Utah GOP Gov. Cox: Americans ‘Sleepwalking’ Into ‘Divisive Election’

Americans are “sleepwalking” into what could be the “most divisive election of our lifetimes,” Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox, the new chairman of the National Governors Association, warned Sunday.

Republicans and Democrats alike “aren’t crazy” about President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the frontrunners in their parties’ presidential primaries, Cox told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

It is time for Americans to “disagree better,” according to Cox, who appeared alongside Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, who serves as vice chair of the National Governors Association, making a bipartisan, national call to cool the nation’s divisiveness as contentious 2024 elections approach.

“There are so many examples of the wrong type of behavior including myself,” Cox said. “I’m often guilty of attacking and tearing down and instead of treating opponents with dignity and respect.

“Our hope is that over the course of the next year, we could provide some counterprogramming to what we’re seeing at the national discourse.”

“This isn’t just about politicians,” he added. “This is about all of us as Americans. Again, politicians respond to the incentives that are out there and right now the incentives with social media and cable news and the media – we all play a part in this – is to be loud and extreme and to attack.”

But that must change, according to Cox.

“There is nothing more un-American than hating our fellow Americans,” he said.

“We can’t continue down that path.”

Cox and Polis have been working with universities to understand more about depolarization, and “we know politics is downstream of culture,” he added.

“This is not something that will change overnight, but we do believe it is critical,” he said.

Polls are showing a growing majority of Americans are “tired of the toxic disagreement, the divisiveness of tearing each other down, and they’re looking for something better,” according to Cox.

The nation’s governors, he continued, are “uniquely positioned” to take the problem on, as they work together to “get stuff done.”

“We’re going to take messages like this and many of our fellow governors will be doing similar ads like the one that you just shared, and we’re going to do everything over the course of the next year to elevate this conversation,” Cox said.

Democrats can do as well, according to Polis.

“I think it is about at the individual level,” he said. “We need to have authentic conversations with those that we disagree with.

“It means don’t question the motives, Republicans, Democrats, independents, they are good Americans. Put the issues on the table, talk about what works, and use data as your guide.”

The governors’ initiative does not mean everyone has to agree on every topic, Polis said, before concluding, “we should have conversations of disagreement at a better level, a higher level, a more effective level for the future of our country.”