Apparently, Kamala Harris wasn’t looking for a “49-year-old, balding, gay Jewish guy from Boulder, Colorado” as her running mate.
This was a self-deprecating statement from Colorado Governor Jared Polis. It became a hot topic — when asked about his prospects in the vice presidential race.
It’s a classic Polis example, the first openly gay person elected governor and the latest example of Colorado’s governor’s struggle to carve out a distinctive national political brand.
Since being elected governor in 2018, Polis has conducted nearly 1,500 interviews with local and national news outlets, keeping Coloradans informed about the coronavirus with his candidacy and humor. Pandemic Prevention Measures He also runs an active social media profile and posts frequently on TikTok and YouTube. Dancing to Feliz Navidad.
But Mr. Polis also wants people to know he’s serious about policy. Last month, he became chairman of the National Governors Association, a nonpartisan group that will help lead the way in policy goals and raise his profile beyond Colorado. He wants to make helping states build education systems that can better address workforce shortages a central part of his agenda.
“All of our governors want to ensure that we are able to meet the workforce needs of today and tomorrow and that each learner has the opportunity to be independent and earn an adequate living,” Polis said in an interview with Politico.
Before entering national politics, Mr. Polis capitalized on the internet boom of the early 1990s by starting several businesses that were later sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. He joined Congress in 2008 as one of its wealthiest members and served five terms.
Polis spoke with POLITICO about affordable housing, the assault weapons ban, why the governor is the best candidate for president and his advice to Kamala Harris, who lives in rural America.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
As a Democrat who governs a state with a large rural population, what advice would you give to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris about appealing to rural Americans?
We have a very diverse state. I won the district that Lauren Boebert won two years ago. It’s a rural district. So there were certainly Trump Police supporters in that district.
For me, attendance is a big factor. I’ve always spent a lot of time in the countryside. When I talked to ranchers in Grand Junction, they said I’m the first governor to address them in about a decade. Being there and being present makes a big difference. We don’t agree with everything, but rural people especially value attendance and presence from their elected officials.
In terms of framing the issue, it’s about including everyone in the story of American success. We want to make sure that no one is left behind because of where they live, what they are, or what job they do. Everyone has a powerful and vibrant role in America’s future.
How do you address this in the context of your education initiatives as NGA Chair? Deep divisions among governors What about when you take into account the partisan divide over school vouchers and how to achieve the best education outcomes?
At the National Governors Association, we want to stay focused on what works in Republican states and Democrat states. What I see from all of my colleagues and all of our governors is a desire to ensure we’re getting what we need from our big investments in education. Are our kids ready? Are our individual learners ready to succeed? And collectively, are we meeting the needs of our private sector and our workforce?
And by prepare, I mean at the individual level, at the state level, at the national level. And how can we get a better look at the results to ensure we’re doing it right? Education is the largest expenditure for any state for over 20, 30 years. [percent] With 10% of state budgets dedicated to K-12 education, governors are asking, what are we getting? Whether it’s district-run schools or voucher and charter schools, governors want to ensure they are meeting the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s workforce and ensuring that each learner has the opportunity to become self-sufficient and earn an adequate income.
Colorado has enacted a massive housing package aimed at addressing its affordable housing crisis. Along the way, what lessons have you learned that you think might be useful to other governors facing housing challenges, and how do you plan to measure success?
It was in the second year that we broke the dam on our wildly successful program of removing barriers to housing construction. The first year we tried to do it in a comprehensive bill, and the second year we were so successful that we broke our pro-housing programs into seven separate bills, all of which passed.
We allowed for higher density housing near transit and apartment complexes, accessory dwelling units by right, various bills that reduced costs, expedited the approval process, and allowed more homes and apartments to be built. So like any product, the cost of housing is a function of supply and demand. Demand is high in Colorado because people want to live here. We don’t want to reduce demand, it’s because people love Colorado. What we need to do is remove artificial barriers to supply. They were primarily local zoning laws that prevented the construction of housing that should be built or made it very slow and expensive to build housing. We simply wanted to remove the bureaucracy and paperwork, reduce legal costs, and expedite housing construction in the state to meet demand so families can live in the great state of Colorado.
