Former Govs. Larry Hogan, Steve Bullock repeat call for more listening, less shouting in politics

But their disagreement during a forum in Washington, D.C., was civil, polite even. There were no raised voices, no made-for-social-media putdowns. Just the sort of agreeable disagreement that both men said America needs more of.

“You can’t get anything done unless you’re willing to listen to the other side,” Hogan said at the Pew Charitable Trusts offices in downtown Washington. “When the partisan shouting stops is when you actually start to listen…. People these days seem to be more interested in winning an argument than solving a problem.”

Hogan, the former Republican governor in a blue state, and Bullock, a former Democratic governor in a red state, were the featured speakers at a session on “How States Are Navigating an Era of Uncertainty,” hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts and States Newsroom. (Maryland Matters is part of the States Newsroom network.)

Both said that during their time as governor, they learned the importance of elected officials from differing parties working together to find common ground on policy solutions, even though it was rarely easy.

“It wasn’t all ‘Kumbaya,’” Hogan said of his time working with the Democratic legislature. “We didn’t always agree. But we disagreed without demonizing the other side, and we tried to find common sense, bipartisan solutions to every problem.”

That formula didn’t always work out for them. Hogan flirted with a presidential bid in 2020, but decided against it after polls showed overwhelming GOP support for President Donald Trump in Maryland; Bullock got in the race that year, but was never able to make a dent in a crowded Democratic field and dropped out early.

Both ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate seats after their terms as governor ended. Bullock won about 45% of the vote in a 2020 challenge to Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who took 55%. And just last year, Hogan lost his bid for an open Senate to Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md), earning 43% of the vote to her 53%.

Despite their mixed success rate, both men said Tuesday they firmly believe that bipartisan efforts are best for the United States. Bullock said he hopes that it’s “not a bygone era” of politics.

“I’d say the best advice is to not pay too much attention to all the noise and to try to actually sit down and focus,” Bullock said. “If it’s just both sides yelling at each other, we’re never going to get anything done on every single issue. And that tends to happen. The more heated the rhetoric is, the less productive it is.”

Virginia Mercury Editor-in-Chief Samantha Willis moderated the discussion between the two former governors. (The Virginia Mercury is also a part of States Newsroom.) While the two former governors generally agreed and backed each other up, their ability to politely disagree was on display when Willis asked about the recent American bombing strikes in Iran.

Over the weekend, Trump ordered bombing raids on three nuclear facilities in Iran in an attempt, after almost two weeks of raids by Israel, to destroy the Iranians ability to develop nuclear weapons. Trump ordered the raids without seeking permission from Congress, which has to approve any act of war, leading to criticism over the propriety of the attack.

Hogan, for years a vocal critic of Trump, said he hopes the attack is a step toward peace in the Middle East and said he agreed with Trump’s decision to try to kneecap Iran’s nuclear efforts.

“The law says you have to notify Congress, which they did,” Hogan said. “You can’t have a debate with 535 people on when you’re stopping the biggest exporter of terrorism from getting a nuclear weapon … the commander in chief is empowered to make decisions like that.”

Bullock questioned how much notice Congress actually received before the attack, but agreed that Iran “getting nuclear capabilities would be very, very problematic.” He said the greater concern is the “erosion” of norms at the federal level.

“Congress deserves a heads up,” Bullock said.

Willis also asked about the rise in political violence, referencing the assassination attempt on Trump during his 2024 campaign as well as the recent killing of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and attack on Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman in politically motivated attacks. She asked how the two would respond to the situation if they were governor.

Hogan said that it’s up to state leaders and the federal government to “tone down the rhetoric.”

“America is deeply divided, and there’s angry, violent people on both sides … continuing to use inflammatory partisan rhetoric makes the problem much worse,” he said. “It’s really what I’ve been talking about for 10 years – nobody was listening, apparently.”

Bullock pushed back on Hogan, saying that there’s a difference between “political violence and reacting to political violence.”

“When you have an incident like what happened in Minnesota, every single statewide officeholder and governor and legislator — irrespective of the political party – ought to be standing up and saying, ‘That’s not right,’” Bullock said. “We may disagree, but we don’t countenance or accept political violence.”

They were more in tune when it came to the broad and “indiscriminate” cuts outlined in the Budget Reconciliation legislation currently in the hands of the U.S. Senate, often called the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by Trump.

Hogan said that while he agrees with efforts to cut down on what he called “inflated” federal spending, those sorts of cuts need careful and precise consideration, rather than taking a “meat ax” to the budget reconciliation bill.

They also agreed that the mass layoffs at federal agencies are costing thousands of Americans their jobs, including Marylanders and Montanans. Hogan urged governors to prepare for the needs of constituents as a result of those layoffs.

“Every time you lay somebody off, it’s not just the shrinking of the federal government, it’s real people,” he said. “We need to think about what kinds of benefits they’re going to see, how do we do workforce development and job retraining and reskilling?”

Hogan is often mentioned as a possible candidate for his old job when the governor’s seat comes up again in 2026, but when asked by reporters after the panel, he would only say he is “enjoying retirement” right now — and spending time promoting bipartisan politics.

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