Current and former Western Governors discuss bipartisanship, call for unity in joint interviews with PBS Books

On Monday (10/7), the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) will release a series of interviews with current and former Western Governors about the importance of bipartisanship in this country.  

Filmed in partnership with Western Governors' University, PBS Books, and the Bipartisan Leadership Project at WGA's 40th anniversary celebration, the interviews feature discussions about how bipartisanship shaped the Governors' political careers, its critical role in forming effective policy, and their hopes that the next generation of leaders can rekindle the American spirit of cooperation.  

“We need to do something about the increasingly dangerous rhetoric and the temperature about American politics today, because it's quite chilling,” the Chair of WGA, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, said in her joint interview with Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, WGA’s immediate past Chair.  “We need to stop vilifying every decision, second guessing what the motivations are, and letting our frustrations create the kind of hostility and animosity that's hateful and destructive and dangerous.”   

To watch any of these gubernatorial interviews visit WGA’s 40 Anniversary website, the PBS Books website, its YouTube channel, or download the PBS Books app.  

PBS Books will also be streaming the interviews on its Facebook page every Monday at 6 p.m. MST. The schedule is as follows. 

10/7 – Governors Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-New Mexico) and Mark Gordon (R-Wyoming)  

10/14 – Former Governors Butch Otter (R-Idaho) and David Ige (D-Hawaii); and Former Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R-Utah) 

10/21 – Former Governors Steve Bullock (D-Montana) and Matt Mead (R-Wyoming) 

11/4 – Former Governors Brian Sandoval (R-Nevada) and Bob Miller (D-Nevada) 

11/11 – Western Governors’ Foundation president Jim Ogsbury and Western Governors’ Leadership Institute Delegates David Saavedra and Isaiah Torres 


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