The 2026 General Assembly session was supposed to be a quiet one, after a 2025 session when lawmakers closed a $3.3 billion budget gap with a combination of one-time fund transfers, program cuts and $1.6 billion in tax increases.
Instead, Gov. Wes Moore (D) enters the legislative session that starts Wednesday — the last session of his first term — facing a number of challenges before his reelection campaign begins in earnest.
There’s a projected $1.5 billion budget deficit, the likely loss of federal jobs and federal funding as a result of Trump administration policies, tepid relations with lawmakers, a potential showdown over redistricting and ongoing threats to funding to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
But in the days leading up to the session, Moore has methodically rolled out his legislative priorities in a series of press conferences, on housing, education, crime prevention, economic development, health care and more.
When asked in a a wide-ranging interview Monday what signature initiative was a must-have for the last session of the term, the governor would only say there is “a lot that needs to be accomplished.”
“And I know that’s why I’m asking for a second term. There’s more work to be done,” he said. “I think the people of this state will know that I’ve kept my promises.
“That when I said that we’re going to focus on creating pathways to work, wages and wealth, that we’ve been able to get more people into the workforce. That we’ve been able to quadruple the amount of people in apprenticeship and trade platforms,” he said. “We signed the largest mass pardon in the history of the United States of America to get more people employed. We went from 43rd in the country in unemployment to, at one point, literally having the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country.”
Despite that, he enters his fourth legislative session with slowly declining public approval.
Moore, the first Black man elected governor in Maryland and just the third nationally, entered office with approval ratings at or above 60%. Since 2024, those numbers have declined in polls by organizations including the Institute of Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Annapolis-based Gonzales Poll. In a Gonzales poll released Tuesday, Moore’s overall approval rating was about 52%, but the gap between his approval and disapproval numbers is now 11 points, down from a robust 35 points earlier.
“I’m not a person who spends my time looking at poll numbers,” Moore said Tuesday. “I really like to spend time on things that actually matter to the people of our state, making sure we can make our state safer, making sure we can continue the historic drops in violent crime … that’s what I focus my time on.”
Inside the State House, Moore faces potentially cooler relations with lawmakers of his own party.
During a December special session, the Democratic super-majority legislature overrode more than a dozen bills vetoed by Moore including a bill to create a commission on reparations. Around the same time, he angered many lawmakers in his party by announcing a campaign slate that could back primary challengers for those not seen as supportive enough of the governor’s agenda.
One item likely to test State House relations is the proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts, to counter Republican states that have redistricted to gain partisan advantage in hopes of retaining control of Congress in 2026. Moore and House leaders support the move, but the Senate appears dead-set against it.
Moore in November created a five-member advisory commission to study the current state maps for fairness — though he has never defined the term — and make a recommendation. The panel meets Friday and could potentially recommend a map to the legislature.
Moore said any legislation will come from the General Assembly, not from his office.
“This is not an administration bill,” he said Monday. “I’ve been clear about where my priorities are, but I’ve also been clear that it’s never the wrong time to fight for democracy.
“Once the commission makes the recommendations, they’ll send it to the Maryland General Assembly and then it’ll be in the hands of” lawmakers, he said.
That fight could pale, however, in the face of the newest budget deficit.
Moore and legislature leaders appear to agree that no additional taxes are likely this year.
Moore promised his upcoming budget will include a general fund proposal that is lower than the one in the current year budget.
Last year, Moore proposed a total budget of $63.7 billion — a 1% increase over the previous year, but that included a $27 billion general fund budget that was 1% smaller.
“I think that there are certain themes that people will be able to see from from this budget. One is, this is going to be the fourth budget in a row that I’ve introduced that’s not just a balanced budget, but that we are going to decrease the size of the general fund,” he said.
Moore did not elaborate on the size of the decrease, but another 1% reduction in the general fund would be a cut of about $270 million, or less than one-fifth of the projected fiscal 2027 deficit.
The governor said that while last year’s budget reflected “some of the greatest fears we had from the Trump-Vance administration,” this year’s budget will “reflect the greatest realities” of federal policy under President Donald Trump (R). Among those, the loss of 25,000 federal jobs in the state between January and November.
“We’re 25,000 a year in, OK? We’re a year in and I think that this is an administration that has shown they do not have respect for federal workers,” Moore said. “They don’t have respect for government. Their idea of fixing government is setting it on fire.”
And Moore said he expects more hits to come this year from an administration that “telegraphs their punches.”
“They have been telegraphing their punches from Inauguration Day, and they’ve been telegraphing the fact that that this assault on Maryland, this assault on our most vulnerable, this assault on our communities of color — they have been very clear about what they’re going to do, and they have given no indication that they are done,” Moore said. “In fact, the only indication we’ve gotten is that they’re just getting started.”
The state is also expecting federal funding to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge. But costs have grown from a rough estimate of $1.7 billion in the days immediately following the collapse to about $5.2 billion today.
U.S Transportation Department Secretary Sean Duffy has been critical of aspects of the project, raising concerns among some that the federal goverment will not come through with the 100% replacement costs approved by Congress under President Joseph Biden. Moore, who is scheduled to meet Thursday with Duffy, dismisses that threat.
“This is the fastest moving large project in the country,” Moore said, adding he was willing to work with the president and the federal government to move the project forward.
“This is America’s bridge when you think about its importance to the Port of Baltimore and its importance to commerce as a whole,” he said. “And so I’m looking forward to sitting down with the secretary to continue not just to make our case, but continue to show him, or just remind him, why Congress already had full faith in the work that we’re doing.”
The governor sidestepped questions about a contingency plan, should federal funding falter, saying he would continue to work with federal lawmakers if necessary.
“I’m just grateful that Congress provided the authorization, and we’re continuing to look forward to working with Congress to ensure that that stays stable,” Moore said.
— Maryland Matters Reporter William J. Ford contributed to this story.