By William Coffman, Local & National Editor

With a relationship forged by their joint efforts on the Brent-Spence Bridge, Govs. Mike DeWine and Andy Beshear joined former U.S. Sen Rob Portman for a panel on bipartisanship in governance.

The event, hosted by The Portman Center for Policy Solutions, a center through the University of Cincinnati founded by Portman, centered around the relationship the two governors’ share and lessons they have learned during their time in government.

DeWine, Governor of Ohio, who has served as governor since 2019, has held a variety of leadership roles at the federal and state level. He represented Ohio in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Following his time in the Senate, DeWine served as Attorney General of Ohio for eight years, before taking on the governorship.

Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, has, like DeWine, been governor since 2019 and was Attorney General for his state prior to becoming its chief executive. Beshear, the son of former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, has been floated as a likely presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in 2028.

Portman, who served in the cabinet roles of United States Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and Budget, moderated the discussion. Portman earned a reputation for reaching across the aisle during his time in the Senate, earning 3^rd place among all Senators in The Lugar Center’s Bipartisan Index for 2021. The index is a non-partisan ranking assessing the bipartisanship scores of sitting legislators done by the Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Portman’s bipartisan reputation was reflected in his advice to the audience to not burn bridges.

The two governors spoke of initiatives they have worked together on, specifying work done on the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Kentucky and Ohio here in Cincinnati. This project was achieved through bipartisan means and was a clear action of the philosophy, “common sense, common ground, get results for your people” spoken of by Beshear. 

“That quote struck me as interesting and really set the tone for the whole conversation, creating an atmosphere of unity,” junior Philosophy, Politics and the Public (PPP) major Carolyn Isaly said.

Beshear also spoke of the idea that America is not as partisan as many may believe, listing the everyday citizens’ priorities as focusing on things such as the education and healthcare of their families, rather than their party registration or elections.

DeWine offered the advice of good listening, discussing his work in the U.S. Senate and senators he turned to on specific issues, such as Sen. Dick Durbin from Illinois on AIDS related issues.

The talk concluded with a discussion on higher ed, with DeWine emphasizing Ohio’s status as an importer of college students and describing a scholarship Ohio has created, where students in the top 5% of academic achievement in the state receive a $5,000 annual scholarship to any Ohio institution.

The event’s rhetoric was consistently unifying and uplifting, urging the audience to remember disagreement shouldn’t halt progress. Another message of the event was the importance of avoiding looking at those on the other side of the aisle as the enemy.

 With DeWine nearing the end of his term and Beshear potentially running for the presidency, both men are in different stages of their political careers. Despite this difference, the men agreed on the value of public service, with Beshear encouraging the audience to find their reason why when entering fields of public service.