Wes moore and dan cox, the major nominees in marylands 2022 governor race, discuss issues including abortion, gun legislation, and inflation. Good evening and thank you for joining us. Tonight we will have a one hour debate featuring the top two contenders for maryland governor. This is a joint production. We would like to acknowledge those of you washing watching in washington and listening on the radio in baltimore. I will try to keep things on track as we explore the issues. I would like to introduce you to our panel of journalists. Pamela wood from the baltimore banner. Tracy wilkins in nbc washington. Alexis taylor represents the afroamerican newspapers. Jeff falcon of maryland public television. The debate will feature questions from student journalists for morgan state and salisbury university. Dan cox is the republican nominee for governor. Wes moore is the democratic elected nominee. Each candidate has the opportunity to use two make an opening statement. We randomly used marylands pick three from yesterday to determine who goes first. Good evening. This could be marylands moment. We have amazing people and incredible potential. I was raised by an immigrant single mom after my dad died. I joined the army and learned the basic principle, leave no one behind. As your governor, that will be the new mission for maryland. I understand you are concerned about paying groceries and bills. We can build an economy that works for everyone. I understand you are worried about safety in your own communities. We can work with communities and Law Enforcement to ensure public safety. I know you are concerned about your rights being stripped away. Maryland can protect abortion rights and Abortion Access. My name is wes moore. I am a combat veteran and Third Generation maryland or and i would be honored to have your support. Dan cox hello, maryland. It is an honor to be here to represent your interest. I am a husband and a father of 10 children. In the state house have served for many years and working as a small businessman, a rope on a farm and had to work my way through college. I understand the pain of putting food on a table. I stood with Governor Hogan to ensure our streets were safe and taxes were lower. I was on the governors crime Accountability Task force and worked for parental rights to make sure our children are safe and options are there for them. My opponent has sought to defund the police and to centralize education. I intend to put power back in the peoples hands. Jason our first question comes from pamela wood. 9 you have a history of promoting distrust in elections. Mr. Cox, that you worked as a lawyer on trumps behalf and cohosted buses to washington dc for his stop the steal rally. In maryland you just fought unsuccessfully a legal battle over how some ballots will be counted. Do you trust that marylands election system is accurate and should we believe you will honor and accept the Election Results . Dan cox i believe in our constitutional system. I have been working to do this in legislature and pledged to do as your next governor, to ensure that, democracy is at stake. I will continue to make sure procedures are honored. Reporter to follow up, i asked if you will accept the results of the election and if you believe there is integrity. I have always accepted Election Results that are fair and follow the constitution. At this point it would be similar to saying before surgery takes place to decide if the surgery went well. That is why the statute of maryland says there is a process that has to be followed and every candidate on the ballot has a right to that process. I intend to uphold that process. Reporter mr. Moore, given the statements and actions of your opponent, it is possible a meaningful number of marylanders will not believe the results of the election. What will you do to ensure detection integrity . Wes moore i am going to redo something. I am hosting to buses to the rally to help stop the steal. Demand no china biden. Those words are from my opponent. We have free, fair, Transparent Elections in our state. Never has the question of Election Integrity come up in the state of american of maryland that it will not come up in 2022. We are proud of the election process we have here. I will honor the results of the election and i hope my opponent will do the same. Reporter to my question, what more could be done to ensure public trust in the Election Results . Wes moore i think the public trust is there. We have an election system where we offer mailin ballots, early voting, offer day of. Early ballots should be counted prior. We have a remarkably transparent election system in our state and one that is irresponsible and dangerous to cast doubt on the election system in maryland. Dan cox . . May i respond . What is dangerous is my opponent who is ignoring state law. I have been seeking to uphold state law, exemplified even in my own county where a democrat candidate won an election by one vote and the certification process was denied. Because of the fact that there was a question as to the counting, that is the right of everyone on the ballot. That is the statute of the law. I have worked across the aisle to ensure our elections have integrity. I intends to uphold the law as we go forward. Reporter mr. Moore, i want to discuss why you only agree to one in person debate. The student paper from oregon state said it is unfortunate mr. Moore did not accept numerous invitations. Dan cox accuses you of running from him. How do you respond to those who feel you are snubbing the nominee . Wes moore i respond by saying i am excited to be here right now today debating dan cox. We have spent time