COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Linda McMahon and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have largely been skewered by Democrats for the way they have run President Donald Trump’s Education and Health departments.
But over the weekend at a bipartisan summit of governors in Colorado Springs, they received a distinctly warm welcome — including from the Democrats on hand.
Instead of pressing McMahon on her plans to eliminate the Education Department, a move that will substantially affect state budgets, Democrats who attended the National Governors Association meeting in the mountain foothills of Colorado offered praise to McMahon during a Friday session over the Trump administration’s decision to release billions in education funding it had withheld. And they peppered her with questions about students’ mental health, early childhood education and artificial intelligence — areas where they might be able to find common ground.
On Saturday, Kennedy, whose stances on vaccines have drawn fierce criticism, held court with a group of Democratic governors, assuring them that he did not want to see budget cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services.
These conciliatory moments, which occurred throughout the NGA’s summer meeting, underscored the bind Democrats have found themselves in during Trump’s second term: weighing when to fight back against the administration, as the base is pushing for, and when to work with it to benefit their constituents.
It’s a balancing act that’s particularly acute at the state level. While Democrats are out of power in Washington, the party’s governors have much more authority. And governors in particular have prided themselves on searching for common ground, even in a heated political environment — a core purpose of the NGA.
Still, a growing number of Democrats argue that calls for bipartisanship do not meet the current moment. Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Laura Kelly of Kansas were among several Democrats who did not attend the summit. All told, seven Democratic governors and 11 Republican governors came for at least part of the weekend, the NGA said, while three governors attended virtually.
Walz and Kelly, as The Atlantic first reported, declined to renew their NGA membership dues for the upcoming fiscal year, due to broader frustrations with how the group has approached the Trump administration.
A source familiar with the governors’ thinking said that Walz’s and Kelly’s feelings were “a view held by more than just these two governors” and were a product of “frustration” that the NGA “had tied its own hands” by not taking a more active role in advocating for states and governors amid Trump’s attacks.
“If we can’t agree on standing up for states’ rights, we’re passively endorsing what the president is doing,” the source said.
During his second term, Trump has defied or threatened many Democratic-led states. Trump deployed National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles amid unrest over his immigration policies, despite objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump also froze federal funds for a child nutrition program in Maine after he clashed with Gov. Janet Mills over an issue related to transgender athletes. (The Trump administration later halted the freeze.) Newsom and Mills also did not attend the summit.
'We can’t just walk away'
Several Democratic governors who attended the weekend meeting expressed sympathy for Walz’s and Kelly’s decision. They also highlighted the importance of finding common ground with their political adversaries, suggesting that it remained a better option to try to win influence with them instead of not showing up.
“The promise that I made to the people of Maryland when the Trump administration came on board was that I will work with anyone, but I will bow down to no one,” Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore said during a session with reporters at the summit in response to a question from NBC News.
“But there’s a clear understanding and a clear desire to be able to work with anybody to make sure that the people of my state and the people for all of our states are getting the support that they need. And I think one of the benefits of this weekend was, you know, we got a chance to sit down with Secretary Kennedy, that we got a chance to actually sit down with Secretary McMahon,” added Moore, who was elected vice char of the NGA over the weekend.
He noted that previously he had not had the chance to do so in the first seven months of Trump’s second term. “I actually think it was a real benefit,” Moore said.
Moore is no stranger to fighting with the administration: Most recently, he has accused Trump of denying his state federal disaster assistance for flooding in Maryland in May. Moore said he’d spoken with Walz and Kelly, calling their frustrations “justified.” But he added that the NGA “is never going to be either the cheerleader nor the heckler of a federal administration.”
Hawaii’s Democratic Gov. Josh Green, a physician who has blamed Kennedy for measles outbreaks, said he had a “valuable” private meeting with the health secretary that lasted an hour.
“I have some deep ideological differences with Secretary Kennedy,” Green said in an interview with NBC News. But he added that creating a collaborative environment with Kennedy and McMahon helped him explain to them why he felt “things have to happen to protect vulnerable people.”
Green said that he and Kennedy discussed how governors could most effectively access the $50 billion rural hospital fund that was included in the massive tax cut and spending bill Trump recently signed into law.
“We can’t just walk away, in my opinion,” Green said. “Even though I’ll keep pushing back on any changes to the vaccine schedule … I will also be able to take some advantage of the relationships.”
Green also said he had “deep disagreements” with McMahon, but that he felt it remained important to maintain a dialogue.
“Do I have concerns about working with the secretary of education?” Green said. “Of course I do, but I would have deeper concerns if there was no one that could speak up for what I feel is about half of the country.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat whose term as NGA chair ended this weekend, said he invited Kennedy and McMahon in particular because governors had expressed to him that health care and education were two of the top issues they wanted to address during the event.
“I think these times call for the kind of bipartisan work of the NGA more than ever before. The American people want progress,” Polis said. “And that only comes when the politicians stop fighting over their party labels and work together to achieve real outcomes that actually matter in people’s lives.”
Disagreements remain
Democratic governors still made their disagreements with Republicans clear at the summit.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was among several Democratic governors to lambast the “big, beautiful bill” and its cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.
And a cadre of Democratic governors slammed Texas Republicans’ plans to redraw its congressional maps ahead of schedule in an effort to help the GOP protect its narrow House majority in next year’s midterm elections.
In an emailed statement in response to questions from NBC News, NGA spokesperson Eric Wohlschlegel said that “the record participation and support of NGA isn’t because governors avoid tough topics; it’s because NGA is one of the few places where they can cut through the noise and collectively focus on what works.”
“It’s critical in a political climate where so many issues become zero-sum fights, NGA provides something increasingly rare: a forum for real, results-driven, bipartisan problem-solving. That’s why governors keep showing up,” Wohlschlegel added.
Green, Hawaii’s governor, said that approach paid off — even though “sometimes it gives me heartburn.”
“It really depends on what your tolerance is to try to navigate these differences,” he said. “There are tough moments for sure.”
