The Man of Steel: Manny Welsh Is the Governor’s New Chief of Staff
November 5, 2026
Governor Wes Moore has named Emmanuel “Manny” Welsh his chief of staff, and if you have watched Maryland government for the last ten years, this is not a surprise. It is a coronation. A boy who came to America from Manila at ten years old, who grew up inside Maryland politics and soaked it up like a sponge, who got hired by the Comptroller because he would not shut up, who ran a 1,100-person agency at twenty-nine, who has been the Moore administration’s internal engine since the day it opened its doors — that boy is thirty-five years old, and he is now the man who runs the governor’s office.
I have known Manny since his Comptroller’s office days, and I have heard this story from all three of the men in it — Manny, Peter Franchot, and Len Foxwell. Here is how a kid from Towson became the most powerful staffer in the state.