going all over maryland, going to all jurisdictions, meeting voters where they are and we will spend voters at all hbcus because they will be important to the longterm vitality of our state. Why i decided to spend time with voters talking about issues they care about and while i am eager to have this debate with my opponent, the fact that even Governor Hogan says he will not support his candidacy and calls him unfit to lead should be a clear indication to voters about why i want to spend my time talking with voters instead of debating with dan cox. Reporter mr. Cox, if you lose will you build bridges . Dan cox absolutely. We need to be team players. The fact that i have stood with Governor Hogan indicates im the only one running for governor with experience and who has stood with Governor Hogans policies to lower taxes and crime while my opponent has proclaimed he wants to defund the police on salon. Com. This is the difference between us. He does not want to debate because he is a phony. So many things in his book are false. He claims he was raised in Baltimore City. He didnt live there until he was 34. Wes moore he will not support delegate cox, i will not even give him a tour of the governors office. I am standing on stage right now with an extremist election denier whose rhetoric and policies are not just dangerous and divisive, but will take our nation and state backwards. My intention is to talk about issues maryland cares about like ensuring we have a 21st century Education System for our children, safe neighborhoods, an economy that grows and benefits everyone instead of delving into conspiracy theories that my opponent continues to throw out. Dan cox i think that is preposterous. This is outrageous and ridiculous. We are bigger then middle school namecalling. We have to get to the business of the state. I have toured the statehouse. Ive been working in annapolis for four years. I am running to restore opportunity, safety, affordability, freedom, education is my platform. That is what maryland wants. That is what i am experiencing with my own family and what we will bring to annapolis. Reporter as you both know, americans feel the effects of inflation. Residents of our state feel the pain at the Grocery Store and at the pump. Every race, creed, color is making tough decisions. For black marylanders, the effects are magnified. As mr. Moore pointed out, white families in maryland have eight times the wealth in the state as black families. What would you do to close the racial wealth gap . Not just talk about it. What would you do, what actions would you take to address this . Mr. Cox. Dan cox in terms of reparations, we want to make sure that people robbed of their business and wealth in the last two years because of the lock down, we are back in the position to prosper again. My opponent is talking about transferring wealth away from people because of their skin color. That is racist. I am a civil rights attorney. I am about equal justice for all of maryland, making opportunities. We need to make sure all maryland citizens have what they need to have an education. Its preposterous when you go to Baltimore City and the cry of everyones heart is we have to get our state back on track economically unsafe. That is my platform. Mr. Moore wants to undermine that. Wes moore the impact of Racial Disparity did not start two years ago, delegate cox. This has been a long term challenge that our state has to address. The fact that there is an 81 racial wealth gap in the state is not pretend. Its not because one group is working eight times harder. We have to address this issue. It impacts each of us. The racial wealth gap has caused this country 16 trillion in gdp and we have to focus on creating pathways for work, wages, wealth, having an Education System that teaches young people how to not just be employees, but employers. Increased wages and getting to a 15 minimum wage and increasing pathways for wealth and addressing unaffordable homes and unfair values in redline neighborhoods and a broken procurement laws we have. We have not come close. We have to move in a direction where we take meaningful and reparative action to address the economic gaps we see in our society. Jason we are going to keep moving. Reporter mr. Moore, student test scores nationally and in maryland are down. Are we doing the right things to help students catch up after the pandemic . Wes moore thank you. The answer is we need to do more. I have gone around the state and hear frustration from parents. I have an 11yearold daughter and eightyearold son. We have an unique opportunity to get this right when we have resources coming from the federal side that is earmarked toward educational support. We have to ensure that capital goes to things like afterschool and summer support and advanced tutoring and that we are properly implementing the blueprint for marilyns future. I was proud to work on it and our administration would fully fund and implement. I am proud of maryland teachers to you have backed my campaign so that we can move holistically to make sure that our children get the education they need to get. Dan cox i want to begin by mentioning the clarity of what we just heard. My opponent stated on record that he is for reparations. This is an extreme and inappropriate approach to healing the divide we know and love to see healed. That is what made Frederick Douglas great. They sought to use our constitution to advance freedom for everyone, not create division that my opponent says he will enforce with a redistribution of wealth. It is appalling and reflects the education question because that is part of his education program. That