CSPAN - Politico Holds 2026 Governors Summit
Aired: 2026-02-19
Duration: 17:57


=== Gas Tax Politics (06:47) ===

[00:00:02]  Where do the polls come from?
[00:00:03]  Are they all blue states?
[00:00:05]  Are they all red states?
[00:00:06]  Actually, I have that information for you, Anthony.
[00:00:09]  And this, it's called a probability-based panel encompassing all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
[00:00:17]  That's from Gallup.
[00:00:19]  So they have what's called a Gallup panel, and it's 22,125 interviews with U.S. adults.
[00:00:28]  Okay.
[00:00:29]  Yeah, because like blue states, the red states are totally different.
[00:00:32]  Like where I live in Jersey, for example, like the gas tax.
[00:00:35]  So say Trump lowers the gas tax for us, you know, to drive.
[00:00:39]  The blue states, like I looked it up, the blue states raised the gas tax.
[00:00:44]  So I live in Florida now.
[00:00:45]  So our gas tax actually went down, actually lower because the states control the gas.
[00:00:51]  We believe this to take you back live to the Politico Governor Summit in conversation with Jared Polis of Colorado.
[00:00:57]  Thanks for having me.
[00:00:58]  The governor took my introduction here, but I appreciate you.
[00:01:02]  So no introduction really is needed.
[00:01:04]  This is Jared Polis, the great governor of Colorado.
[00:01:09]  Look, he's one of the only governors, probably the only governor that has his own sneaker line.
[00:01:16]  Well, I wouldn't, no, I don't think so.
[00:01:17]  I wear sneakers.
[00:01:18]  I don't sell them, but I'm a buyer.
[00:01:20]  You're a buyer, but I mean, you do rock them quite well.
[00:01:24]  Thank you.
[00:01:24]  I'm wearing my, I do black and blue, and I have ones with the Colorado flag on them.
[00:01:28]  It's always something different, but I'm always on the move and ready to go.
[00:01:31]  So it's important to wear your sneakers.
[00:01:32]  I see yours don't look very comfortable right there.
[00:01:35]  They're plenty comfortable.
[00:01:36]  Let's jump into some really serious stuff here.
[00:01:39]  Can you set the record straight for us?
[00:01:41]  Is it Colorado or Colorado?
[00:01:44]  I was told I'd need to.
[00:01:45]  They both sounded odd when you said them.
[00:01:47]  It's Colorado.
[00:01:48]  It is Colorado.
[00:01:49]  Okay.
[00:01:49]  And it's a different discussion.
[00:01:51]  So it's from the Color Rado.
[00:01:53]  It's kind of an archaic way to say the color red in Spanish.
[00:01:57]  Rado is, you might know, Rojo is a normal way of saying it, but Rado is kind of more an archaic way.
[00:02:01]  So it's colorado, Colorado is how we say it.
[00:02:04]  Colorado.
[00:02:05]  Yeah.
[00:02:05]  All right.
[00:02:05]  All right.
[00:02:06]  Thank you for clearing that up.
[00:02:07]  So look, we're meeting here, and obviously there's been some political polarization that's been injected into this winter's meeting.
[00:02:19]  And President Trump declined to invite you to the traditional White House dinner, saying that you and Maryland governor Wes Moore were, quote, are not worthy of being there.
[00:02:30]  Why do you believe you were disinvited?
[00:02:32]  And do you feel like being an openly gay governor played a factor in that disinvention?
[00:02:37]  Well, certainly in my circles, it's a badge of honor to be distinguished for not being at the table at a social event with the president.
[00:02:49]  Nobody knows what's in his mind.
[00:02:53]  And of course, it's what he wants us to discuss is what's in his mind.
[00:02:56]  So I have no clue.
[00:02:57]  I mean, when you look at Wes and I, obviously one thing we have in common is I was a chair of National Governors Association.
[00:03:04]  I'm on the executive council, immediate past chair.
[00:03:06]  Wes is the vice chair, scheduled to become the chair.
