If Maryland Governor Wes Moore was tired as he got to work on Tuesday morning, he didn’t show it. The Democratic National Convention had ended late—very late—Monday night, with President Joe Biden wrapping up his valedictory address at around midnight central time. But when Moore arrived at the Hilton Chicago on Tuesday morning, sans necktie but with a pocket square and pin of his state’s iconic flag, he was ready to fire up the sleepy delegates from swing states enjoying free bagels and weak coffee.

Moore made his rounds, delivering similar—but tailored—five-minute-or-so speeches to the Michigan and Arizona state delegations at their breakfast, traveling from one half of the partitioned ballroom to the other.

Maryland might not be as unpredictable as Arizona, whose delegates he addressed second, but Moore pledged that they will not be doing the hard work of winning the state for Vice President Kamala Harris alone. “I plan on getting out there, and I will be right there with you. I will be knocking on doors, I will be making phone calls,” Moore told the Arizonans—who seemed more somewhat engaged than the Michiganders, perhaps because they had been eating breakfast for longer at that point.

Moore is exactly who national Democrats want making phone calls on their behalf. He is a hot commodity at this week’s DNC, appearing at a variety of delegation breakfasts before speaking from the stage on Thursday. He is young, charismatic, and attracted speculation as a potential future presidential candidate even before he was elected in 2022. This week, Moore is diverting that political star power in the direction of Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her running mate.

After each of his Tuesday pep talks, Moore was lightly mobbed by well-wishers and selfie-takers, who approached him with the occasionally somewhat sheepish self-awareness of political junkies who know they’re shaking hands with somebody who could really be somebody, maybe two or three conventions from now.

“It’s a marathon that we’re running like a sprint,” Moore told me with a smile after his breakfast remarks. We chatted in the labyrinthine hallways behind the Hilton ballroom, a liminal space between the caterer and the catered-to that seemed fully appropriate for a man between events.

Moore attributed the interest in his speeches less to himself as a politician, and more because “people are really excited about what’s happening in Maryland right now,” pointing to the rapid drop in violent crime and policies such as a free service year for high school graduates and an expanded state child tax credit. (To be fair, it would be unusual for a politician to outright say voters from other states wanted to take pictures because they were just that charismatic.)

“I’m thankful that people are paying attention, and I want to use that energy and that belief to make sure that I have a partner to make sure that I have the partner that I need for the next four years, and that’s Vice President Harris,” Moore........

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