Ball don’t lie: Game of 1-on-1 offered to settle Maryland and Virginia’s battle for new FBI HQ

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore jokingly challenged Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to a game of basketball Friday to determine which state will get to be the new home of the FBI.

The Maryland Democrat tweeted a short video of him making a shot at the Capital One Arena before the Washington Wizards played the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

Youngkin, a Republican, accepted the challenge by tweeting of short clip of him draining a shot while he was on the campaign trail.



It was a moment of levity in an otherwise tense bidding war between the two states.

Maryland officials said changes to the scoring process last year unfairly tipped the process toward Virginia’s Springfield site.

Both states made their final pitches to the General Services Administration on Wednesday.

Maryland leaders wrote a three-page letter Thursday asking President Biden to get involved in the decision, explaining what he expects out of the process and make a public statement about racial equity.

The debate got a bit heated as Virginia leaders argued that the Springfield site would bring federal facilities to one of the most diverse areas of the country, putting it in line with the president’s guidance on taking racial equity into consideration.

Maryland countered saying diversity is not the same as equity, pointing out that Prince George’s County is majority Black.

Now, it seems the decision could come down to a game of HORSE … heck, maybe just the coin toss.

Matthew Delaney

Matt Delaney is a digital web writer/editor who joined WTOP in 2020.

Ciara Wells

Ciara Wells is the Evening Digital Editor at WTOP. She is a graduate of American University where she studied journalism and Spanish. Before joining WTOP, she was the opinion team editor at a student publication and a content specialist at an HBCU in Detroit.

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