Join us for a virtual discussion with Larry Hogan, Governor of Maryland, about his new book, Still Standing. Barry Rabe, J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School and Arthur Thurnau Professor of Environmental Policy, will moderate the discussion.
Transcript:
Good afternoon. I'm Barry Rabe, the professor of public 1
policy at the Gerald R. Ford school at the university of
Michigan. On behalf of our deign Michael Barr who is going
us today and the faculty and staff and students of Ford
school it's a great pleasure to welcome you to the policy
talks with Maryland governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan
and I will be discussing his recently plushed book, still
standing, surviving cancer and the politics that divide.
This book touches on many important issues, including the
corona virus pandemic, the up the coming presidential
election, the fight for racial equality. And we'll discuss
many of these topics during our discussion today. This
event is also part of the Ford school of conversations
across defense series, where we try to highlight for our
community the kind of discourse necessary for creating
constructive policy across various atmospheres of defense.
Before we dive into our conversation, allow me to briefly
introduce Governor Hogan. Governor Larry Hogan is not a
career politician, while he was born into a political
family. He spent nearly hi entire career as a small
businessman until 2014. At that point he start change
Maryland, the largest non-partisan grassroots citizen
organization in Maryland history and he was ultimately
elected governor, only the second republican governor of
Maryland in the last half century. He was reelected
overwhelmingly in 2018, only the second Maryland governor in
republican history to win two consecutive terms. National
rankings consistently show Governor Hogan to be one of the
most popular governor anywhere in the United States, and
just last year in 2019 his gubernatorial colleagues named
him -- elected him to be chair of the national governor's
association. Just a couple of quick notes about format. We
will indeed have some time at the end of this conversation
about -- to take audience questions. We've actually
received some already but you can also submit questions
while Governor Hogan and I are talking to live chat an
YouTube or tweet your questions to #policytalks. With
that, Governor Hogan, a very warm welcome to you. Thank you
so much for being with us.
>> Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be with you. I
appreciate the opportunity.
>> It is not obligatory to have a University of Michigan
tie, it is obviously an added perk, and that is the case,
your daughter's Jamie's experience at the university of
Michigan, we have a great photograph there of two members --
>> Yeah. Yes both my beautiful daughters there. Jamie
graduated in 2002 and Julie the younger daughter graduated
in 2008. Go blue.
Very passionate university of Michigan fans and I got the
chance to visit them and go to the big house and tour the
campus. And my youngest daughter Julie actually lives in 2
Ann Arbor today, she and her husband and her beautiful
granddaughter. So I do have that connection.
>> One other part of the university of Michigan type
relationship that emerged unexpectedly to me in reading the
book and your father Larry Hogan senior, former member of
congress who I actually first saw as a high school student
speaking in the house judiciary committee. Particularly his
relationship with Gerald Ford as members of congress and
then with the Watergate transition, can you tell us about
that part of your background and his experience with our
most distinguished alum, Gerald Ford?
>> Sure. Well Barry, that makes you and I similar in able
because I was in high school also at the same time. It's --
my dad, who I'm named after and who I'm really proud of, who
I learned a lot about integrity and public service from, he
served on the house judiciary committee during the
impeachment of Richard Nixon and was the first republican to
come out for Nixon's impeachment and the only republican in
the con to vote for all three articles of impeachment, so in
that respect he had a lot to do with Gerald Ford becoming
vice president and they be vice president. But I as a kid,
high school kid, got the opportunity to meet later president
Ford but at the time it was minority leader of the house
representatives, he and his family. I admired him greatly.
My father was very close with him as a member of the
republican caucus. During that congress, there was George
Bush, the elder George Bush and jack Kemp, my dad were all
part of that caucus that Gerald Ford was the leader of. So
I really got to watch him like you as a high school person
following that. That whole -- I talk about this in my book,
a little bit about Watergate and the decisions of the house
judiciary committee. That's probably the thing that my
father is most remembered for. But he had a very close
relationship with Gerald Ford and as a young person, I
really looked up to him and admired him.
>> So one of the things that's often associated with Gerald
Ford is bipartisanship. That's a word you use a lot in this
book. Even linking I would to the notion of a purple surf
board, bringing red and blue together, if you will. And yet
in times like these, is it even possible with the exception
of a few unique cases perhaps such as yours even talking
about bipartisanship and what that mean, when we use that
term are we really talking about a historic moment that is
likely not to be revisited as we look forward?
