The Massachusetts governor resembles an older variety of conservative
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker is the anti–Donald Trump. He is even-tempered, skilled at working with his political opponents, compassionate, and quite possibly the most wonkish governor in America. He is certainly the most popular, a remarkable accomplishment for a Republican in one of the bluest states in the Union. That Baker should be going so strong in the age of Trump attests to the strange varieties of American federalism and should encourage Republicans who still believe that the path to power runs through serious policymaking.
“That Baker should be going so strong in the age of Trump attests to the strange varieties of American federalism...”
Elected in 2014, Baker is now halfway through his second year as governor, though he’s been a familiar face on the state-government scene since the late 1980s. He got his start as co-director of the Pioneer Institute, a center-right think tank in Boston. In 1991, on the strength of the research he oversaw on safety-net policy, Baker was appointed undersecretary of the state’s department of health and human services by newly elected governor William Weld, a Republican. The context was the early-1990s recession, which hit Massachusetts hard and necessitated cuts to health-care programs then overwhelming the state budget. Baker would later become head of the department and eventually take control of the state’s budget office.
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Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Paul Marotta / Stringer
This piece originally appeared in National Review