As the Western Governors’ Association’s annual meeting closed Wednesday, governors asked some young adults to share their thoughts about policy and politics.
Nearly 30 delegates from the Western Governors’ Leadership Institute attended the conference in Boulder, Colo. The institute, created last year, is designed to promote leadership among 21- to 25-year-olds across the region, particularly those working in the government sector.
The delegates sat in on sessions during the WGA meeting to learn more about issues important to them.
“Coming from California, with my family doing agriculture, [top of mind for me is] water, water, water…learning about not only the water issues, but also just getting the data to figure out what the water issues are,” Blake Lincoln, a delegate representing Colorado who is a recent graduate from the University of Colorado Boulder, said.
Sheridan Johnson, a government relations specialist with the Montana Chamber of Commerce, was one of the delegates representing Montana at the meeting. She was interested in sessions on energy—especially Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ Heat Beneath Our Feet initiative report that was unveiled during the conference—and early childhood education.
“Hearing about the new universal preschool from Colorado and other issues, and just getting to talk about wherever we might be going and what solutions there are in other states, has been fun for me,” she said.
In addition to sitting in on sessions, delegates were able to talk with the governors throughout the conference and ask them questions during a separate meeting.
“It was a really great chance to ask unfiltered questions to some folks pretty high up in industry and government, and asking about their lives,” Johnson said.
The governors interviewed a few of the delegates during a roundtable discussion on Wednesday. Some of their questions centered around how to engage with a younger generation that is politically apathetic. Josie Thomas, a delegate from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon, said one thing that would help is if elected officials showed more interest in their communities, particularly those that are Indigenous.
“Showing them that you're involved in the community more…would really uplift youth to be wanting to be involved,” she said. “For myself and all the people that I talked to [in my tribe] …they're saying that, ‘They don't care. They're not here. They're not living my life with me. They don't understand where I'm coming from.’”
Other ideas delegates offered included adding a student position to states' boards of regents, sending representatives to talk to high schools about public service, and bringing in community leaders to conferences instead of just politicians. One delegate said bolstering financial resources for internships is important as well.
Governors also asked delegates how they view the future of partisan politics. Sofia Takhtadjian, a delegate from Nevada, said political polarization deters young voters from choosing a party at all.
“I have very specific beliefs that kind of lean one way, but there are many beliefs with the other party that I side with a lot more,” she said. “I know many members of my generation that will express to me, ‘How are you so comfortable within one party?’ And so I think that this gray area of independence – this general idea of an independent – is growing more and more.”
Still, delegates said they were hopeful about the compassion shown to one another during the annual meeting and the fact that members from both political parties wanted to come together to solve the same problems.
“Once you get that personal connection, you realize how much you actually agree,” Lincoln said. “It's just a difference of how we get there the best. And so the more we can get these sort of bipartisan things going on, the more we can get these sort of personal connections where it's not about sniping and debating.”
Johnson agreed.
“I looked around the room, I could not tell who lies where on the political spectrum,” Johnson said. “It's just a lot of passion in the room.”
The Western Governors’ Association prides itself on being bipartisan. Johnson mentioned a bumper sticker she received when she got to the conference that read: “Bipartisanship happens.”
“It totally does, but it also takes a lot of work,” Johnson said. “And that's in these spaces where you can come to an agreement with finding that human connection and figuring out where the commonalities lie for the good of all.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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