Governor Larry Hogan: "Still Standing" | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Governor Larry Hogan: "Still Standing"

September 11, 2020 0:58:47
Kaltura Video

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.