Wine is, indeed, the perfect springboard for oft-embellished tales of reunions, romance and questionable decisions. Let the record show that wine–and beer—also offered the perfect foreshadowing of so much that was wrong with the 2025 Maryland General Assembly and the legislative wing of the Democratic Party.
Last December, Marylanders learned that Gov. Wes Moore wished to end our state’s longstanding prohibition on beer and wine sales in grocery stores. This was hardly a novel idea, as 46 other states permit such transactions and similar legislation has been a mainstay in recent years. It is also a highly popular idea; polling on the subject routinely confirms that more than three-quarters of Marylanders support the notion.
So here was the governor putting the political force and capital of his office behind this push, for the first time ever.
Surely, even lawmakers who had fortified the resistance for so long, and whose piety on the issue had been well-lubricated with lavish campaign contributions from Maryland’s powerful alcohol lobby, would have to give deference to a governor with Wes Moore’s star power and political capital.
Uh…
Within days, the wine and beer proposal was being doused with cold water. “In a year where we’re trying to close a $3 billion deficit, I think we’re going to focus on the budget,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson,the Baltimore Democrat. One in which lawmakers, consumed by their fiduciary obligations, nonetheless found time to debate matters such as the posthumous exoneration of witches in pre-Revolutionary War Maryland and the availability of condoms in public nursery schools.
“Bringing more vice and liquor into my community is never an answer,” said House Economic Matters Committee Chairman C.T. Wilson, a Democrat from Charles County, offering not one flight sampler of evidence that the sale of beer and wine in well-lit, highly secure shopping spaces has ever inspired such shudderable outcomes.
To be sure, much of this abrupt dismissiveness can be attributed directly to the prodigious fundraising cash that Maryland’s beer wholesalers and retailers have bestowed upon legislative leaders over time. It appeared to go deeper than that, however. Lawmakers and advocates alike groused that the governor introduced this controversial idea without the requisite negotiations with industry stakeholders or vetting with ranking committee members. The absence of preparatory work made it easier for skeptical lawmakers to dismiss the governor’s proposal as superfluous.
This imperfect communication between Moore and legislative leaders became a recurring subplot of the 2025 session, which ended earlier this month. From efforts to curtail the elephantine Blueprint For Maryland’s Future, to budget cuts for the developmentally disabled, ideas seemed to be introduced by the governor without being properly socialized. Many were immediately opposed by key progressive constituencies and summarily dismissed.
If we are to assign Moore a less than perfect score on legislative mechanics, then so, too, must we give him due credit for being right on the beer and wine issue.
Legislators may not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Bear in mind that this was a session in which Maryland was staring at a $3.3 billion budget deficit, and where significant new taxes, fees and surcharges were on the menu. Given this dreariest of forecasts, couldn’t lawmakers actually do something that people LIKE? Particularly when it wouldn’t cost Marylanders a dime?
Not a chance. Instead, lawmakers frequently lectured their constituents on the “courage” required to make unpleasant decisions with other people’s money.
Del. Gabriel Acevero of Montgomery County took pains to inform us, like a stern headmaster preparing his students for the big Flag Day program, that “the most patriotic thing that anyone can do is pay your taxes.”
Then Del. Emily Shetty of Montgomery County proposed a “soda tax” that would make it even more expensive for folks who simply want a Coke and a smile after another miserable day in Donald Trump’s America.
“The purpose of the bill is to create an opportunity for reflection by consumers in the grocery aisle when deciding whether to purchase something as a treat or as a regular item that’s consumed every day,” said Shetty, assuming the role as nutritionist-in-chief for more than six million Marylanders who had likely never heard of her.
The failure of Moore’s proposal for grocery store alcohol sales is just another reminder that, if the people of Maryland really want something, and if it costs nothing to implement, then our Democratic lawmakers will probably act with alacrity and righteousness to stop it.
Somewhere along the line, the party that once embraced nonconformity, free will and good times has now become personified by the scowling, sepia-toned schoolmarm. In their Puritanical fervor, too many of them have lost sight of the fact that, while a meal exclusively of root vegetables and greens might be healthy, it would make for a miserable dinner party.
Democrats should keep this in mind as they think about the political environment they are creating for Moore and themselves in 2026.
Len N. Foxwell served as press secretary for the campaign of Gov. Parris N. Glendening and as chief of staff for Comptroller Peter Franchot, and has been called one of Maryland’s “top political strategists.” He is the founder of Baltimore-based Tred Avon Strategies and is a lecturer in crisis communications at Johns Hopkins University.
I don’t want the food selection space availability at grocery stores to decrease. I want choices and price ranges.