Gov. John Bel Edwards is a Democrat who likes to trumpet his willingness to work with Republicans.
It makes sense in a state where Republicans hold all the levels of power except the governor’s office.
So, Edwards seemed at home on Thursday when he appeared with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the Heartland Summit in Bentonville, home of Walmart. One of the family’s heirs interviewed both of them in front of an appreciative crowd.
Hutchinson appears to be positioning himself for a presidential run in 2024 as a non-Trumper.
“What you see as a governor, and also in our country, is that most issues don’t boil down to a partisan divide,” Hutchinson said, according to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “I (promote) computer science. Computer science and education are not partisan divisions. We ought to be working together on that.”
Hutchinson added, “I am a two-party guy. I’m a partisan. I campaign for my side of the fence, you (Edwards) campaign for your side of the fence. When it’s over, we work together.
“But I am not a tribalist. Cornell West made the point that we are all part of a tribe. But if you never disagree with your tribe, you become a tribalist. And if you are a tribalist, then soon you are an ideologue. And if you are an ideologue, you will soon be a demagogue.”
Edwards agreed with Hutchinson’s approach.
“After the campaigning and election are over, we need to work with and pull for whoever is in the majority (party),” he said, according to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Whoever is in the administration, that will determine if we, collectively, are successful. If the first thing you do is try to set the stage for a successful election for your party down the line in two years or four years, we are not getting things done. We are not solving the problems of our people or positioning our country strategically.”
Edwards acknowledged that then-President Donald Trump tested his thinking when he ran for re-election in 2019.
“He came down to Louisiana three times to campaign against me,” Edwards recalled. “Said some pretty nasty things. I don’t necessarily like the labels, but I am known as the most conservative Democratic governor in the country. But to hear (Trump), I’m a Communist, gun-taking, third-trimester abortionist.”
The day after the election, Edwards said Trump called to offer congratulations.
“Mr. President, thank you for the call,” Edwards responded. “I said during the campaign I was going to win, and when I did, it would be time to govern. And today’s time to govern.”
This thinking paid off after three hurricanes slammed into Louisiana in 2020. Edwards found himself speaking with Trump every couple of weeks to request federal assistance for the state.
“I could have given into that human temptation to give it back to him when he called me (to offer congratulations),” Edwards said. “That would have been the worst thing for my state.
“Not that I wasn’t thinking it,” Edwards said, in a line that drew the loudest laugh of the event, according to the journal. “But as an adult and as a public servant, you have to have a filter between your brain and your mouth. And I was successful on that day at least.”