will not give us a worldclass education. We need to get back to reading, writing, as arithmetic, stem education. Part of my platform is to make sure schools turn on the hvac and it works. We will store restore worldclass education in maryland. Wes moore when asked about education, you said i said something i did not say. This is part of a dangerous rhetoric that will move our state backwards. I honor what Governor Hogan said about you being unfit. You are putting that on full display. Jason there is back and forth listen to some college student. We have journalism students from saulsberry university. How will guncontrol and Crime ConventionCrime Prevention intersect under your administration . Dan cox its important that we get the guns off the streets that are being used illegally for crimes. Mr. Moore and his team supported decriminalizing much of this and refused, the approach, their approach was to refuse the appellant felony approach that if you commit a crime, they want you to run the streets. We are going to bring back law and order and the safety on our streets that everyone is crying out for. Wes moore thank you for the question. It is incredibly important because there is no higher priority than public safety. People need to feel safe in their own communities and homes and skin. I think about what my opponent said i said, which i didnt say, and how my opponent likes to say he backs the blue. The irony is the blue does not back you. Police have endorsed our campaign. So the things we will do in partnership in our communities are ensure we can get and keep illegal guns off our street and get and keep violent offenders off our street. There is an Important Role the state plays in that and in making sure we have a strong probation system. Parole system. It is understaffed and we have to fix it so we can put state resources to make sure we provide support for violence intervention and Interruption Program that show impact because those closest to the challenge are often close to the solution. We have to have a state that works in partnership with jurisdictions and with federal counterparts to ensure we get and keep illegal guns off the streets and violent offenders out of our neighborhoods. Dan cox mr. Moore has long worked with open society and they came to my committee and i have a record of serving and protecting the blue and serving in my community to defend them because mr. Moore and his team came in and saw two defund the police in my community. That is what the open Society People come that nonprofits wanted to reimagine policing against you and i. I thought it and we stopped it. I will find the police and that is why sheriffs and officers on duty support me. We will make sure our streets are safe again. We will never say like mr. Moore said on salon. Com, look it up, he wants to defund the police and indict the system. Jason this is where we keep moving. Wes moore its not true. I am a student political reporter at morgan state university. Now that maryland and hbcus have made a settlement, what are further steps you think the state should take to further assist the hbcus in the area . Dan cox thank you for that question. We have reached a settlement that was long overdue. We need to make sure the grounds , why the settlement was reached in the first place, were honored. This was about giving and unfair advantage to institutions that were not hbcus but the process is still happening. We have to ensure the grounds for the settlement are being honored and that this is not just about the initial sentiment. When you have four of the top hbcus in america, it helps address challenges we see about how we create pipelines in the nursing industry and Education System and entrepreneur growth and focusing on new industry, solar and wind technology, cyber. We should be leveraging the genius of our hbcu students and make it a core part of marilyns growth story. Dan cox unlike my opponent i actually went to the hbcu at morgan state and i spoke with students and one thing i said and i believe, this is why i voted for our hbcus to receive funding but we need to expand programs for all of them to have Tech Opportunities and opportunities for certification but most importantly i actually went to college myself in a program and i know how hard it is to make up the gap in your tuition. And yet many times hbcus have the funding levels differentiated, thinking they are receiving more funds than other universities in the state but that is not the case. We need to make sure we equalize the funding of the university to make sure the money gets to the students so they dont have to drop out like so many students and hbcus end up doing. Reporter access to abortion care is protected by maryland law, but not by national law. Depending on the outcome of the election and make up of congress, there could be a proposal for a national ban on abortion or National Protection for it. As governor, what would be your position on National Abortion legislation, and when you get involved in the National Debate on behalf of maryland . Dan cox im focused on being the governor of maryland and i would make sure everything worked on in maryland reflects the interest and values of the people. I am prolife. I have a special needs son. I fought on the house floor for the down syndrome protection act. I want to ensure everyone is safe. Women and children and the unborn have equal protection and are supported by our laws. When you look at the National Debate turns back to the states, we have one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country and i think as governor there is very little i can do to override or change that. The idea that