>> I sure hope that it's not just historic look backwards
about nostalgia about how good things used to be. I really
believe and hope that we can have more of a return to
civility and bipartisanship. I know it's hard to imagine
nowadays in this heated political environment that we have
and that with all the divisive politics. It seems as if the
entire political system is broken and people are just
frustrated and angry and I really -- but I think most people
in America really would like to see people work together
across party lines, republicans and democrats to --
obviously you can be passionate about the things you care
about and fight for the things you care about but without
demonizing the other side and that was something Gerald Ford
was known for and it's something obviously my father set an
example. But I think back then you would passionately
disagree with things on the floor of congress but afterward
they will be friendly with each other and they would have
dinner together. It was not the politics of destruction and
demonizing the other side. Sometimes today it seems like
people are more interested in winning arguments than
actually solving problems. So I was elected in the bluest
state in America overwhelmingly, 70 percent democrat, and I
think the reason why people seem to support with a we've
been doing is we have worked across the aisle in a
bipartisan way to get things done, and I think against who
have done that in other states have also been successful,
and I think it's what most people want. They just want
politicians to tell it like it is and trayful work on fixing
the serious problems that face us instead of just playing
politics all the time.
>> One of the issues before us is the up coming election and
both you and your dad took political risks by challenging an
incumbent from your own party. Where so so few republicans
given controversy surrounding Donald Trump taken similar
steps? In your book you talk about many of your republican
colleagues stay vent, swear allegiance and blindly toe the
line.
>> I had to deal with that exact situation two years ago
when I was reelected in 2008 with Donald Trump as president,
with all the divisiveness in the country in what was
considered to be a huge blue wave in one of the bluest
states in the country. I won on overwhelming reelection but
there were certainly head winds that I had to deal with
because the president had a 29 percent approval rating and
there were a majority of Marylanders who said they would
vote against every single republican to send a message to
Donald Trump. And I overcame that by just being direct and
telling it like it is, and to me it doesn't matter whether
an idea comes from the democratic side or the republican
side, I look for the best ideas in solving the problems. I
stood up and spoke out when I disagreed with the president
which a lot of people didn't. I think the reason why it
doesn't happen more often, and I was rewarded by the voters
of my state who said they liked the independence and the
bipartisanship, they liked the tone and the civility. I
tried to focus on what we were accomplishing in Maryland 4
rather than getting dragged into whatever tweet there was
that day or whatever divisive angry food fight they were
having in the capitol. But I think this is what people
should be looking to the candidates themselves and not the
party label. The people in my state, it's only 26 percent
republican but I keep getting elected because people are
willing to cross over, they're not just voting for a
political party, they're voting for the problem. And that's
the way it should be, you should vote for the person that
would do the best job and blindly loyal to the party is not
the way to go. But the reason why people don't take the
stand, obviously, that I afraid. They don't want to be
tweeted about, they don't want to be attacked by the base of
the party.
They don't want to have somebody running against them in a
primary. I wasn't afraid of that for a couple of
relationships, one I learned from my dad in the 70s with
Richard Nixon, but it wasn't easy for him. The party came
after him pretty hard for standing up and doing what he
thought was best for the country.
But in retrospect I learned that lesson very well.
>> You did give some thought to running as a primary
challenger. You had a lot of people not just from your
state saying you really ought to jump in this year and you
talk about this in the book, almost like George -- we'll
refer to you as a beer keg with attitude, a unique phrase in
American politics. But if you had mounted that campaign,
how would you have confronted a president in your observe
party mindful of these issues of bipartisanship and civility
in what would have be been a difficult situation?
