After a lifetime of circling politics, Wes Moore picks his moment. Will Maryland voters hire him for his most ambitious job yet?

The first time the debate over Wes Moore’s future entered the national media spotlight, he wasn’t on a book tour or in the midst of prestigious programs like the Rhodes scholarship or White House Fellowship. He was a 17-year-old spectator at the NBA draft, watching Kobe Bryant and other teenagers he knew from Amateur Athletic League games and a camp for high school players take a leap he thought he might make one day. A standout point guard at Valley Forge Military Academy, Moore had once fantasized about being drafted by the New York Knicks. But playing against future all-stars had forced him to rethink his options. Maybe, he told a New York Times reporter at the draft, he’d go to law school and enter politics instead.