has come from my opponent that i am somehow dangerous to Womens Health care is false and absolutely not true. Wes moore i believe abortion is health care and fully trust women to make the decision with their doctors. I want maryland to be a sea of haven and i backed that last fall for a constitutional amendment and if i become governor i will back it again. This is not just a national issue. It is an issue for marilyns women who want marilyns women marylands women who want their health care to be protected. My opponent prays to the Supreme Court and donald trump. Praised the Supreme Court and donald trump. He will criminalize abortion even in the cases of incest and rape. He says even when the womens, the mothers life is at risk, he would make the women have a child or she would be arrested. We have very different views. A portion is health care. Abortion is health care. Dan cox thats false. If you look at the prolife bill i put into the legislation or where i worked across the aisle, i have the three exceptions in the law. I believe it is a Legal Process that should be followed and stating criminalization is absolutely false and a preposterous situation, accusation. It is demeaning and wrong. It is demeaning to the five women in my household. It demonstrates you cannot trust what comes out of my opponents mouth. I will defend unborn life but not take into my power is not constitutional. When you hear my opponent say he will force into the constitution a protection through not only the third trimester, but the third, you know, you know, only through the third trimester. That is his approach. It is wrong. It is disgusting to think that is his position. It is extreme. I will instead follow the law. Wes moore maryland should never stand between the difficult decision a woman has to make or their doctor about this issue. When we are talking about abortion being health care, i trust women to make this decision with their doctors. Not politicians and judges. This is a deeply personal and important thing for maryland women and all of maryland to embrace. While i think my opponents actions and d actions and deeds speak for themselves, i want to be more clear. In my administration, we would protect reproductive rights and make sure maryland is a safe haven for abortion care. Dan cox i need to respond. Jason we are going to keep moving. Reporter sticking with the topics, mr. Cox, do you oppose the mandates for vaccines against covid, potentially deadly virus . You cite that as why you ran for delegate but you support telling women when they can and cannot practice the right to have an abortion. You supported 14 bills restricting Abortion Access. Why is there government oversight for womens body but you do not want oversight for your own body . Dan cox that is very certainly a loaded question that is demonstrating bias and i think it is obnoxious that the government wished to take possession of our bodies against the law. The Health Care System allows decisions to be made between a person on their doctor and that has been trampled on. I am for personal choice of vaccines. I am against the vaccine passport. That is not the direction of our state and america. People should be able to choose. The bills i support have exceptions. Like making sure women are safe with the distribution of dedication and in their procedures and ambulatory clinics and making sure little children with down syndrome are not targeted just for being disabled. That is the future of abortion. My opponent is extreme. He would sign a constitutional amendment right now that would deny care after birth to someone who survived an abortion. That is extreme. My approach is more mainstream. Reporter would you please answer the question about government oversight when it comes to someones body and why when it comes to vaccines you feel there should not be government oversight but with access to health care there should be . Dan cox the government is not forcing anybody about abortion. The government is forcing people to take a vaccine or lose their job. The majority agree that those who cannot take the vaccine should not lose their job over it. That is why i fight the issue. Reporter is there any part of the Abortion Access law you would like to see expanded or limited, mr. Moore . Wes moore first i would like to respond to the vexing question. During the height of the pandemic, we had a member of the maryland General Assembly looked to impeach Governor Hogan for his handling of it and who sought to impeach him because he chose to follow the science and listen to the cdc and nih and to listen to Johns Hopkins university and the university of maryland medical center. That member of the Maryland Assembly was dan cox. And he stood alone. Even his republican colleagues did not back that. So when we are talking about what it means and what could happen in a moore miller administration, we will listen to science and experts and keep the safety of the people of maryland first and foremost in all decisions we are going to make and we will work across the aisle and work with professionals to make sure in order to make those decisions. Reporter what maryland abortion laws would you expand or limit . Wes moore yes. When we talk about abortion being health care, it is important to remember who we are talking about. Talking about late term abortions, 99 of abortions are not late term. Truly lateterm abortions, it is usually because the of medical emergency. It is usually because that family is about to make one of the most difficult decisions of their life and now has received news, chances are unexpected news, that no one would ever want to have to make. So i trust