GOP governors already running against the Republican Congress Maybe 2016 has something to do with it?

Republican governors with 2016 aspirations have a blunt message for their colleagues in the new GOP Congress: We’ve done our jobs. Now don’t screw up yours.

Their subtler message? Enjoy Capitol Hill, because the White House is going to one of us.


The rhetorical push – voiced recently by several likely presidential candidates, including governors from Louisiana, Wisconsin and Texas – comes as the political world looks toward 2016 following the GOP’s capture of both houses of Congress for the first time since 2006.

It helps the governors cast themselves as experienced adults compared with their squabbling congressional counterparts, several of whom also are eyeing the presidency. And it also exposes yet another faultline within the GOP, where tea party factions are still at odds with establishment figures, as the White House field comes into focus.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker fired the most direct volley on Sunday, when he wrote that newly empowered GOP legislators should “put up or shut up” and urged incoming leaders to make bold policy moves. That same day on “Meet the Press,” Walker said that “ overall, I believe governors make much better presidents than members of Congress.”

Also Sunday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the message Republicans should take away from the election was: “Lord, if you’ll just give us one more opportunity to govern, we won’t fritter it away this time.” And Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned the day after the election: “The American people have given us an opportunity. We have squandered the opportunity before when we’ve been in power.”

Expect more such swipes at Washington from governors in the coming months.

After all, going after Congress is, in many ways, a no-lose proposition for governors aiming for the White House. It’s helpful to play the outsider card, and stressing the buck-stops-with-me responsibilities of a governor versus that of a one-among-many legislator is a distinction state executives love to make. Perry, Walker and Jindal — along with other possible 2016 contenders such as Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Mike Pence of Indiana — have said they expect or hope the next president will come from gubernatorial ranks.

“Regardless of what happens in Washington the next two years, governors running for president will be able to say they’ve got the type of broad executive management experience that other candidates lack,” said former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican. He added: “They are governors, they’re not associated with the lack of action on a score of issues in Washington, D.C.”

Of course, these governors have a huge stake in what happens in Washington, too: Many just spent months stumping for Republican congressional candidates, racking up chits along the way. And a successful GOP-led Congress would help the broader party brand — and boost the eventual GOP nominee in the general election, whether or not that candidate is a legislator. Democrats, meanwhile, would ensure that an unpopular, failed Congress would tarnish the whole GOP field.

“It will make it better, for whoever’s the nominee, for the Republican Congress to do things,” said Dave Carney, a longtime Perry political adviser who parted ways with the Texas governor after his failed 2012 presidential run. “[That would make] a better environment in terms of [saying], ‘Hey, put a Republican in charge.’”

Still, state executives could have the political advantage in a primary if only because it’s hard for any one legislator to take credit for big accomplishments in Congress, Carney said.

“Even though it’s a great conference — Republicans will get things done — nobody thinks in the next 18 months Congress is going to rehabilitate Washington,” he added.

The 2016 GOP field is expected to be highly competitive. In addition to Walker, Jindal and Perry, other governors who may run include Christie, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The slate of likely GOP candidates also includes senators Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz; in the House, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, is among the possibilities.

Governors also see their out-of-Washington executive experience as one more way to cast themselves as next cycle’s true alternative to President Barack Obama, who — many critics like to note — was a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois when he ran for the White House.

Many view the Republican dominance in last week’s midterms — in which the GOP took back the Senate, deepened its gains in the House of Representatives and won governorships even in blue states — as further evidence of disenchantment with Obama’s management of the federal government.

“After taking a risk on President Obama, the American public will not want to elect another inexperienced senator whose main strength is rallying the base using harsh rhetoric,” said Jeff Miller, a senior adviser to Perry.

Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican whose cousin David Perdue was just elected to the Senate from Georgia, suggested in an interview that the argument of statewide executive experience could also be a potent one as candidates jockey to take on Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential frontrunner.

Clinton has been first lady, served as a senator and ran the State Department, but she has never held an elected executive office. Frustration with the Obama administration may make voters more sensitive to the pitch for executive know-how for the next election, Perdue said.

“I do believe the experience [with] this administration will give more credence to that argument than may have happened prior to his administration,” he said.

Joe M. Allbaugh, who served as campaign manager for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s successful 2000 presidential campaign, said he would expect governors to start emphasizing that credential as an asset over their competitors “now.”

“It separates the proverbial men from the boys, or the girls from the ladies,” he said.