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Forbes: Governors’ Races Will Tell The Tale Of Republican Revival In 2014

Heading into 2014, Republican governors and state lawmakers are poised to prove that good policy makes for good politics. As the Associated Press recently reported, “Democrats … have struggled to field top-tier contenders in several key states, including some that President Obama carried last year … Democrats attribute their candidate recruitment woes to the continuing popularity of Republican governors, despite disapproval of the congressional GOP after the federal government shutdown in October.”

It’s clear that the impressive record of reform had by Republican governors has left them with a stronger hand in many states where national Republicans have not had much success in recent years and conventional wisdom says Democrats should be more competitive. As the aforementioned AP story acknowledged, “In Nevada and New Mexico, Democrats have all but conceded that Republican Govs. Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez will win re-election, even though both states have booming Hispanic populations that overwhelmingly went for Obama in 2012. In the Midwest, Democrats so far have fielded only little-known challengers to Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Snyder of Michigan and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, despite large Democratic-leaning union constituencies upset over the anti-labor policies of all three governors.”

Govs. Christie, Walker, Jindal, and others have made a strong case that leadership of the GOP is coming from the states, that governors should be the face of the party, and that their reforms should be held up as models of Republican governance and that for which the party stands. In 2014, voters will let us know if they like the way the GOP has governed in the states.