women and their relationship with the doctors. I do not believe lawyers and politicians and judges should get in the way of that relationship between a woman and her doctor. But unfortunately, that is not what my opponent believes. Because he just said he would decide whether or not you are forced to take an experimental vaccine. That is not the approach of freedom. I think the approach to get back to his lets let the people decide. Lets get back to safety and make sure we have Affordable Housing and freedom to make decisions and that our education is worldclass again. Unfortunately my opponent says he can make decisions better than you on some issues. Wes moore i find your usage of the word freedom to be amazing right now. He talks about freedom but not the freedom of a woman or girl who potentially has to carry the child of their rapist. We talk about freedoms but he is talking about the ability to criminalize abortions for the patient and provider. If we are going to talk about freedom, lets be consistent in what you mean by freedom. Reporter mr. Moore, Legal Marijuana is a big business. There are a plethora of dispensaries to choose from but most are owned by those who do not identify as persons of color. Black maryland residents have bore the brunt of repercussions for illegal use. Do you think it is fair to leave black entrepreneurs that are qualified out of the business that made 600 million last year in this state . Do you think there is an equity problem, and what would you do to address it when it comes to Legal Marijuana . Wes moore it is a problem that would be fixed in my administration. If the states votes on question four and in our administration we will make sure this rollout would be fair and equitable. That means using it as an opportunity to think clearly about how we go about the prospect of positioning licenses, thinking of everything from the growers, manufacturers, paraphernalia providers, and an opportunity to address the wealth gap in our society. But it will not just be about that. We cant talk about the benefits of legalization if we are not dealing with the consequences of criminalization. What we see inside of communities, particularly black and brown communities disproportionally harmed, we have to focus on things like automatic record expungement for those with cannabis convictions. We have to focus on dealing with the pardoning of those who have criminal records for something that is now a burgeoning industry in maryland. This is an opportunity for Merrill Lynch to get it right and our administration opportunity for maryland to get it right and in our administration it would be a core priority. Dan cox we need to get back to fairness and equal justice under law. Everyone should be treated equal. That is why i support making sure those who are criminalized for small possessions no longer are and that we have a path for people to reestablish themselves so they do not lose their job over Something Like that. My Committee Works to decriminalize. So many people have appreciated the effects, even our veterans with ptsd. But we need to have a regulatory approach and i pledge to work with our Law Enforcement and all sectors to ensure there is appropriate testing and to safety on the job and when you walked on the street that people know the rules. Reporter Governor Hogan has gotten name checked a lot in this debate. Give us an exact final grade for eight years of larry hogan as governor and if you want, name a policy of his that you would continue or something that you would be anxious to change. Wes moore i applaud the governor for being so early and full throated about the danger of the maca movement. Maga and for calling it out early for what it is. A danger to the basic values of democracy and i am thankful he has come out and said that he will not support the republican nominee, despite it being his party. But when it comes to where we are as a state, we have to move faster and make sure we can have true measurements of economic growth. That means focusing on helping to reduce the redtape for small distances, fixing broken procurement laws to increase liquidity to small and micro businesses, putting the focus on mvps and providing economic and educational support and focusing on apprenticeship programs and trade programs because right now we have two jobs for each person following filing for unemployment because there is a disconnect when it comes to skill set and required skills. Reporter final grade . Wes moore hes not done yet so he gets an incomplete. [laughter] dan cox i give him a a on everything except our differences in dealing with covid. My opponent wants to defund the police and has people in my committee on his team doing that and he will take usforeovernor o stood against the taxes that we saw 42 tax increases back then. You will see tax increases like never before. I stand against it. I stood with the governor on all these issues and i have stood with him on choice. Mr. Moore is about indoctrination on his website from the state education department. That is not the approach of maryland. We need to put parents back in charge. That is what i pledge to do as your next governor. Wes moore to be clear, there is nothing in my plan about raising taxes. Nothing. So i want to be clear about what is fact and what is fiction. What i do know is my opponents economic plan that he has put out would literally defund the police, defined education, and bankrupt the state. Literally. That is not an ideological position, it is math. When you look at our economic plan, we are focusing on growth, because we need our economy to grow and we need to make sure we have higher levels of