Marylanders watching the Democratic National Convention on TV this week will catch a glimpse of their governor center stage, where he’ll make the case for Americans to vote for his party’s presidential and vice presidential picks.

Gov. Wes Moore will be one of a handful of Maryland politicians to speak during the four-day event. U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin is on today’s schedule, and U.S. Senate candidate and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is also expected to speak.

The packed schedule of campaign pep talks kicks off Monday night at Chicago’s United Center and has already been loaded with party A-listers. Scheduled to speak so far are President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

It’s not yet known when and where the first-term governor’s name will drop in the lineup, but he told reporters on a Sunday afternoon video call on which topics he’ll focus — the cornerstones of his own political agenda, service and patriotism.

The former U.S. Army captain with the 82nd Airborne Division started a state agency dedicated to paid service opportunities for young people and made serving in community a core value of his administration.

The service records and patriotism of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz strike a “staggering” contrast to that of GOP candidate and former President Donald Trump, Moore said.

Moore leaned into the campaign’s messaging and convention branding, one of looking forward and not going back. The overarching theme of the week is “For the People, For Our Future” and each day of the convention will have a theme that presents voters with contrasts between what Democrats and the GOP are offering the American people.

Moore described the Harris-Walz vision as one “where all of us actually have a chance to participate, one where all of us are going to be seen” and echoed a phrase Harris repeats at her rallies of “not going back.”

“We don’t want to have to go back to the idea where, where in order to win, it means others must lose,” he said.

Moore pivoted to backing Harris in July after Biden stepped aside and passed her the party’s torch.

Until that point, Moore had doggedly backed Biden even as others in the party were calling for him to step down and was one of a handful of governors beckoned to the White House after Biden’s troubling debate performance against Trump threw the incumbent’s campaign into tumult.

One day after Harris announced she’d chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Moore made several national TV and radio appearances in which he heralded Walz’s National Guard service and his economic policy choices as Minnesota’s governor.

Since Harris’ name appeared at the top of the ticket, polls have shown a statistical dead heat between her and Trump, and Democratic Party faithful have found renewed vigor for electing their candidate.

The Harris-Walz campaign has asked surrogates like him to “continue telling the stories about how we’ve worked together already,” Moore told reporters.

Maryland’s unemployment is at 2.8%, people are going back to work and homicides are decreasing, he said. “These things don’t happen by accident — they happen because of partnership.”

The governor landed in Chicago fresh from a Maryland Association of Counties annual conference in Ocean City, where in his closing speech he warned state and local officials of tough budgetary decisions ahead. The state has known for some time of looming budget deficits and slowed economic growth. The Moore administration and the state need federal partnerships to pull expected federal funding for a Key Bridge rebuild and several transportation projects.

Moore will be part of the campaign’s ground game after the convention, too. He’ll head to swing states to pitch a Harris-Walz administration to military families, young voters and Black voters, he said. Some of that work starts this week in meetings with organizers from these same groups during a series of daytime meetings and speaking engagements.

Monday’s theme is called “For the People,” featuring speakers that include the Bidens, Hillary Clinton and Raskin.

Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this article.