[00:03:09]  So in a way, it could be interpreted as targeting NGA.
[00:03:13]  I have no particular reason to believe it's because I'm gay or because he's black.
[00:03:17]  There certainly could be aspects to it that are related to that.
[00:03:20]  But I think the fact that we're trying to guess the president's mind is just a useless exercise to entertain.
[00:03:26]  Now, I mean, are you planning to go if the invitation does find its way into your inbox?
[00:03:31]  I mean, this is a very busy and productive three days, and I don't want any of this to detract from that.
[00:03:37]  I mean, we are working as governors.
[00:03:38]  We had a great meeting this morning.
[00:03:40]  We have, you know, we're coming to 41 of us, I think is the total, that are in town.
[00:03:45]  And as governors, we have a lot less partisan lens on the world.
[00:03:51]  When we're talking together, you can't even tell who's a Democrat, who's a Republican.
[00:03:54]  We're talking about fixing our roads.
[00:03:55]  We're talking about better results for kids in our schools.
[00:03:57]  We're talking about economic competitiveness.
[00:03:59]  We're learning from one another about what works in other states.
[00:04:02]  And that's what I've gotten out of NGA, why I love NGA, also Western Governors Association, focusing on fire and land issues, which are so important in the American West.
[00:04:13]  Being able to participate and lead in these groups of our peers has really helped make me a better governor for Colorado.
[00:04:20]  Well, let's talk.
[00:04:21]  I mean, obviously, you and Trump have clashed over time here.
[00:04:25]  And one issue clearly has been on the imprisonment of Tina Peters.
[00:04:30]  She's the former Mesa County clerk serving a nine-year sentence in state prison for allowing some unauthorized access to county voter equipment following the 2020 elections.
[00:04:41]  Now, Governor Polis, the president has called you weak and a pathetic man over her imprisonment.
[00:04:48]  He's tried to get her federally pardoned, which obviously does not apply due to these state charges.
[00:04:53]  But you've recently said that the punishment was, or the sentence was harsh.
[00:04:59]  Can you just clear some things up here?
[00:05:01]  Are you considering granting Tina Peters clemency here?
[00:05:06]  Well, first, again, the president has attacked me on many fronts.
[00:05:10]  Mail-in ballots in Colorado.
[00:05:12]  Colorado is a mail-in ballot state, seemed to be a particular point of ire that he's attacked us on.
[00:05:17]  He has, I don't know if they say tweeted anymore.
[00:05:21]  What do you say it?
[00:05:22]  X or parlores.
[00:05:24]  What's this?
[00:05:25]  Whatever.
[00:05:25]  He's put out stuff on the inmate you mentioned.
[00:05:30]  We look at sentences and disparate sentences for a variety of people.
[00:05:35]  I've done a number of commutations and pardons in my time as governor.
[00:05:40]  When you look at this particular case, you do see an unusually long sentence for a nonviolent first-time offender.
[00:05:47]  So I'm looking at that in the context of a number of other clemency applications I've received.
[00:05:52]  But it is one that absolutely has a reasonable level of legitimacy around saying why on earth would this first-time nonviolent offender get nine years, which is what she got.
[00:06:02]  But leaving this open, like, certainly seems like you're not batting this down.
[00:06:08]  But are you concerned that Grandeurk clemency, or at least considering this, brings up the election security questions that Democrats are talking about?
[00:06:19]  Well, you know, in this particular case, and just to get it factually right, because the president does not get it factually right when he talks about this person, it was not the 2020 election.
[00:06:30]  She engaged in illegal acts after the 2021.
[00:06:32]  It was a municipal election, not when the President Trump was on the ballot.
[00:06:36]  And it had nothing to do with ballots being in the room or counting ballots that was already done.
[00:06:42]  Effectively, it was about illegal access to the voting software prior to an upgrade.
[00:06:47]  So she violated the law, no question.

=== Why Focus on Housing? (07:31) ===

[00:06:49]  It did cost the county some money.
