Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead responds to a question from POLITICO reporter Elana Schor during POLITICO's Sixth Annual State Solutions Conference in Washington, on Feb 19, 2016. | Rod Lamkey Jr. for POLITICO GOP governors baffled by Trump's rise

Political outsider Donald Trump is leading a Republican field that includes two U.S. senators and one former and one sitting governor — a situation that GOP governors are struggling to comprehend.

Trump’s rise, similar to that of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’, has been fueled by voters who are angry with the leaders in Washington, D.C. But a group of governors participating in POLITICO’s sixth annual State Solutions Conference in Washington said Friday that such hostility has created a dynamic in this presidential race that’s unlike any they have ever seen.


Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has yet to endorse a candidate ahead of his state’s March 1 primary but signaled that if Trump’s feud with the pope can’t slow him down in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, nothing can. Trump has a 13.5-percentage point advantage over his nearest rival in the state, according to a RealClearPolitics average of state polls.

“Frustrations with Washington and the establishment has just created a different dynamic than we’ve ever seen before,” Hutchinson said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam described today’s political environment as a setting in which the most passionate and angriest candidates are being rewarded while Republicans like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have struggled to translate their experience into support.

“We’re in a world right now where well said means more than well done,” Haslam said. “Résumé doesn’t mean anything in today’s environment.”

Trump has built his campaign on eschewing political correctness and creating an endless string of stunner headlines. The billionaire businessman invoked the Islamic State in his rebuttal to Pope Francis' attack on him; he skipped a Republican debate because he didn’t like the way Fox News was treating him; he has called for building a wall to keep out Mexican immigrants and for banning Muslims from entering the United States. None of that, however, has brought down his dominant standing in most early-state and national polls.

Haslam said it's just not in governors' DNA to pull the stunts necessary to break through in an election cycle dominated by Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Governors sometimes have a hard time jumping up on a table and yelling the loudest because they’ve actually been there,” Haslam said. “They realize it’s difficult to govern in a split environment.”

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead repeatedly dodged opportunities to talk about Trump but eventually offered a diplomatic remark in response to a question from a member of the audience.

“I didn’t vote for President Obama, but I think he is our president and I like and dislike decisions of any president in office,” Mead said. “We need to recognize our agreements and disagreements with whomever is chosen as president, but we can't continue to just stall out in Washington just because it’s not who I voted for. We have still an obligation and duty to challenge and to work through.

“I’m in politics, but I’m not an expert in politics,” he continued. “But it does seem to me that the country is getting more and more divided and more and more hostile to different points of view, and I don’t think that’s healthy.”

Ultimately, Americans are tired of being told what to do by Washington officials and pundits, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said. “It’s more of a, really, a rebellion on both the left and some of the right, and to look at Trump’s support on the right side of the political spectrum is interesting as well, particularly some of the positions that he’s taken,” Bryant said.

Bryant marveled at a race in which a super PAC raising more than $100 million has had minimal impact on the candidate it supports, and a presidential candidate who doesn’t accept contributions from Wall Street and megadonors is giving the all-but-coronated candidate a run for her money. “That’s a fascinating phenomenon,” Bryant said.

But the fierce battles in politics today isn’t much different from what’s occurred in past years, he added. “At least we’re not having duels,” Bryant said. “No one’s been caned on the floor of the Senate so far.”

Eliza Collins contributed to this report.