Democratic governors search for a balance between fighting and working with Trump

Colorado Springs, Colorado – Linda McMahon and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were largely embarked by the Democrats for the way they led the education and health services of President Donald Trump.

But during the weekend at a bipartite summit of the governors of Colorado Springs, they received a clearly warm welcome – including Democrats at hand.

Instead of pressing McMahon on its plans to eliminate the Department of Education, a decision that will considerably affect state budgets, the Democrats who attended the meeting of the Association of National Governors in the Colorado mountain buttresses praised McMahon during a Friday session on the decision of the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in funding for education. And they pepper it with questions about the mental health of students, early childhood education and artificial intelligence – areas where they could find common ground.

On Saturday, Kennedy, whose positions on vaccines aroused fierce criticism, held the court with a group of democratic governors, assuring them that he did not want to see budget cuts at the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

These moments of conciliation, which occurred throughout the NGA summer meeting, underlined the links that the Democrats found themselves during Trump’s second term: weigh when retaliation against the administration, while the base pushes and when to work with it for the benefit of their voters.

It is a balance that is particularly acute at the state level. While Democrats are out of power in Washington, party governors have much more authority. And governors in particular have been proud to seek common ground, even in a heated political environment – a central objective of the NGA.

However, an increasing number of democrats argue that bipartite calls do not respect the current moment. Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Laura Kelly of Kansas were part of several Democrats who did not attend the summit. All in all, seven Democratic governors and 11 Republican governors came at least part of the weekend, said the NGA, while three governors attended virtually.

Walz and Kelly, as reported by the Atlantic, refused to renew their membership contributions to the NGA for the next financial year, due to more widely widely of the way the group addressed the Trump administration.

A source familiar with the thought of governors said that the feelings of Walz and Kelly were “one more vision than these two governors” and were a “frustration” product that the NGA “had linked its own hands” by not playing a more active role by pleading for states and governors in the midst of Trump’s attacks.

“If we cannot agree on the defense of the rights of states, we passively approve what the president does,” said the source.

During his second term, Trump Defined or threatened with many states led by Democrats. Trump deployed troops and navies of the National Guard in Los Angeles in the troubles of his immigration policies, despite the objections of the Governor of California Gavin Newsom. Trump has also frozen federal funds for a children’s nutrition program in Maine after facing governor Janet Mills for a problem related to transgender athletes. (The Trump administration later interrupted frost.) Newsom and Mills did not attend the summit either.

‘We cannot move away’

Several Democratic governors who attended the weekend meeting expressed their sympathy for the decision of Walz and Kelly. They also stressed the importance of finding common ground with their political opponents, which suggests that there was a better option to try to gain influence with them instead of not presenting themselves.

“The promise I made to the people of Maryland when the Trump administration went on board is that I will work with anyone, but I will not bow to anyone,” said Maryland Governor Wes Moore during a session with journalists at the top in response to a question from NBC News.

“But there is a clear understanding and a clear desire to be able to work with anyone to make sure that the inhabitants of my state and the people of all our states obtain the support they need. And I think that one of the advantages of this weekend was, you know, that we were lucky to sit with secretary Kennedy, that we had the opportunity to sit with McMahon secretary,” Elected NGA vice on the weekend.

He noted that before, he had not had the chance to do so in the first seven months of Trump’s second term. “I actually think it was a real advantage,” said Moore.

Moore is no stranger to fighting with the administration: more recently, he accused Trump of having denied his federal assistance in the event of a disaster for floods in Maryland in May. Moore said he spoke with Walz and Kelly, qualifying their frustrations as “justified”. But he added that the NGA “will never be the cheerleader or the heckling of a federal administration”.

Hawaii Democratic Governor Josh Green, a doctor who blamed Kennedy for measles epidemics, said he had a “precious” private meeting with the health secretary who lasted an hour.

“I have deep ideological differences with secretary Kennedy,” said Green in an interview with NBC News. But he added that the creation of a collaborative environment with Kennedy and McMahon helped him explain to them why he considered that “things should happen to protect vulnerable people”.

Green said he and Kennedy discussed how governors could most effectively access the $ 50 billion rural hospital fund which was included in the reduction in massive tax and that the spending bill recently signed.

“We cannot just get away from it, in my opinion,” said Green. “Even if I will continue to postpone all the changes in the vaccine calendar … I will also be able to take advantage of the relationships.”

Green also said that he had “deep disagreement” with McMahon, but that he thought it was important to maintain a dialogue.

“Do I have worries about work with the Secretary of Education?” Said Green. “Of course I do it, but I would have deeper worries if there was no one who could talk about what I feel, it is half of the country.”

The governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, a democrat whose mandate as president of the NGA ended this weekend, said that he had invited Kennedy and McMahon in particular because the governors had expressed him that health care and education were two of the main problems they wanted to solve during the event.

“I think these times call the type of NGA bipartite work more than ever. The American people want to progress,” said Polis. “And that only comes when politicians stop fighting for their party labels and working together to achieve real results that really matter in people’s lives.”

Disagreements remain

Democratic governors have made their disagreement with clear republicans at the top.

The governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, was one of several democratic governors to castigate the “great and beautiful bill” and his cups in Medicaid and with food aid.

And a framework of Democratic governors criticized the plans of the Texas Republicans to redraw its Congress cards before the scheduled date in order to help the GOP protect its close majority in the mid-term elections next year.

In a statement sent by e-mail in response to NBC News questions, NGA spokesperson Eric Wohlschlegel, said that “record participation and NGA support are not because governors avoid difficult subjects; This is because NGA is one of the few places where they can reduce noise and focus collectively on what works. ”

“It is essential in a political climate where so many problems become a zero -sum fights, NGA provides something increasingly rare: a forum for real, results and bipartisan, which is why governors continue to present themselves,” added Wohlschlegel.

Green, the governor of Hawaii, said that this approach had borne fruit – even if “sometimes it gives me heartburn”.

“It really depends on the tolerance to try to navigate these differences,” he said. “There are difficult times for sure.”