All are Republicans. None are from states Biden came close to winning.
In his first five weeks in office, Biden is spending as much time — if not more — courting Republican governors as he is wooing the senators he needs to pass legislation. It is part of a strategy that lays the groundwork to make something of an end-run around Republicans in Congress, who may be resistant to his ideas, as he looks for outside-the-Beltway allies who might help him make good on his promises of bipartisanship.
In some cases, Biden and his administration have leaned on state Republican officials to support his policies, including a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that includes $350 billion in funding for cities and states. In other instances, he has opened a more general dialogue, picking up the phone to offer help after a disaster or to engage longtime friends.
On Thursday afternoon, the president virtually addressed the National Governors Association — including some governors who had resisted recognizing Biden as the winner of the presidential election — and urged them to work together on the coronavirus and the economy.
“When people in this country need help, they’re not Democrats or Republicans, they’re all Americans,” Biden said. “We have to fight this together, as one, to state the obvious.”
Governors may be more pragmatic than senators, the White House believes, their desire for funding and other help from Washington making them more open to cooperation.
“They’ve reached out to us early on, even before the president took office, to just listen: ‘How do you see it in Ohio? What are you confronting?’ ” the state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, said in an interview. “That’s helpful. It’s always helpful when people listen.”
In addition, the coronavirus vaccination effort is creating natural channels for the two sides to talk. “Now what overrides everything else is the covid problem and how we get vaccine out,” DeWine said. “You find governors are very, very focused on this, and the White House is very focused on this. It’s an area where ideological differences are virtually insignificant.”
During the address to the governors, Biden noted that he often talks to many of them and joked about his trip on Friday to Texas, where he will be joined by Abbott, a partisan Republican and staunch Trump ally. “Governor Abbott, I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to coming down tomorrow to be with you,” Biden said.
Some GOP governors are aggravated that Biden’s White House has not given them a heads-up on energy or immigration policies that have a big impact on their states, and they bristle at the lack of personal outreach they have gotten so far. But Biden receives higher marks from many for his handling of the coronavirus response.
“There’s not a more bipartisan issue than vaccine distribution,” Hutchinson said from Arkansas, a state Biden lost by nearly 28 percentage points. “The dialogue has been consistent, it has been helpful, it has been all working together on the same team to get this project done and covid behind us.”
Hutchinson, who is vice chairman of the National Governors Association, was among a small group of governors and mayors who met with Biden at the White House this month. Although the Arkansas governor argued that Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan was far too costly, he said he recognizes that Biden has concluded “he wants to go big on it.”
“He does have a friendly tone with all the governors,” Hutchinson said. “It’s been impressive in the meetings I’ve had. He’s a good listener, and his team is a good listener. Now, they don’t always follow our advice. But they hear us.”
Biden also benefits from longtime relationships with some of the governors. DeWine served with him in the Senate for 12 years, and he recounted a call shortly before Biden took office. “I started the call, ‘Mr. President—,’ ”…
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