There’s frustration among Colorado progressives that more issues remain unaddressed with Democrats in control of the Legislature, including criminal justice reform, renter protections and an assault weapons ban. To what extent do you share those frustrations, and do you think Colorado is fulfilling the mandate from voters who landslidely re-elected you and strengthened Democratic dominance in the Legislature?
We committed to helping solve Colorado’s housing crisis, and we took big steps last session to build more homes. … Homes that would have taken three or four years to build are now being built in a year. Homes that would have been single-family homes are now housing six families on the same lot. That’s what we’ve started to do in Colorado, and we’re already seeing results over the next few years. We expect to see an increase in the inventory of lower-cost starter homes across the state.
Of course, people’s concerns are much broader than that. We’ve fully funded our schools for the first time in 14 years. We’ve increased our classroom budget by nearly $17,000. The district is increasing teacher salaries, reducing class sizes, and adding classroom supplies and extra support for learners who need it.
So here we are, in the second year of universal kindergarten, another key item on my campaign list. Every child should be able to attend kindergarten. Before, Colorado families had to pay for kindergarten. Now 4-year-olds can go for free. In one year, we went from 28th in the nation in preschool enrollment to 8th, and we’ve saved families about $6,000 a year.
What items remain unresolved on the Progressive agenda that you would like to see addressed in the next session?
Cost is a frustrating factor, and medical costs are a big one among many costs. We have taken great steps to reduce the cost of health care, such as the Colorado Option and reinsurance, which have reduced the cost of health care in Colorado. [Obamacare] Reduce exchange costs by more than 20 percent. We definitely need to do more to take on the pharmaceutical industry and save people money on their premiums and out-of-pocket costs. I look forward to working with Congress to achieve even more savings on health care costs.
I want to ask you specifically about the assault weapons ban: if Democrats resolve their differences next session and pass a ban bill, would you sign it?
Colorado is one of the states that are leading the way on gun safety. In the last two years alone, I’ve signed bills. For example, in Colorado, you used to have to be 21 or older to buy a pistol, but you could buy a rifle at 18. We changed the age to 21 for rifles and pistols, and pistols were already 21. We also added a three-day waiting period to ensure background checks and make it harder to buy a gun quickly to commit a crime. We also put in place safe storage requirements. If you have children in the house, it is the adult’s legal responsibility to make sure that guns are stored safely. I wanted to contribute to reducing the tragedies that happen because guns are not stored properly when there are children around. We have a very strong gun safety agenda. This is part of our overall public safety agenda.
Now, would you go a step further and sign an assault weapons ban?
Well, we always want to deliver the best public safety improvements possible, so we’re willing to look at the data on any particular proposal and have focused on proposals that will demonstrably reduce crime, improve public safety and protect people’s liberty and the right to bear arms.
Colorado’s pioneering marijuana market has suffered a major downturn, leading to a significant decline in cannabis tax revenue. What do you think should be done to revive this struggling industry?
This was expected. Ten years ago, from Colorado’s perspective, it was great to be the only state that had legalization. As Americans, we want it to be legalized nationwide. So here we are now. [38] As some states legalize marijuana, naturally fewer people from neighboring states and across the country will come to Colorado to buy marijuana because it’s legal in other states. This is a good policy for the country, but of course Colorado has seen a decline in marijuana and is not that special in that area. Still, this is a great way for the country to get rid of the marijuana black market and generate legal tax revenue and legitimate jobs. Colorado still has a very strong industry, with thousands of jobs and over $1 billion in tax revenue.
Why do you think VP Harris’ list of candidates includes so many governors? And [were] Are you rooting for tickets to attend?
As the chairman of the National Governors Association, I have a strong preference for the Governor. It makes sense. The Governor is the executive leader who oversees the executive branch and the executive branch of the state. So the Governor is ready from day one to assume the senior role of governing with the President. The Governor has risen to many of the challenges we face at the federal level at the state level, and he has a proven track record of leadership to get things done.
You guys are my favorites. You guys who are there and are active members of the Governors Association are my favorites. But I really think we have a lot to learn from state-level innovation on both sides of the Legislature. We’re all trying to learn from each other and we can help the federal government learn what works at the state level in our laboratories of democracy.