[00:06:51]  She didn't steal anything.
[00:06:52]  She didn't profit from this.
[00:06:54]  It did cost the county money to have to replace voting machines, but it was not during an election.
[00:06:57]  It did not involve ballots.
[00:06:59]  It was a crime.
[00:07:00]  Nine years is a very strange sentence for that.
[00:07:02]  All right.
[00:07:02]  Well, let's talk about some things that you're really trying to get through in your last couple of months in office here.
[00:07:11]  You're really into the push to build more housing in your state.
[00:07:16]  Housing density has been a very big topic for you.
[00:07:19]  Can you talk to me a little bit about why you're putting so much emphasis on this and talk a little bit about how building more densely populated housing in areas near transit, how are you going to reduce the cost and allow folks to get in to some of these housing?
[00:07:38]  So Colorado is a great place to live, strong job market, under the national average for unemployment, great earning potential, great quality of life.
[00:07:48]  But we are to a certain extent victims of our own success because that demand to live in our great state has pushed the housing prices up.
[00:07:55]  So, housing prices, like anything, is a function of supply and demand.
[00:07:58]  The fact that demand is great, people want to live in Colorado is great, but supply has been artificially constrained.
[00:08:05]  We have simply not allowed homes to be built to help keep up with the demand.
[00:08:09]  So, our focus has been how do we make sure that we can build and approve housing quicker at a lower cost, meaning, for instance, how do we allow for, where the market supports it, multifamily zoning near job centers or near transit.
[00:08:27]  We've allowed people to build accessory dwelling units, mother-in-law suites detached or attached on their properties in our state.
[00:08:33]  We're now making it easier to subdivide those because those can be starter homes for people.
[00:08:38]  The average home price in the Denver area is $600,000.
[00:08:43]  We would love to have more houses and homes available at $250,000, $300,000 so people can get into ownership and build value and build wealth rather than be forced to rent.
[00:08:54]  So, that's the focus of our reforms: remove barriers, speed up approval, allow housing to be built at all levels.
[00:09:02]  Now, your state also is in the midst of a battle with six other Western states over the future access of the Colorado River, right?
[00:09:10]  This river, as you well know, has shrunken dramatically over the past two and a half decades or so.
[00:09:16]  But states have missed a recent deadline from the Trump administration to agree on a water-sharing deal.
[00:09:23]  Are you concerned at all, given your past history back and forth with Trump, that the Trump administration may now move to unilaterally cut water supply of the Colorado River?
[00:09:37]  Is that a concern for you?
[00:09:38]  Well, concern is sort of patented by Susan Collins right now, so I'll have to go in a different direction.
[00:09:43]  But of course, I care deeply about water in Colorado.
[00:09:47]  As we like to say in the West, whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting.
[00:09:52]  So the Colorado River is incredibly important.
[00:09:55]  The upper basin states, which are us, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, the lower basin states that draw from the river, Nevada, California, Arizona, have been in very intensive discussions.
[00:10:09]  I appoint the Colorado River Commissioner, Becky Mitchell, who's been at the table.
[00:10:13]  Secretary Bergham, who's a longtime friend, formerly involved with National Governors Association, Western Governors Association, currently Secretary of the Interior, had us all in, the governors of the seven states.
[00:10:25]  Six of us made it to D.C. three weeks ago.
[00:10:28]  We had a very productive roundtable.
[00:10:30]  I put a number of ideas on the table.
[00:10:33]  We continue to work on living within our means.
[00:10:36]  I mean, the fundamental position that the upper basin states in Colorado have is the amount of draw that the lower basin states can receive has to depend on the hydrology of the river.
[00:10:48]  What that means is it has to depend on how much water is in the river.
[00:10:51]  We cannot deliver water that isn't there in dry years.
[00:10:54]  So the cutbacks in average years have effectively been agreed to.
[00:10:58]  But what we need to see is a more dynamic model that accounts for the fact that in dry years, the water simply isn't there and therefore can't be delivered.
