“Maryland is home to some of the nation’s best public schools, but also some of its most neglected,” then-gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore (D.) said in a 2022 campaign ad. “We can’t settle for that. We must make sure that every Maryland student gets that fair shot to succeed, the same one that I got.”
It was a noble sentiment—but a strange setting. Moore filmed the campaign spot inside Calvert School, the elite Baltimore private school where he enrolled his children, according to two sources familiar with the school’s interior. Situated prominently behind Moore in the ad are Calvert School’s iconic punch-holed wooden lockers.
The K-8 school, where middle school tuitionexceeds $33,000 a year, is, according to its website, a “nurturing space where students and families feel valued and supported.” Both sources said the wooden lockers on the left side of the frame are a dead giveaway, a unique and recognizable detail splashed across the school’s website and social media pages.
The Moore campaign confirmed it filmed the 2022 campaign ad at Calvert School.