participation in our economy. That means fixing a broken childcare system. Over 700 50 Childcare Centers have closed since covid. They are often times female entrepreneurs. We need to get parents of Young Children back into the work force. It means focusing on job retraining. We swung the pendulum far too swiftly in one direction when we started focusing exclusively on High School Preparation for college. Dan cox my economic plan will not defund the police. I have fought to support the police and make sure they have the funding they need. My opponent actually is on record on salon. Com that he will defund the police. That is ludicrous and extreme and i take exception to the fact that his plan says he will not raise taxes when it is all about spending. We are 44th in the nation about income tax and we have to lower that. We have to lower senior taxes. Income tax for the businesses, delaware does it better. No wonder jobs arent flourishing here and a wonder we dont have the training and opportunities we need. I will turn it around and say lets keep maryland open for business and lets lower our taxes, not just pretend we are not going to raise them because every time you increase spending, taxes will come to roost soon and i will stand against it just like Governor Hogan has done. Reporter yesterday was National Coming out day and in america we have come a long way in embracing and accepting those who are lgbtq plus. My question is about Public Schools. Young people who identify as lgbtq face a lot of challenges. Are these children being adequately supported in Public Schools and are the schools doing enough job doing a good enough job to educate all students about lgbtq issues . Dan cox no we are not doing enough because too many times we use elude the parents. Children receiving counseling without their parents knowing is wrong. When parents are involved in childrens lives, although concerns all of the concerns are better handled and that is what i pledge to do as your next governor. I will ensure the indoctrination stops. We cannot have transgender indoctrination in children. That is ridiculous. I will get back to worldclass learning about Stem Technology so kids can learn like god intended them to learn. Every person has equal opportunity made in the image of in the image of god. Reporter what you mean about indoctrination . What do you think is going on in kindergarten . Dan cox there are documents being published right now, there are books in the schools called gender queer, they are about things i cannot even tell you about on television because they are so disgusting. 7 passage rate in some Baltimore City schools. These schools need help. The money that goes into Baltimore City needs to get to the pastors and teachers and students. Reporter mr. Moore, what should Public Schools be doing to support and educate lgbtq plus students . Wes moore many of these issues are being addressed at the local level and it is important for the state to understand that we are a partner in it, but we do not hate to local jurisdiction about their education processes. But it is important for people to understand one thing. I have an 11yearold daughter and eightyearold son. All i ever want for my children is for them to be seen and to feel like they are being heard. I want the same thing for every child. So there is a stat that sticks with me. It is looking at the accelerated Youth Homelessness rate for lgbtq youth in our state. It looks at the fact that trans children or trans individuals, 80 of trans individuals have contemplated suicide. I want to say to all of our lgbtq youth and families, i see you and i hear you. And all policies that will be made will be made in partnership. Because that is how we have to lead as a state, in partnership. Dan cox i have children also. As you know. I am very blessed, my wife and i , and we understand that when any child is struggling, you cannot take the parent out of the discussion and that is exactly what my opponent plans to do because that is the policy under this new approach i have approach and that is wrong. We have to get back to make sure parents are involved and that my children know that dad is always in the mix for them. Wes moore can i just say one thing . I am very involved in my childrens education and i care deeply about it. Do you know who else who cares deeply about it . The educator. We have the same goals. To make sure my children are prepared for the world. We want the same thing for our children. Education education participation is not indoctrination. It is a partnership between parents and educators. Reporter i would like to shift the conversation to Climate Change. A federal lawsuit was filed yesterday by environmental groups trying to prohibit the widening of i 270. The suit claims it will exacerbate Climate Change and promotes vehicle dependency. Dan cox i am a strong advocate come every year i have run for office i have advocated to make sure transportation works and our families get home to be with their families and the opportunity to get to dinner instead of sitting in traffic on 270. It hurts the environment to sit there and have the car idling so i support widening to 70 and securing transportation and widening bridges and i will look to the Transportation Trust funds to bring transparency and make sure we get the projects done. My opponent wants to ban gasoline costs and force us into a Public Transportation system. That is his approach. I will not support that. I believe in ensuring all the options are there and will support transportation as we need to improve that and make sure it works for everyone. Wes moore thats just not true. When we talk