[00:11:06]  It's an election year, and obviously there are a lot of states that are talking redistricting.
[00:11:11]  There's a Democratic alignment group that filed a series of valid measures that would temporarily suspend your state's independent voting commission and redraw maps for 2028.
[00:11:23]  Are you in support of this, given that a lot of Democratic states are responding to red states that have been redrawing maps at Trump's behest?
[00:11:32]  Do you want to see that in Colorado?
[00:11:35]  I think I have the same conflicted feelings that many people in both parties have about this.
[00:11:43]  I am a strong supporter and supported the language that Colorado voters put in our state constitution, which created a nonpartisan districting commission, which has functioned effectively.
[00:11:53]  We have several competitive districts.
[00:11:55]  It took the redistricting out of the hands of the politicians.
[00:11:59]  I believe that voters should elect their politicians.
[00:12:01]  Politicians shouldn't select their voters.
[00:12:04]  At the same time, of course, we're seeing what states are doing, notoriously Texas.
[00:12:09]  And many people say, you know, you have to show up.
[00:12:11]  You can't show up at a gunfight with a knife.
[00:12:13]  So like many folks, I'm conflicted.
[00:12:15]  I haven't seen the initiative.
[00:12:16]  I haven't really thought about it.
[00:12:18]  If it makes the ballot, I will.
[00:12:20]  I mean, Colorado is a state where hundreds of people have ideas and file things, and maybe seven wind up on the ballot.
[00:12:25]  So I think there's probably been, or there have been, several even in this realm that have been filed.
[00:12:31]  So I don't know what's moving forward, but like any voter in Colorado, I'll take a look at it.
[00:12:35]  But so you wouldn't be opposed to supporting that kind of on the way?
[00:12:38]  Well, it's certainly the right way to do it is to go to the voters.
[00:12:40]  It's not an end run.
[00:12:41]  It's asking the voters.
[00:12:43]  This particular type of measure would require 55%.
[00:12:46]  Certainly is a threshold issue.
[00:12:48]  And again, I haven't read it.
[00:12:50]  I'm not an expert in it.
[00:12:51]  But I think it leaves our, like the California one, it leaves the commission in place for the next redistricting.
[00:12:55]  It's a temporary one.
[00:12:56]  I hope it is if it somehow upset our nonpartisan redistricting.
[00:13:00]  I would oppose it.
[00:13:02]  But I'll look at it.
[00:13:03]  I'll look at whatever makes the ballot.
[00:13:04]  All right.
[00:13:05]  And the little bit of time we have left, look, you're in the final year of your office.
[00:13:09]  You have big plans.
[00:13:10]  But, you know, your final year in office for political journalists means that the opportunities could be endless for you.
[00:13:17]  So what are your thoughts once you're done with your term?
[00:13:21]  I mean, there's a little race coming up in 2028 that you may want to throw your hat in.
[00:13:26]  Perhaps there might be a Senate race or Senate seat that opens up at the end of this year.
[00:13:31]  Have you given much thought about what that next step might be for you?
[00:13:35]  You know, you're the first person to ever ask me.
[00:13:38]  I'm sure I have.
[00:13:39]  I'm sure I have.
[00:13:40]  And the truth is, as much as you'd like me to break any news here, I don't have any.
[00:13:47]  I mean, this is a full-time, all-consuming job.
[00:13:50]  I have 10 months doing it.
[00:13:52]  I spend every moment being the best governor I can for the people of Colorado.
[00:13:57]  So I have not devoted thought to that.
[00:13:58]  I expect the same on my senior team.
[00:14:00]  I'm focused on running through the tape.
[00:14:02]  10 months is a long time.
[00:14:05]  Every 10 months feels like 10 years these days in politics.
[00:14:08]  So I'm just focused on delivering more affordable housing, reducing homeowners' insurance, reducing the cost of automobile insurance, making Colorado safer, improving our schools and better outcomes for kids.