>> I never really made any attempt at running for president
or challenging the president. I sounds silly and it sounds
like it's just spin but the truth is this sort of bubbled on
on it own. When I was able to win -- we lost governors
races across the country. We lost the senate, relost seats
in the house, republicans were getting beat across the
country in 2018 and I was overwhelmingly reelected and I won
the support of women, I did incredibly well among black
voters and people said wow, what is that all about? How did
he accomplish that? In my inaugural address, my second
inaugural I talked about these concerns about the broken
politics and the divisiveness in the Washington and I think
Jeb bush was introducing me, he said I was the antithesis of
what was going on in Washington and people started
encouraging me to consider it. I really didn't think there
was a path to winning a primary in this year's race because
the republican base was pretty solidly the primary voterrers
were pretty solidly behind the president. Having said that
I do think there's a majority of people in America, certain
polls have shown, almost 70 percent of the people who are 5
frustrated with the democratic party moving too far to the
left. The republican party is too far to the right, and
most people are somewhere in the middle and they really do
want to see good government and civility and people working
together, which is why they've rewarded me and people like
Charlie Baker, the republican governor of Massachusetts, who
we have to work across the aisle. But I didn't think so it
was possible in 2020. Even though people may vote for a
person like in a general, I didn't think I could win against
a sitting president.
>>> I would like to turn to a couple hot button policy
issues, racism, policing, public safety. You were in the
very early stages of your first term as governor when
Freddie Gray died and riots broke out in Baltimore. That
was several years ago, these issues of course persist and,
and I've seen similar kinds of issues emerge. How do we
deal constructively with these kind of questions going
forward and what are you thoughts about the learning
experience in Maryland as these issues emerge in so many
parts ousters with deep problems and concerns?
>> There's no question these are deep problems and concerns
that need to be addressed and the death of George Floyd, the
murder of George Floyd, really brought a lot of this to the
surface and brought some very I think constructive peaceful
protests, in some cases though it's resulted in violence in
some of our major cities.
I do have experience with with because as you mentioned I
had just been elected governor, I had only been governor for
89 days when after the tragic death of Freddie Gray, the
beginning of Black Lives Matter movement. It was after
Ferguson, then came Baltimore, but I had been governor for
just a few months and the worst violence in 47 years broke
out in our largest city in just the first few hours, 400
some businesses and homes were destroyed and burned and
loots and 120 some police and firefighters were injured and
hospitalized and the city was out of control, and the stipes
were crying out for help. And so I actually as a new
governor called up the National Guard and sent in additional
state police officers to back up the beleaguered city and we
tried our best to stop the violence while continuing to
protect the peaceful protesters and the citizens of
Baltimore, and I went and walked the streets of Baltimore
for a solid week meeting with community leaders, going to
Freddie Gray's neighborhood. Walking the streets and
meeting with the NAACP and meeting with faith-based leaders,
and my goal was to stop the violence while trying to listen
to the real concerns and to start a dialogue and let people
know that we were going to keep the city safe but we were
also going to try to address some of these issues, and I
think some of the lessons I talk about in my book, I wish 6
some of the governors and mayors had read the book because I
think we found the right balance of addressing some of the
issues and lowering the temperature while allowing the
legitimate frustrations and protests to take place. But not
allowing people to be injured or property to be destroyed.
I and I think we've got to look at this issue, we've got to
address the problems of systemic racism but we've also got
to stop the violence in our cities.
>> It's 9/11. We think about issues of security. Not just
terrorism but at this point in time it's one of the reasons
we aren't meeting in person today, is the Covid-19 related
pandemic. Governors, including Maryland, give a lot of
authority, constitutionally, have a lot of constitutional
authority to pursue public health strategies and yet how
prepared were you for this kind of a public health crisis
given all of your other responsibilities including the topic
we just discussed and how do you think of the role of states
like Maryland versus other governmental entities in working
in a space like this? What have you learned in the pandemic
err are in M.D. that you can share with us?
>> It's a great question and I've learned a great deal.
This is the most challenging crisis that most of us have
ever had to deal with and it sort of hit us from out of the
blue. You're right, we have as governors a lot of
day-to-day responsibilities dealing with a global pandemic
and an economic collapse that happens over a several month
period of time is not one that too many people were prepared
for. I think the federal government was caught unprepared,
so but so were states and hospital systems. As governor for
five and a half years, we had been doing table top exercises
on what happens if a pandemic breaks out but it's one thing
to deal wit as an abstract exercise and it's another thing
to have it happen realtime when all the citizens of our
state, their lives are at risk and this thing is spreading
like crazy. I was in the position, I chaired the nation's
governors and worked across the aisle with the governor of
Michigan and all the other governors across America in a
very bipartisan way. The governors, I believe stepped up
and led in in crisis, at the beginning we were frustrated
with the response of the federal government and their
preparedness and they've made some improvements since then.
