Maryland's 1st Couple Talk About Love, Family and Obama Comparisons

How would Maryland’s new first lady, Dawn Moore, describe her husband, Gov. Wes Moore, in just a few words?

“Accountable, fun, promise-keeper,” she said as the pair held hands.

Asked to describe his wife, the governor said, “Gorgeous. Fiercely protective, and I say that’s of family, of her husband, of her kids, of friends. And visionary. She is the best partner you could ever ask for.”

The spotlight is nothing new for Maryland’s new governor, who took office in January. But his first jump into political office was a big one for the family. News4 sat down with Maryland’s first couple and heard about their relationship, raising their children in the governor’s mansion and being compared to Barack and Michelle Obama.

I am just decades removed from literally being an 11-year-old with handcuffs on my wrists, seeing the back of a police car. If someone would have said to that 11-year-old kid, you know, one day you're gonna be the governor, that kid would have never believed you

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore

Wes Moore and Dawn Flythe were destined to meet. Their aunts were good friends and thought they would make an even better couple. After a little pushing from aunts, moms and family friends, they agreed to meet for coffee.

“I think we say that it’s like the best blind date of our lives,” Dawn Moore said.

“We did the coffee and then the conversation was great, and then finally coffee just turned into dinner, and then finally we’re like, alright, you know, you want to go dancing?” the governor recalled. “So we went out dancing and it turned into a whole thing.”

The whole thing turned into a fairytale courtship that included a trip to Europe, their first kiss on a train to Florence and finally a surprise marriage proposal.

Wes Moore was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and knew he wanted to propose before he left.

“I remember talking to my older sister about it, and I was like, ‘What about if after I deploy, if I do a video from over there?’” he recalled. “My sister was like, ‘That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life.’”

At the same time, the future first lady was planning his surprise going-away gathering. But his mom tipped him off.

Dawn Moore ended up being the one who was surprised.

“He starts talking about how in his life he would have no direction and that I was his compass. And I'm like, ‘Where is he going with this?’ And then he dropped to one knee, and he proposed, and I got goosebumps even thinking about it,” she said.

They married in 2004. Along the way came Mia, now 11, and James, who is 9. The family now calls the Government House in Annapolis home.

They said they try to keep their children grounded, with consistent routines.

“We have our Saturday night dinners. We do all the things that they were accustomed to doing. They're in their same school. They have their same friends,” Dawn Moore said.

As the Moores work to make sure the transition to being Maryland’s first family doesn’t have a big effect on their children, the change and the responsibility that comes with it is not lost on them. The couple has been compared to the Obamas.

The first lady said it’s “an honor” to be thought of in the same way.

“I remember on the campaign trail many people said that the energy felt like it felt when the president and first lady were on their campaign trail and being elected,” she said.

“We are here to do what the people of Maryland have asked my husband to do,” she added.

When asked about his future aspirations and whether he sees himself in the White House someday, the governor said, “I am literally in my dream job.”

“I think about the fact that I am just decades removed from literally being an 11-year-old with handcuffs on my wrists, seeing the back of a police car,” he said. “If someone would have said to that 11-year-old kid, you know, one day you're gonna be the governor, that kid would have never believed you.”

He defied the odds, going from a run-in with police for tagging walls with graffiti to appointing the state’s first Black police superintendent as governor of Maryland.

Moore said he has much more to accomplish in his current role before he can think about what’s next.

“I plan on serving for eight years if the people of this state will have me,” he said.