[00:14:19]  And we're laser focused on achieving that.

=== Big Day for Leaders Watching (03:36) ===

[00:14:21]  So it was not a no, though.
[00:14:23]  You have not ruled it out.
[00:14:25]  I haven't ruled anything in or out.
[00:14:27]  Okay.
[00:14:28]  I guess this is the best we're going to do today.
[00:14:31]  Governor Jared Polis of the Great State of Colorado in his last year with his running shoes on.
[00:14:36]  Thank you, everyone, for attending Politico Summit.
[00:14:40]  I'm Bracton Booker.
[00:14:41]  Thanks so much.
[00:14:42]  Thank you all.
[00:14:45]  Thank you.
[00:14:57]  Today, the Minister for Economic Affairs for the Israeli Embassy, Noah Hacker, discusses U.S.-Israel cooperation in tech, including AI and cybersecurity.
[00:15:07]  Hosted by the Hudson Institute, watch live at 1 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN.
[00:15:11]  C-SPAN now, our free mobile app, and online at c-span.org.
[00:15:19]  Best ideas and best practices can be found anywhere.
[00:15:22]  We have to listen so we can govern better.
[00:15:24]  Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.
[00:15:27]  You can fight and still be friendly.
[00:15:30]  Bridging the divide in American politics.
[00:15:32]  You know, you may not agree with a Democrat on everything, but you can find areas where you do agree.
[00:15:36]  He's a pretty likable guy as well.
[00:15:37]  Chris Kins and I are actually friends.
[00:15:39]  He votes wrong all the time, but we're actually friends.
[00:15:42]  A horrible secret that Scott and I have is that we actually respect each other.
[00:15:45]  We all don't hate each other.
[00:15:46]  You two actually kind of like each other.
[00:15:48]  These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose.
[00:15:51]  It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about.
[00:15:53]  You guys did agree to the civility, all right?
[00:15:56]  He owes my son $10 from a bed for this.
[00:15:59]  He's never paid for it.
[00:16:00]  Fork it over.
[00:16:01]  That's fighting words right now.
[00:16:02]  I'm glad I'm not in charge for that.
[00:16:04]  I'm thrilled to be on the show with him.
[00:16:06]  There are not shows like this, right?
[00:16:08]  Incentivizing that relationship.
[00:16:10]  Ceasefire, Friday nights on C-SPAN.
[00:16:18]  In a divided media world, one place brings Americans together.
[00:16:22]  According to a new MAGIT research report, nearly 90 million Americans turn to C-SPAN, and they're almost perfectly balanced.
[00:16:29]  28% conservative, 27% liberal or progressive, 41% moderate.
[00:16:35]  Republicans watching Democrats, Democrats watching Republicans, moderates watching all sides.
[00:16:41]  Because C-SPAN viewers want the facts straight from the source.
[00:16:46]  No commentary, no agenda, just democracy.
[00:16:49]  Unfiltered every day on the C-SPAN networks.
[00:16:53]  Next, President Trump, hosting world leaders at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C. During his remarks, the president spoke about the board's mission and said the U.S. would commit $10 billion to the organization's peacekeeping efforts.
[00:17:07]  He also commented on foreign affairs, including the situation in Gaza, and ongoing talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
[00:17:19]  Well, thank you very much.
[00:17:20]  This is a big day, and lots of people watching, and especially from other countries, the leaders of, as you know, the other countries, because we have a large group of leaders.
[00:17:34]  And the ones that aren't here are watching on Zoom.
[00:17:38]  I hope they enjoy it.
[00:17:40]  And the press, we appreciate it very much.
[00:17:43]  So respectful.
[00:17:43]  You've been so respectful of what we're doing.
[00:17:46]  What we're doing is very simple.
[00:17:48]  Peace.
[00:17:49]  It's called the Board of Peace, and it's all about an easy word to say, but a hard word to produce.
[00:17:54]  Peace.
[00:17:56]  But we're going to produce it.