But the role of the states has been more important than
other. All different types of states across the country had
to step up and really may be life and death decisions. I
think I enacted 60 some executive orders in a matter of a
month or so declaring a state of emergency, closing schools.
Shutting down parts of our economy. Taking actions to keep
people safe.
Setting up procurement systems where we had to acquire
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tests and personal 7
protection equipment in a very strained market. So it
really takes federal and state governments working together.
I think we did learn some less sons and I think the federal
government is catching up to speed and I think make we
showed some of our friends in Washington the importance of
bringing people together as you were talking about earlier
and avoiding the politics as best you can, and this is a
case where our job was to -- our most minute job was to keep
the citizens of our state safe.
>> I wasn't surprised in reading your book by how much
discussion there was of your linkages in working with the
president, the vice president and leaders in Washington,
D.C., but there is a lot of engagement that you've had with
other states with bilateral relations with individual
governors, I've learned but there's also a unique wrinkle in
your case where you engage in foreign diplomacy. You visit
South Korea, can you tell us about the what it's like to
work with other governors on an issue like this that truly
crosses boundaries but also open up in an area and that is
working as a head of a state with a head of another country
to try to make this --
>> It was an unusual circumstance to say the least but again
we were in this crisis and it's very constrained world
market and because of the failures of the administration at
a federal level to have developed early on a national
testing strategy and acquire all of these supplies and the
thing to keep people safe, each state was out there on their
own trying to compete with one another and with the federal
government and other countries around the world for these
things that were not easily attainable. So back in March
after not being able to acquire tests in America I spent 22
days negotiating with South Korean companies after
contacting the Korean am because door and putting us in
touch with president moon and their administration and we
acquired a half a million coronavirus test kits from South
Korea and we chartered a passenger plane, Korean air to fly
these test kits into Baltimore international tooter. And at
the time we made this acquisition, we've now done
2.1 million tests but at the time of this acquisition of
500,000 tests was more than the top five states in America
combined and it was very unusual but it was critically
important to our long-term testing strategy. But the work
with the governors that you mentioned, I led 50 some
teleconferences or zoom meetings like this with all of the
the nation's governors and the coronavirus task force so
there was more cooperation and more interaction between the
governors than probably the last 20 years added together in
a few months. And also we yesterday just announced a
compact that I put together with ten states, with the
Rockefeller foundation to acquire 5 million 15 minute very 8
rapid tests, and again this was states coming together and I
put this compact with Rockefeller and brought the other
governors together, five republicans and five democrats so
we're continuing to lead and work across the aisle to get
things done.
>> And ho widely is this strategy for states to work
collaboratively.
The other other I'm aware of is REGGI, the regional
greenhouse gas initiative which involves now 11 or 12
states, a regional carbon cap and trade zone, are is a lot
of the work of governors working across the state border and
boundaries?
>> That's a really interesting question.
I think REGGI is a great example of it and I believe we
started out with eight or nine states and we were one of the
original ones but I worked hard to get my neighbors to the
south, Virginia and Pennsylvania to join in us with in the
original green house gas initiative, which is a great
example, and I think there are other examples but states are
making a lot of decisions on their own but we're also
realizing that working across borders and working crime lab
it's collaboratively, there are a lot of regional compacts
that are being formed on different topics and issues and I
think it's a new flexing of the power of the states and the
power of the states working together.
>> The question then I would like to put to you next is
drawing on the experiences you've had in all of these areas.
How do we begin to rethink federal versus state
responsibilities? Another really interesting book that was
published earlier this year by Donald Kettle talks about
divided states of America and makes the argument that the
time is right for a fundamental rethink of what state and
federal responsibilities entrail. Are we at that point?
Again since you've been able to work so much at the state
level but also have been thinking about is this larger
federal or national context, how do we reinvent federal itch
there a state house perspective so deal with these really
hard problems.
>> I believe we may be at a turning point, and I don't think
it can the chain overnight but I think we've already started
to move in an incremental way toward more power to the
states states taking on more things that they didn't used to
do. Chairing the national governor's association, typically
this was not a very active association. The governors were
members of this group and they have a staff in Washington
and they just -- never really came together as a group of
governors making real decisions on big issues in a body, but
through in pandemic, over a six month period of time we game
like a governing body and pulled together and got states to
weigh in and push the federal government to utilize the 9
defense production act and push for them to step up their
testing capabilities and push them on stimulus packages the
cares act and lobbied very strongly our friends in the house
and senate and the administration to get things done. So I
think the power to change the relationship between --
addressing this issue, how is federalism going to change? I
don't know how or when it's all going to take place but I
think we're already seeing -- there's been too much power in
Washington where most people think nothing ever gets done,
quite frankly, and there's equal blame to go around op both
sides of the aisle. Again, people aren't looking for
solutions, they're just trying to win political arguments.
