There is a saying in politics that voters want to elect politicians with whom they can imagine having a beer.
As it turns out, if the politician in question is Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, voters may even take a shot at him.
Mr. Moore showed up at the Baltimore Ravens’ tailgate on Sunday, surrounded by exuberant football fans, and quickly demonstrated the kind of skills often learned in college but not in the classroom.
“We’re doing this for the best team this planet has ever created, the Baltimore Ravens,” one man shouted, punctuating his point with a curse word.
The group of men punctured their cans – the governor’s actually appeared to be spiked iced tea, not beer – and drained them at the same time. Mr. Moore flattened his empty glass with his bare hands and high-fived the others. And a video capturing the moment resonated with approval across the online sports world.
It didn’t help the Ravens, who lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game on Sunday.
But it bolstered Mr. Moore’s reputation as a Ravens superfan and underscored the kind of likeability that propelled Mr. Moore, a political newcomer, forward in a close 2022 Democratic primary for Maryland governor and a big lead in the standings brought election.
It’s not the first time a politician has indulged in so-called “shotgunning” on camera – drinking from a hole in the side of the can and then opening the lid, allowing the contents to spill out. Rep. Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, shot up a Bud Light at a homecoming football game at the University of Maine in October. And in 2015, then-Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, posted photos on Twitter of her shooting a beer after mentioning that she had done so in her memoir, “Plenty Ladylike.”
Results may vary: In 2009, during an interview with Stephen Colbert, then-Rep. Dan Maffei, Democrat of New York, was asked to have a beer with the comedian to demonstrate that he could be “cool.” Mr. Maffei failed miserably, the contents of his can empty before he could figure out what to do with it.
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2024-01-30 00:00:19
www.nytimes.com
