What the Hell Has Happened to America's Governors?!

The farm system for national political leaders is working differently than it used to.

Photo by Jorge Maya on Unsplash

When I was coming of age politically, it was a political truisms that America’s future presidents were to be found in the governors’ mansions. Between the 1977 and 2009, the White House was occupied by former governors for 28 of those 32 years. The logic for this was simple. Presidential aspirants from Congress suffered from two handicaps. The political handicap was they had voting records on controversial national issues that left them vulnerable to attack. The administrative handicap was that they had less experience managing large organizations. Running a House or Senate office is a wee bit easier than running an entire state government. The thinking was that being a governor was the best training ground for competently running the executive branch.

That was then. Since George W. Bush left office in January 2009,¹ 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been occupied by two former senators and the least prepared man in presidential history. It is not like these choices have enthused Americans all that much. Heck, we are looking at a 2024 general election in which voters say they strongly prefer an option beyond the two likely nominees.

This would seem to be a ripe time for America’s governors to make a comeback on the political stage. And yet, surveying the field, former governors are mostly flailing in the 2024 GOP primary. Indeed, it seems difficult to locate the governor of a large state who is doing all that well. New York governor Kathy Hochul performed so badly as governor that many folks blame her for the U.S. House of Representatives flipping to the Republicans during the 2022 midterm elections. She hasn’t exactly won many hosannas since then. Texas governor Greg Abbott has done yeoman work in militarizing the border and failing to prepare the Texas energy grid for weather extremes — and not much else.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis deserves his own paragraphs when it comes to incompetence on the national stage. To be fair, compared to someone like Hochul, DeSantis seemed like a political savant less than a year ago. After barely winning election in 2018, he coasted to a 20-point romp in his 2022 re-election. There were valid reasons for donors and political pundits to believe that he was going to be the Next Big Thing.

At some point in the next six months, someone will write the definitive story about why the DeSantis bubble popped. I will look forward to reading it. Needless to say, however, that in the last six months DeSantis has demonstrated only three qualities of note: an inability to connect with fellow human beings, a desire to say the word “woke” a lot, and a deep, abiding love — nay, passion — of flying private jets. Little wonder that Florida Republicans are growing weary of his schtick and megadonors are flitting to other Trump challengers.

Then there is California governor Gavin Newsom. Because Biden is running for re-election, it is unfair to expect Newsom or to seriously challenge him in 2024. Still, now is the time when a governor like Newsom can attempt some pre-campaign calisthenics. You know, things like passing legislation and demonstrating some interest in foreign affairs.

Newsom appears to have taken a different tack. He recently vetoed some bills that have angered his supporters. Now maybe that is an act of political triangulation. His foreign travel, however, is downright puzzling, as Politico’s Phelim Kine and Blanca Begert report:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is starting his trip to China in perhaps the most politically incendiary Asian city possible.

He landed in Hong Kong on Sunday after a hastily scheduled side trip to Israel, where he met with victims of the Israel-Hamas war.

Newsom should “speak very clearly against the repression of the Hong Kong people,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), co-chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, said in an interview. “Otherwise it does great damage because it looks like the Chinese repression is accepted and we cannot allow that to be the case.”

Newsom’s trip will focus on fostering closer climate ties in areas like air quality, offshore wind and cap-and-trade. Newsom is a key surrogate for President Joe Biden’s reelection and the White House has signed off on the trip….

Newsom’s Hong Kong stop-over has infuriated U.S.-based pro-democracy and human rights organizations. A coalition of more than 50 such groups issued a joint statement on Friday that flayed Newsom for trying to sideline human rights during his visit. They argue that Newsom’s singular focus on climate issues “sets a problematic tone for future diplomatic engagement” that benefits the territory’s sanctioned leaders.

I don’t doubt that Biden’s team signed off on the trip — because they are not the ones taking the bullet!

Honestly, my favorite part of this story are the paragraphs where Kine and Begert have to use the tropes of objective to journalism to suggest that Newsom has blundered:

Hong Kong would have been an odd stop for a U.S. politician anytime in the past decade, as China tightened its grip on its former British territory. It is particularly puzzling now, especially after the U.S. placed many Hong Kong leaders under sanctions for their roles in suppressing the Asian financial center’s democracy movement in 2019 and 2020….

China experts say they’re not sure why Newsom would choose to risk the appearance of granting political cover to the special administrative region, which, while part of China, has a unique system of governance and is allowed to negotiate trade and investment as separate from Beijing.

Look, maybe there is a governor like Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin who will rise to the top and surprise everyone with their political acumen and governing competence.² But it sure seems like America’s governors from both parties are not ready for prime time.

Maybe this is a symptom of the growing polarization of American politics. What Newsom, DeSantis, Hochul and Abbott all have in common is that they are effectively leaders of one-party states. Managing one’s own political party is an important skill, but voters like politicians who can exercise their bipartisan muscles as well. None of these governors seem capable of such dexterity.³

I’m just saying, it would be nice to see a qualified, politically talented governor do better on the national stage. But it sure seems like America’s laboratories of democracy are spitting out failed experiments.

1. Readers can judge for themselves whether Bush’s disastrous record as president caused Americans to sour on the entire governor-to-president model.

2. Yes, this is a joke.

3. Indeed, it is telling that Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer is the governor current garnering the most national praise, but that’s due in so small part to her success in racking up Democratic Party gains in the state legislature.