And things are getting done in the states, we're kind of the
laboratories of innovation and democracy and governors are
getting things done, and they're frustrated, the governors
are just as frustrated as the average citizen that
Washington seems to be broken and I think the power and
visibility of the governors is the highest it's ever been
been, and voters trust their governors more than they trust
the government or congress, and I think they're closer to
their problem, and they realize that every day we get up to
make sure things are running and things are getting done and
we're not just making political arguments all day.
>> So are there specific areas where you would make the case
for a decentralizing or shifting regulatory authority or
funding from Washington to states. Which policy areas or
topics are especially ripe for the sort of thing you're
talking about?
>> I think just in general moat governors on both sides on
the aisle would agree that when you're closer to the problem
and -- for example, the stuff on cares anxiety was great.
The federal government had a role to play. They have the
printing press, they have the money that we needed to get
out but the states are the ones that are implementing it.
Like, we're the ones -- we do all the administering the
assistance to small businesses, some of the funding came
from Washington but we're the ones that went out there on
the front lines to get things done and make sure that we
were trying to protect the failing small business owners who
were suffering.
The federal government's investing and pushing really hard
on a vaccine, we're getting things done in the states. But
I think more both regulatory and financial, if more of that
concern done closer to the people, I think you can run
things more efficiently and get things done in a faster way.
Not to say there isn't a role for the federal government,
obviously they're critically more by I think the states need
to have more power, have more money and decision making
pushed down to the state level.
>> And do you see any signs in Washington that legislators 10
from one or both parties are really interested in this idea
and that could actually become something that would build a
broader base of support or are we talking about a fringe
idea that is still largely a conceptual alternative?
>> Well, so I would say neither one of those. It's not a
fringe idea because I think it's what most people agree
with, not just the the governors but the average person
would probably agree with that. But there's not a lot of
people in Washington that want to willingly give up power
and because of the divisive politics that we have today and
there's a lot of reason for it but it has to do with
gerrymandering and the people in congress, there aren't very
many people who are willing to work together on both sides.
So changing Washington is probably the most frustrating
thing that I can think of and it's probably what frustrates
most people in Americas, that we don't ever seem to be
solving anything. But I don't think it's a fringe idea, I
think it's important idea but trying the push anything
through congress, especially when you're talking about
giving up power. I've been focused on non-partisan
redistricting to address this issue of gerrymandering. But
you can't get people to vote to give up their own power,
that's just very hard to do.
>> We have a lot of students today and you graciously agreed
to meet later with a small set of Ford students which we're
very grateful for.
>> Looking forward to it.
>> You also talk about what as a governor and political
leader you use and need to make good policy decisions, you
say at one point normal people don't read policy papers.
And most politicos don't either. We love to read them, we
may like to write them. What advice would you offer for
constructive engagement for those in an academic community,
students, others to play a constructive role in advancing
excellence in public policy in time and era?
>> Sure, no, I'm a big believer in the importance of public
policy and I didn't mean to inch subtle any of the 40s. I
was involved in a group call American public policy
institute where we were putting together these incredible
policy papers about how to solve all the problems of our
state and we thought they were really interesting, and the
people who took the time, people that were the most
interested and most involved thought it was really great
works we were putting out but it's not normal people, but
the average person, the average -- if you're trying the
convince the general public, I'm not sure what the
percentage is but it's pretty low about the percentage of
people that are going to read the policy paper SOSes I took
that great policy works that we had done and then tried to
with any change Maryland non-partisan organization put it 11
into a way that we could communicate with the average voter
who really is focused on their day-to-day lives and is not
spending a lot of their free time either thinking about orb
reading the policy papers, so I think somehow boiling down
the ideas and the thoughts about how we solve problem, how
we come up with solutions to issues but then boiling it down
to something that you can communicate to the average voter I
think is important if we're going to try to bring about
change, it's not just going to be you and I and the 40s
that are going to have to hear these ideas, right.
