By GEOFF MULVIHILL and MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press
A group of Democratic state governors that includes Colorado’s Jared Polis has launched a new alliance aimed at coordinating their public health efforts.
They’re framing it as a way to share data, messages about threats, emergency preparedness and public health policy — and as a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s administration, which they say isn’t doing its job in public health.
“At a time when the federal government is telling the states, ‘you’re on your own,’ governors are banding together,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement.
The formation of the group touches off a new chapter in a partisan battle over public health measures that has been heightened by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s advisers , instead leaving the choice to the individual.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email that Democratic governors who imposed school closures and mask mandates, including for toddlers, at the height of the pandemic, are the ones who “destroyed public trust in public health.”
“The Trump Administration and Secretary Kennedy are rebuilding that trust by grounding every policy in rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science — not the failed politics of the pandemic,” Nixon said.
The initial members are all Democrats
The Governors Public Health Alliance bills itself as a “nonpartisan coordinating hub,” but the initial members are all Democrats — the governors of 14 states plus Guam.
Among them are governors of the most populous blue states, California and New York, and several governors who are considered possible 2028 presidential candidates, including California’s Gavin Newsom, Illinois’ JB Pritzker and Maryland’s Moore.
“This new partnership will help states deliver consistent, commonsense solutions that prevent the spread of disease, save lives and protect our freedom,” Polis said in a news release Wednesday.
His statement added that Colorado “can share our best practices and innovative approach to public health, while learning from our colleagues around the country.”
The idea of banding together for public health isn’t new for Democratic governors. They to address the pandemic during Trump’s first term and in recent months amid uncertainty on federal vaccine policy. States have also taken steps to .
The new alliance isn’t intended to supplant those efforts, or the coordination already done by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, its organizers say.
Former CDC director among the advisers
Dr. Mandy Cohen, who was CDC director under former President Joe Biden and before that the head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, is part of a bipartisan group of advisers to the alliance.
“The CDC did provide an important backstop for expertise and support,” she said. “And I think now with some of that gone, itap important for states to make sure that they are sharing best practices, and that they are coordinating, because the problems have not gone away. The health threats have not gone away.”
Other efforts have also sprung up to try to before the , along with other restructuring and downsizing.
The Governors Public Health Alliance has support from GovAct, a nonprofit, nonpartisan donor-funded initiative that also has projects aimed at protecting democracy and another partisan hot-button issue, reproductive freedom.
