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In a country divided, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) is torn between optimism and realism. As the new president of the National Governors Association, his chosen focus for the organization’s next year speaks as much to the state of politics as it does to his own aspirations. It’s called “Disagree Better.”
Most of Cox’s predecessors as NGA leaders have used their tenure to highlight an issue that is common to all states: economic development, such as health care or education. Cox hopes to delve into what he believes is the most serious impediment to solving the problems: the rhetorical bombast and partisan intransigence that prevent those with opposing viewpoints from producing real results.
“Our country is deeply divided,” he said when he announced the initiative at an NGA meeting in Atlantic City this month. “We’re facing a toxic debate unlike anything we’ve seen since the Civil War, according to political scientists. … I think many of us believe that this division cannot continue and that we need to find a better way to disagree.”
Notice he didn’t say America must learn to agree. That is likely a bridge too far given the state of affairs politically. As the statement issued by the NGA on its behalf says, “We don’t mean to be nicer to each other, although that is helpful.”
Cox applauds healthy debate and recognizes it as essential to a functioning political system. It is not meant to curb debate or disagreement, but to do so with less fighting, hostility and the kind of anger that is now commonplace. He thinks there is an exhausted majority of people who agree on this.
Cox also said that what he hopes to launch is not explicitly an exercise in civility, even if that is part of what might come of it. Instead, he hopes to find ways to shape behavior, especially among elected officials or community leaders, that help lower temperatures while finding some areas for genuine engagement.
“As a country in politics, we’ve decided that we’re done with persuasion,” he said during a session with The Washington Post shortly before assuming the presidency of the NGA. “We’re just here to own the liberals or, you know, the woke crowd. Or we’re going to destroy the MAGA [make America great again] crowding and canceling people. This is. That’s all we’ve decided. No one is trying to convince anyone of anything. We’re just here to appease our base.”
Cox, 48, is conservative in his views, but has shown a moderate and inclusive leadership style as governor. He is perhaps best known nationally for vetoing a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
A lawyer who grew up on a family farm in Utah, served in local government and later was elected to the state legislature. As a freshman legislator, he was appointed in 2013 to become lieutenant governor by Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) after the previous lieutenant governor resigned. He was elected to a full term in 2016 and in 2020 sought and won the governorship.
In keeping with its current initiative, Cox has avoided negative publicity in its campaigns. When he ran for governor, he said he and his wife, Abby, decided they would not attack their opponents directly. “We would attack his ideas and his record, but not his personality or his person,” he said.
Cox knows the resistance he faces. “The political-industrial complex,” he said, “is full of cowards, and when something works, everyone copies it.” He pointed specifically to the preponderance of negative publicity that pervades political campaigns. “I just think that Americans are good people and they want to see the good in others,” he said, “and we have to offer an alternative.”
Cox also acknowledges that his term as NGA president, and thus the time he will have to focus on it, will coincide with what he predicts will be the most divisive election season in history. “I’m trying to give you all counterprogramming,” he said while at The Post.
In many ways, this is a crowded field. In think tanks, universities and elsewhere, efforts are underway to create more civil discourse, to find ways to bring people with opposing views together. Cox notes that what he and the NGA hope to do is build on those efforts and expand the impact. “We also hope that this will have a wider impact on civil society,” he said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who is the NGA’s new vice president and is friendly with Cox, said he believes the governors’ association initiative has the potential to break through in ways others have not.
“I think this one is different because it’s led by elected officials,” he said in an interview. “And indeed, not only elected officials, [but] the chief executives of the states, some of the most important and significant elected offices we have in terms of how we affect people’s lives. … As far as I know, there has never been this kind of effort led by a group of elected officials who really have the ability to make a difference in this area.”
The NGA used to play this role effectively, existing as a forum that brought together politicians from opposing parties in an organization that lacked the overt partisanship of some other political spaces. That has deteriorated over time, as Politico’s Jonathan Martin noted after the recent NGA meeting concluded.
Martin pointed out that only three of the nation’s 26 Republican governors attended Atlantic City, and that included Cox, who as the incoming president couldn’t skip the event. “He wants to use his presidency to address precisely what the NGA has fallen victim to, the polarization that is fracturing the country,” Martin wrote of Cox.
In recent years, the partisan voices of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and the Republican Governors Association (RGA) have at times been louder than the collective voice of the NGA.
The missions of these organizations are different: the NGA focuses on politics, the DGA and the RGA on politics and the election of people, but the conflict speaks to the challenge ahead. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) served concurrently as chairman of the NGA and the DGA, and thus always calibrated the kumbaya versus attack rhetoric.
Cox had a recent moment when the forces he hopes to shift in another direction hit straight home. That’s when he called members of Congress “morons” and said they should all be fired for failing to reform immigration laws. He would later apologize for his outburst, but before he did, he was bombarded with messages praising him for “speaking the truth”.
“These are the incentives we have right now,” he said. “And it confirmed to me that this is, you know, why this is so difficult.”
Fixing the immigration system is a big issue for Cox. “America is not divided on immigration,” he said. “They really aren’t. Politicians are divided on immigration.” That’s what led to his congressional denunciation, and it’s something he hopes to change as part of his “Disagree Better” initiative.
By working with various groups, he hopes to build consensus among governors “to identify common principles around immigration policy” that can drive action in Congress. This will be a truer test of whether learning to disagree better can actually lead to better policymaking.
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