>> We'll continue that conversation separately but point
well taken. One last question of mine and then I would
likes the turn to questions from the folks who are watching
today.
One big surprise to me in reading your book was how funny it
was and how the humor that you use was not just darts throw
up at your opponents but often at yourself, can you say more
how you think of humor and using it self-directed for
political purposes in an era where humor is only used when
weaponizing against someone else, humor in politics?
>> First of all it wasn't a well thought out strategy, I
think I should try to use humor to reach a political end.
It's just my personality so I wrote the book as if I were
just talking to my friends and with me I think One of the
reasons I've been successful in politics. People say to me
all the time, I don't agree with you on all the issues but I
think you're telling it like it is and you're a genuine
person, you're just like us and that you really do care.
And I just trying to be very natural and I think there's a
lot of distrust or mistrust with people in political office
that there's a lot of spin, and a lot of people very
scripted. But I think what people really want is somebody
that's genuine and a straight shooter and telling it likes
it is and that seeps to resonate with a lot of people. And
I am I guess -- humor, I joke a lot with my friends and
staff and anybody I come into contact with and I don't hide
that from the public so I'll be joking at a press conference
or in the book. And I think people do -- sometimes instead
of the angry rhetoric, a little self-deprecating humor can
take the edge of a discussion and make people relate to you
better. I think it's about being genuine.
>> And clearly the element looms large in your political
style as reflected earlier in your comment. Can you say a
word or two about how the pandemic era has affected your
approach to politics where increasingly engagement is
through zoom rather than what you really steam to like which
is going and meeting with people in their community
sentence.
>> That's so true. It's the thing I've been so frustrated
because I am a people person at heart. There shall a lot of
things I don't like about politics but the one thing I do
like is I get to meet a lot of people. I love listening to
people and I love meeting people and I would not only walk
the streets of Baltimore and hug people whose homes were
burned out or listen to people who were frustrated and angry
and protesters but I love shaking hands and going to a
ravens game or orioles game. But doing everything on zoom
is very hard the get used to.
, and even when I'm out now you complaint shake hands orb
get close to people. I'm having more meetings because of
zoom, you can't travel. I would love to be in Michigan or
Ann Arbor meeting with folks. You really lose the human
touch when you're not seeing somebody face-to-face and
interacting.
>> And who would have thought in the middle of September the
Baltimore orioles and the Detroit tigers would be in
competition and yet we can't have a beer and watch those
games.
>> That's true. We haven't lost as many because we're not
playing as many.
>> The teams are statistically tied. Time for what some of
our colleagues and friends are asking and the first question
is to describe some of the policies that you've implemented
this year, most proud of.
But also some that you're not so proud of.
>> That's a good question. For the ones that I'm proud of,
we've accomplished a heck of a lot. So I first ran for
governor -- I was a small business owner who had never held
elected office before, although I knew a little bit About
politics and I cared about our state. Our state raised
taxes 43 times in a row and it caused economic clappings,
taxpayers and businesses were fleeing our state so the
reason I ran for governor is to try to turn that the economy
around, to try to pit more people back to work, to relieve
the burden that was on struggling Marylanders and small
businesses and grow our economy and that was our focus,
we've been very successful at that.
I haven't had a single tax increase the five years I've been
this governor.
We have went from 49th to in the top ten, we had the
greatest economic turn around in America. That's been
somewhat hurt by the pandemic, we're like everyone else,
people are suffering but our economy is doing about
25 percent better than the rest of the country and our
unemployment is lower than 35 other states. So helping
people, growing our economy, putting more people to work,
more jobs than ever before in the history of the state, more
businesses open than ever before and we're honing to get
back to that after our economic recovery. But other issues
as well.On criminal justice reform I was one of the earliest
and we had one of the most progressive efforts to reform our
criminal justice system. We passed justice reinvestment act
together with the overwhelmingly democratic legislature,
bother houses and it really was a bipartisan effort where we
passed things like the second chance act, we reduced our
prison population, we were number one in the country. We
lowered sentences for things like possession, we tried to
refocus -- many people were in our criminal justice system
and our correctional facilities were all dealing with
substance abuse and mental health issues so we spent more
money on getting them the help they need with treatment
programs and mental health counseling and we tore done the
Baltimore city jail. But we really focused on -- saved us
money in the correctional facility skit helped a lot of
people get out from incarceration, so it was really a run
and democratic idea. On health care, we -- when Washington
was broken and we had democrats saying we have to keeping
Obamacare exactly the way it is and we don't want to change
anything and we had republicans saying let's throw it all
out because the costs are are too high, we came together,
republicans and democrats with some very creative health
insurance policies that lowered -- we kept everyone covered,
expanded our coverage for hundreds of thousands of people,
but also lowered the health care insurance rates
dramatically by I think 25 percent over a two year period
for the first time in ten years, so we tried to address both
problem SOSes folks that were struggling to pay their health
insurance coverage and the folks that were not getting
covered. So those are a couple of examples. I mean, I
could go on. We've put record funding into education. The
Chesapeake is the cleanest it's been in history. So we have
a lot of things we are proud of and none of it would get
done without republicans and democrats working together.