about transportation assets, we will make sure we are doing things like address the deep congestion sitting on the beltway and 270. It is psychologically come economically, and environmentally dangerous. We will address it along with making sure we fix the American Legion bridge this decade and that we will get the redline done in baltimore because you cannot talk about Economic Vitality if you do not have east west transit. We will look through the lens of equity. Making sure who is building it and he will benefit. Second, the environment. Making sure the assets we pulled together dont hurt the environment and use assets to help the environment. Thirdly, local involvement and local engagement. We will address the issue of congestion but we will do it in an environmentally sound way, including things like adding electrification of the grid for electric vehicles. This is our time to lead. We have unique resources to do it and that is what maryland will do. Reporter last question. If elected as governor of maryland, how would you address Health Disparities and disparities in communities that are disproportionately placed next to highways and power plants and Industrial Areas that have more pollution . Leave no one behind. Every community should be seen and heard in conversation. Many if you have said to me that you do not feel seen and heard by elected officials. Many of you have not been. In baltimore, children have double asthma rate the rest of the state. In the Eastern Shore because of Climate Change, a quarter of the Eastern Shore in the next 50 years will be in danger of flooding homes. We want to start with the core focus on building out equitable frameworks in environmental support, Affordable Housing, making sure we address the health care disparities, including the negotiation of Prescription Drug costs and making it easier for seniors to age in place and indignity and ensuring we have accessibility to Health Care Coverage for every single maryland resident. Dan cox i want to point out that my opponent is just to be able to rebut the statement about gasoline cars, he is on board or with allowing electric cars. Not just allowance. He wants to tie it to similarly to california where they are banning gasoline cars. He says he wants to leave no one behind. As ceo of robin hood, a nonprofit help to supposed to help the poor, he left behind baltimore while making millions and currently lives in a 3 million home while he leaves the state behind. Jason if you have a closing statement, i have to stop you now. Dan cox i object to saying that is my closing statement. I am a medicaid supporter. I will provide Community Health clinics. Jason we have to move. Closing statement, mr. Moore. Wes moore we have heard the last dan cox i was told i was supposed to go first because he was supposed to go first. Thats all. Thats the rules. Wes moore go ahead. Dan cox it is an honor and privilege to be your next governor if i earn your vote and i would once again make maryland safe because we are dealing with some of the worst aspects of crime in the nation and the world. My opponent wants to defund the police and indict the system. I will stand out against that for you and be the only balance possible because a oneparty rule is not the way of the future. We have to have an opportunity of safety. I will lower property tax assessment valuation so we will cut those rents and taxation and make sure we have freedom where you choose your health with your doctor and education must be worldclass. We will end the induction is asian in the classrooms and the indoctrination in the classrooms and put parents in charge. I am actsing i am asking for your vote. You can go to jason mr. Moore. Wes moore thank you. We have heard about how my opponents economic plans would move maryland backward and restrict health care for women. We have very different views on policies and different values. My opponent likes to throw her on the word freedom, but the word is not empty to me. My life could have gone a very different way after my dad died. I could have been left behind. I am running for governor because we can do better. As a state we can get these deadly illegal guns off the street and build an economy that lifts up everyone and protect Abortion Access. I have spent my career bringing people together to make our country, state, and communities better. That is what real patriotism looks like. And i would be honored to have your support as we move maryland forward in this next decade. Jason thank you for joining us. Have a good night. The choice is yours. Into the voting booth you go. Thursday, ron johnson and mandelbarnes participate in a debate in milwaukee. Watch coverage at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspan now, or online at cspan. Org. Cspans or unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more, including cox. Homework can be hard. Squatting in a diner for internet is harder. That is why we are providing lower income students access to affordable internet though humbert can just be homework. Cox connected so homework can just be homework. Cox and these other providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. American history tv, saturdays on cspan 2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. On the presidency, the life of first lady Martha Washington from her surviving letters. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern, a College Professor talks about american churches and religion during world war i and shares how american rabbis spoke about the great war before and after the u. S. Entered the conflict. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan 2 and find the