Source: Politics<\/p>\n
NEW ORLEANS \u2014 The future of the Democratic Party was formed over the weekend in a New Orleans hotel ballroom.<\/p>\n
At least that\u2019s what the donors, operatives and state executives who attended the Democratic Governors Association\u2019s annual winter confab here think. The party last month successfully defended all but one of its incumbents and flipped three open seats, introducing or elevating a new group of chief executives onto the national stage.<\/p>\n
This midterm class of Democrats is young and diverse, and some of its members are likely to be the next leaders of the party \u2014 or make a run at the White House sometime soon, even if it\u2019s not in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it the next generation of national leaders? Absolutely,\u201d Tina Kotek, 56, the governor-elect of Oregon, said in an interview. \u201cWe see governors who run for president, we see governors who run federal departments, we see governors who are the thought leaders for the next generation. So this is going to pay dividends over the next two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the 18 Democrats elected or reelected to governorships this year, eleven are under the age of 60. Many are closer to 50. Michigan\u2019s Gretchen Whitmer, 51, won reelection, and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, 49, and Arizona\u2019s Katie Hobbs, 52, both won open seats. And all three of the party\u2019s flips \u2014 Hobbs, alongside Maryland\u2019s Wes Moore, 44, and Massachusetts\u2019 Maura Healey, 51 \u2014 fall into this category as well.<\/p>\n
The wave of new faces is also diverse and includes the country\u2019s first lesbian governors \u2014 Kotek and Healey \u2014 and the third elected Black governor in American history in Moore.<\/p>\n
They say they\u2019re willing to wait their turn. For now.<\/p>\n
At a press conference Friday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the French Quarter, a question about which Democrat is most likely to be the next Democratic presidential nominee sparked chuckles from the assembled governors, with Shapiro jokingly shoving Roy Cooper \u2014 North Carolina\u2019s governor and the outgoing DGA chair \u2014 up to the podium to field the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe Biden,\u201d Cooper quickly shot back. After being assured the question was about after Biden\u2019s tenure in the White House, the North Carolinian offered, \u201cI think there\u2019s a great future for everybody up here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The half-dozen chief executives who spoke to POLITICO at the conference were all quick to say that Biden was doing a great job, and if he ran for a second term he would have their support.<\/p>\n
But the fact that the future of the party \u2014 if not the next Democratic presidential nominee \u2014 was in that hotel was also hard to miss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are increasingly diverse, increasingly representative of the great diversity of this country,\u201d Whitmer said in an interview. \u201cIt is a very deep bench now of leaders who are executives who have to solve problems and have to work with anybody \u2026 And I think that those are skills and expertise that should inform a lot of the work that Democrats do across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t just that the governors are young that is raising speculation about their futures. It was the often commanding victories against Republican candidates backed by former President Donald Trump, coupled with dynamic on-the-stump presences and compelling life stories, that has Democrats buzzing about their futures.<\/p>\n
In particular, the newcomers of Moore, Shapiro and Healey \u2014 and the newly reelected Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Whitmer \u2014 are seen as potentially longer-term leaders for the Democratic Party, along with the DGA\u2019s outgoing and incoming chairs: Cooper and New Jersey\u2019s Phil Murphy, respectively. (Moore and Shapiro were also appointed to leadership roles in the DGA, as finance chair and chair of strategic engagement.)<\/p>\n
Shapiro, for example, is among the most successful politicians, elections-wise, in Pennsylvania history after he steamrolled a poorly funded extremist state senator to win the governorship. He became the first gubernatorial candidate in the state to clear 3 million votes, and ran ahead of Biden\u2019s margin significantly in the state, especially in western Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Shapiro credits his victory, in part, to a compete-everywhere campaign that crisscrossed the commonwealth. \u201cWe showed up, we treated people with respect, and went to places that most Democrats ignore,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n
He also touted his record as the state\u2019s attorney general \u2014 where he fashioned himself as an aggressive public advocate who challenged powerful interests from the Catholic Church to drug companies culpable for the opioid crisis \u2014 and a stump speech centered around supporting \u201creal freedom\u201d as keys to winning over voters who otherwise don\u2019t pull the lever in the polling booth for his party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the work I\u2019ve done as AG has been populist, so I\u2019m going to take that same approach as governor,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that is just making sure everybody gets a fair shot, standing up for people that too oftentimes get screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryland\u2019s Moore \u2014 Shapiro\u2019s neighbor to the south, with whom he was publicly chummy during the weekend conference \u2014 similarly won a commanding victory to flip a governor\u2019s mansion and replace the popular term-limited GOP moderate Larry Hogan.<\/p>\n
Even setting aside the usual blue tint of his state, he won by historic margins that other gubernatorial candidates haven\u2019t approached in decades, also beating a Trump-backed candidate in the process. His victory will make him the third Black man ever elected governor in America (and the first in Maryland), and the only Black governor in office next year.<\/p>\n
Moore stands out, even in this class of governors, as a first-time candidate. He won the governorship on the strength of a compelling life story \u2014 a Rhodes Scholar and military veteran \u2014 and a gravitating stump speech about service that tries to recapture the concept of patriotism from Republicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an interview, Moore said he felt during the election that his campaign was particularly motivating to young voters, who he credits as giving his campaign a fighting shot in a crowded primary where he faced off against elected officials with decades more experience.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the campaign that was uniquely speaking to the issues that particularly young voters were talking about, and cared about, and were moving with a sense of urgency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He also said he was proud that his ascension would be validating to different communities he represents. Moore will be the rare post-war on terror veteran to become a state\u2019s chief executive \u2014 he said exit polls saw him winning the veteran vote in the state, which Democrats typically don\u2019t do. He\u2019s also the child of an immigrant.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m honored by the fact that there are many demographics in the state that my election means something special to them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd by the way, that happens to be some of the backbone of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n