Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley (D), a former 2016 presidential hopeful, speaks during a panel discussion at the National Press Club in May. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Former Maryland governor and presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley (D) made his first public appearance of the Democratic National Convention late Monday, urging Democrats from his state to defeat Republicans in the general election — but not mentioning Hillary Clinton.

O’Malley, who also served two terms as mayor of Baltimore, showed up about midnight at a late-night reception in his honor at the Hilton Penn’s Landing hotel. He was quickly surrounded by members of the Maryland delegation and their guests, many of them still buzzing over the first-night convention speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.).

[Michelle Obama’s passionate defense of Hillary Clinton]

In a speech, he talked about “progressive actions” that he and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly in Maryland pursued during his tenure, including efforts to expand access to higher education, clean up the Chesapeake Bay and help the working poor get ahead.

“I want to encourage you in every single way to, please, spread the word of the good things we did in our state,” said O’Malley, who until this week has declined interview requests and mostly stayed out of the spotlight since ending his presidential campaign in early February.

Martin O’Malley at a town hall forum in Des Moines in January. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“These next three months might be the most important in our lives as citizens of the United States in terms of exercising our franchise, understanding where people are coming from with their anger and fear and apprehension, and transforming that.”

During his campaign, O’Malley accused the Democratic National Committee of not holding enough debates. In a brief interview before his speech early Tuesday, he said neither major political party gives underdog candidates a fair shot at winning a nomination.

“They never write the rules in such a way to help challengers,” he said. But he added that Monday’s convention proceedings, highlighted by passionate and sometimes emotional addresses by Michelle Obama and Sanders, served as a “turning point” that should help unify the party.

[Balz: A high-wattage first night for the Democrats]

O’Malley waited until last month to endorse Clinton. He dropped out of the Democratic race after garnering less than 1 percent of the party’s vote in the Iowa caucuses. Despite years courting that state’s Democratic base, he failed to gain as much traction as Clinton, widely perceived as the establishment favorite, or Sanders, a former independent and self-described democratic socialist who drew widespread appeal at a time when much of the electorate seemed to favor outsider candidates.

O’Malley was scheduled to speak to delegates from Iowa on Tuesday morning and New Hampshire later this week. He will speak from the convention podium Wednesday night. But his political intentions — if any exist — are unclear.

Several of the former governor’s staff members said he is probably hoping to maintain ties in those states, where he earned the respect of many grass-roots organizers during his time sowing the seeds of a campaign.

Others said he could be a prime candidate to replace Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has said she will resign later this week after an email breach that exposed messages suggesting top members of the organization colluded to help Clinton win the party’s nomination.

[Leader’s humiliation underscores party divide]

“I think there’s a general interest in seeing him succeed Wasserman Schultz,” said Maryland Del. C. William Frick (D-Montgomery). “He ran against Hillary Clinton, so he can’t be accused of being in her camp. After this weekend, no one wants someone who is hyperpartisan.”

Cheryl Everman, a Clinton delegate from Carroll County, said she and members of other state delegations agreed during Monday’s convention proceedings that O’Malley is well qualified to serve as chairman.

“It’s because of his experience,” she said. “He was head of the Democratic Governors Association, he has a 50-state network and a progressive record. He also has that understanding of the common man that we need.”

O’Malley — whose handpicked successor as governor was defeated in 2014 by Republican Larry Hogan — said he would “gladly” serve as chair of the national committee if Clinton asked him to do so. But he added that “it’s really up to her — it’s her prerogative.”

Alluding to reports that Moscow was behind the embarrassing DNC email breach, he called the incident “a Russian thing to help” Republican nominee Donald Trump that should serve as a “wake-up call” for the party committee. He also raised the possibility of foreign interference in a U.S. election.

“They need to protect our voting records, because the Russians could do a lot of mischief,” he said. “Here’s a Republican candidate who says we should condition our commitment to NATO, and Putin comes in, hacks the DNC on the eve of our convention, and I’m just shocked that people aren’t more outraged by it.”

When asked for his impressions of Trump, O’Malley called the candidate a “fascist” and said he could not recall a candidate who had stooped lower in order to win a party’s nomination.

“A lot of us are hurt, we’re worried, we’re working harder and earning less,” he said. “In that sort of atmosphere, fascists like Donald Trump can prey on people’s fears and their anger, but fear and anger never built a great country.”