>> A related question is the advice that you would have for
students or others going into politics who are truly
interested in non-partisan policy solutions, what would you
advise.
>> First of all I hope you have a lot of students that are
like that, because that's what we desperately need in
America, and the young people today I'm hoping are willing
to look at things as I'm describing. I think that many of
them are and I think it really is the solution. We've
proven in Maryland that it can be done, and if we can do it
here probably nowhere it can't be accomplished. I was a
political science major in college and idealistic and
interested in policy and what I can do to make things better
and I'm so pleased that you have so many students that are
focused on these things. But I'll give a shameless plug.
I've started a national foundation, my book -- every penny
we donate to a group called America united where we focus on
bipartisanship and bringing people.
I think there are other good organizations, democrat asks
republicans coming together in a bipartisan caucus, and I
think it's a very important topic and I hope that many of
your students are interested and I hope they will try to
take a look at solution, problem solving, pragmatism and
finding a way to do something about this divisive and angry
politics we have today.
>> Additional question. Republicans and democrats seem to
exist in completely separate media worlds. How do you
speaks to your constituents when knowledge on basic issues
varies so widely?
>> It's a huge issue and there are a lot of reasons for
the divisiveness in Americas, but ireful believe that part
of the problem is the way we -- it has to do with the media
bubbles that we're in, depending on our perspective, it has
to do with social media where there's this echo chamber of
this group only leadership even wills to these folks and
they both have in some cases completely alternative versions
of the news and I think to break down those walls because
people if you're watching say MSNBC every night. You can't
imagine what these people are talkings about and if you're
watching fox you're hearing a completely different version
of the news. I ended up flipping channels back and forth to
hear the two perspectives and it seems like we're talkings
about entirely different worlds but also Twitter and
Facebook and all the social media, you don't really talk
about to people on the other side and you don't get to
really -- nobody's ever always right or wrong, and quite
frankly all of the news that we get I think on television or
in the print media or on social media especially has a slant
to it and I think it's important for the smart students to
dig through that and think for themselves and gather as much
information, because I think there are certainly people that
are getting information that's not really factual and
they're making decisions based on that and they keen talking
to each other.
>> And how has a governor do you approach that when you're
right next to the big national media center of Washington,
D.C., you're in a medium sized state and how do you
communicate to reach those broad kinds of audiences?
>> That's a great question. I am very active and visible.
I try to avoid most of the national media, especially the
cable channels but I do go on there occasional, likes on fox
they might try to get me to bash democrats more and if I'm
on CNN they want me to bash the president.
I don't have one message for one group and one message for
the other.
I also even though social media frustrates me with the the
angry voices, it is a greet way to reach people directly so 5
we do a stream all of our press conferences, and we try to
get our message directly out. But it's difficult. We're
right next to -- I'm sitting hire in Annapolis and we're 30
minutes away from the divisive necessary and dysfunction,
which is Washington, D.C.
>> Next question from one of our viewers. Tell us about the
republican party and particular your hopes for the future of
the party that you've been linked to your entire life.
Attending a republican convention at a very young age you
can getting in trouble with your dad for supporting the
wrong view, what are your hopes for it future?
>> I am hopeful for the future of the both my party and the
country but I'm concerned and I think that right after this
November election, which is fast approaching, regardless of
what happens, I believe there's going to have to be -- we're
going to sit down and try the decide which direction the
republican party goes, quite frankly, I think the democrats
should do the same thing: because I just think taking a look
at where we're going to be in the future. But back to our
discussion about Gerald Ford ask the time frame and the
seventy eight asks Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, I would
like to see us return the republican party to more hopeful
positive vision and a more willingness to work across the
aisle.
