I would like to be emailed about black bean burrito bowl, events and updates from The Independent. Wes Moore was sworn in as the state’s first Black governor on Wednesday, pledging to work for greater inclusion and economic equity while also focusing on improving education, fighting crime and climate change. We do not have to choose between a competitive economy and an equitable one. The 44-year-old Democrat, who won in a landslide in November, also committed to fighting violent crime.

Many Maryland residents have grown weary in their faith in government’s ability to keep them safe, he said. In Baltimore, Maryland’s largest city, homicides surpassed 300 for the eighth year running last year. Gun violence remains high, despite repeated promises from elected officials and new anti-violence initiatives. Maryland can, and we will, be both.

Moore, who has not held public office before now, won a crowded Democratic primary in July before going on to win the general election by more than 30 percentage points against Republican Dan Cox, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Moore is a best-selling author and former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty nonprofit. He also is a Rhodes scholar and a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan. And there’s so much more to come. We can and we will be a leader in wind technology, in grid electrification, and clean transit. 2035 and create thousands of jobs in the process. The new governor also emphasized his commitment to education, including a state initiative through which high school graduates can volunteer for a year of service.

Moore was joined by other Black leaders at the wreath-laying ceremony on a bright sunny morning, including Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Attorney General Anthony Brown, former Lt. Michael Steele, and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who was the nation’s second elected Black governor, in 2006. Virginia’s Douglas Wilder was the first, in 1989, and Moore is the third. Patrick told The Associated Press after the ceremony.

Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who was Maryland’s first Black candidate elected statewide, called it an exciting day for the state. Steele said while walking in a procession up the city’s Main Street. Moore took the oath of office using a Bible owned by Frederick Douglass, a Marylander who escaped slavery on the state’s Eastern Shore before becoming an author and famed abolitionist. When Moore gave his inaugural speech as Maryland’s 63rd governor, he looked out on a crowded mall in front of the Capitol where there is a statue of U.