am not focused on anything except for making sure that this is Maryland’s decade,” he said Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

CNN’s Dana Bash had asked him if he was ruling out a 2028 run for president. The governor didn’t say “yes” or “no.” Instead, he talked about how the state is giving middle-class families a tax cut — something Maryland Republicans dispute. Moore also said Maryland’s economy is growing for the first time in a decade.

“That certainly sounds like something that would fit on a national platform campaign bumper sticker,” Bash noted, as she and the governor both laughed.

Moore’s latest national interview comes as he and the Democratic-led Maryland General Assembly have a week to resolve the state’s $3.3 billion budget deficit. The law requires that they pass a balanced budget by the last day of the legislative session, which is April 7 this year.

Moore’s appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” is his third on national news in as many weeks, drawing comments like this one from state Del. Mark Fisher, a Calvert County Republican, who said: “Gov. Moore is campaigning for president — not running MD. He ignores tax rates & electric bills because he doesn’t plan to stay.”

The governor’s latest comments about 2028 come as he’s the featured guest at a fundraiser Wednesday for his federal political action committee. That appearance has attracted scrutiny because state law limits political fundraising for the governor and other state officials during the legislative session. The lawyer for the Unity First PAC, however, said it is legal for Moore to attend the fundraiser.

Part of why the PAC’s lawyer, David Mitrani of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., said the event is above board is because the PAC does not currently support any candidate for federal, state or local office.

The PAC largely used its financial muscle in the 2024 Senate race to campaign for Democrat Angela Alsobrooks and against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. Alsobrooks won the race by 12 points.

Moore also spent a large part of 2024 campaigning for Kamala Harris, including when he was on a Chicago stage seven months ago at the Democratic National Convention.

He’s been recognized as one of the party’s young stars and predicted as one of its 2028 presidential candidates. Moore has faced a mix of positive and negative criticism for raising his national profile. Republicans in Maryland have accused the governor of caring more about his political future than the state’s budget deficit and its residents, while Moore’s supporters and others have applauded his rising political star and chance to lead the Democratic Party in 2028.

Early in the Sunday morning interview, Bash asked Moore about whether the Democratic Party brand is toxic, referring to some recent comments from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently said it is.

Moore was careful to say it’s not his job to bring the Democrats out of the wilderness. “It’s my job to make sure that this is Maryland’s day,” he said.

“But the thing that I know is that we’ve got to make sure that it’s not about a talking point; it’s not about what’s the right slogan,” he said. “It’s about delivering results.”

He said he’s doing that in Maryland by adding “close to 100,000 jobs.” As Moore has been saying frequently lately, that’s “more jobs in my first two years than the previous administration added in eight years.” He also pointed to a lower homicide rate in Baltimore.

Moore also talked about bringing young men back to the Democratic Party, pointing to outreach he’s done at the state level. That includes getting more men inside the classroom, accessing health care, reforming the juvenile justice system and more.

“I’m proud of the fact that Maryland is leading the charge on this, but I do want this to be a larger national conversation about what are we doing to bring young men back into the fold?” Moore said. “Because it’s not just about elections; it’s about the future of our society that we can solve this challenge.”

Have a news tip? Contact politics editor Candy Woodall at cwoodall @baltsun.com.