Of course, Gerald Ford was terrific at that even though he
was the minority leader, really working with democrats.
Ronald Reagan who came in and worked very many with Tip
O'Neil, the democratic Speaker of the House.
I would like to see the republican party be a bigger tent,
which Reagan talked about. I really believe that successful
politics is about addition and multiplication and we seem to
be shrinking the tent. I mentioned suburban women, I won
over a huge percentage of democrat asks I have a huge
percentage of African-Americans statewide and part of it is
willing willing to go out and listen and just be honest and
focus on problem solving and bringing people together.
Because what we're seeing now isn't working, it really
isn't.
>> The next question touches on reaching outside your
bubble, literally to people in the other party and other
states and ask what if anything do you feel likes you have
in common with other cross party governors, in this case,
Steve Bullock? Tell us about that.
>> It's a great question. Steve Bullock was the chairman of
the national governor's association before me and he's sort
of a -- we're totally different states but he was a
democratic governor in a republican state. And I'm a
republican governor in a democratic state and as a result I
think we're -- we out of necessity, if we ever wanted to
accomplish anything, we had to work across the aisle and get
things donees and we did.
Steve and I became very good friends, I was the vice
chairman, then I became chairman. Governor Cuomo from no,
was also voice chairman. But how do you get elected in a
state that's a different party and how do you state there
and get relocate in the you money able to work with the
other side and it turns out -- you mentioned earlier, you
said most popular governor. I have the highest job approval
rating. Charlie Baker from Massachusetts and I are and Phil
Scott in Vermont we're in democratic states as republicans
and it's not a popularity contest but it's what democrats
want and it's what republicans want and that's just getting
things done. They want their leaders to be honest and they
want them to solve the problems and they don't want the name
calling and the demonizing and the divisiveness and anger
that we're seeing in Washington.
>> Governor I would lover to extend this conversation
indemnity but we're running against the clock. I would like
to pose one last question from our colleagues and it deals
with the pandemic. It asks, if we could go back in time
toker January of this year, how wowed would you redo the
Coronavirus response of the federal government given all
that you now know?
>> I talk about this in my book, and back in February, I
think it was February 6 we had the national governor's
association meeting in Washington so all the governors
convened on Washington.
We had a group of leaders from the federal government with
Anthony Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield come tell all the
governors what we were about to be faced with and it was a
very sobering message. We had already been working on this
in our state since January when things started happening and
we were gearing up and getting ready. The government I
think there were people in the federal government who were
aware of what the potential might be and who were trying to
get prepared but I think the biggest mistake was not taking
it seriously and I think the president's messaging was
really terrible, continued to downplay the virus and say it
was going to disappear and belittling the seriousness of it.
Even though he was getting expert advice from his
administration, so I think we should have taken it more
seriously sooner. We should have develop a national testing
strategy, we raspberry out of swabs and tubes and
ventilators and it's amazing to me thawier weren't prepared
earlier and especially when we kind of all knew at some
point we might have a respiratory virus. We didn't know
anything about this particular one but I think everybody was
caught flat footed. So I think being more prepared,
listening to the scientists and taking quick decisive action
which is what we had to do in our states. 17
>> We need to close. I wish I could offer you a walking
tour to revisit the big house and through central campus,
that's not an option today but we all look forward to the
day that becomes a possibility. I want to note that we have
a large and diverse audience today and I want to thanks
everyone been participating in this broadcast for your
engagement. Including the many questions, we were not able
to ask all of them. But we had a lot of interest and ireful
appreciate the thoughtful questions. Finally Governor Hogan
I want to thank you on behalf of the entire Ford school
community for your openness and willingness to engage. We
wish you welshing continue good health and thank you very
much for being with us today. To all of our viewers, we
invite you to stay attentive to the newly redesigned Ford
website for many upcoming virtual events that the Ford
school will be offering in the weeks and months ahead. So
thanks to all and again, Governor Hogan thank you so much to
you.
>> Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity.
I'm sorry I wasn't in Ann Arbor average. I look forward to
having that opportunity again. And go blue.
>> Thank you very much.