2023-2024 NGA Chair’s Initiative

Disagree Better: Healthy Conflict for Better Policy

Americans need to disagree better. And by that we don’t mean that we need to be nicer to each other, although that’s helpful. We need to learn to disagree in a way that allows us to find solutions and solve problems instead of endlessly bickering.

The “exhausted majority” of Americans want this, and the science is clear about interventions that reduce polarization. As doers and builders, Governors are in a unique position to model what healthy conflict looks like.

The Disagree Better initiative will look at the problems of polarization, elevate the solutions that groups around the country are already implementing, and feature Governors showing what disagreeing better looks like. Through public debates, service projects, public service announcements and a variety of other tactics, Americans will see a more positive and optimistic way of working through our problems.

We’re also going to put these principles to work on a real-world policy challenge that needs resolution: the longtime stalemate over immigration. In collaboration with the business community and other stakeholders, our hope is to find enough consensus among Governors to identify common principles around immigration policy.

We know that conflict resolution takes work and involves difficult conversations. It’s much easier to sow division than to persuade or find solutions. But we also know that no one ever changed someone’s mind by attacking them.

Through healthy conflict, we’re confident that we can find common ground and improve our families, our communities and our nation. Together, we can disagree better.

– Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, NGA Chair

About the Initiative

Disagree Better is an effort to show that as Americans, we can work through our differences to find solutions to the most difficult problems facing our states and our nation. This effort includes a series of public-facing efforts, assisted by NGA and chosen from a toolkit of interventions that are customizable for each state/governor. These strategies include:

  • Hosting a service project within your communities, potentially with your state Legislature and their spouses from both sides of the aisle.
  • Recording an ad with a neighboring governor from a different party, a legislator from the opposing party, or a campaign opponent. NGA Chair Utah Gov. Cox, a Republican, and NGA Vice Chair Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, explain more in the video above.
  • Recording a brief civic education ad, explaining that our nation’s founding and the Constitution were designed for people from different backgrounds and with different views.
  • Writing an op-ed with someone from the other party on a topic of common ground.
  • Hosting a debate at a college or university that models healthy conflict to future generations, including in partnership with organizations like Braver Angels and Bridge USA.

Over the next year, we’ll host four NGA convenings across the country to expose Governors to the good work already happening and connect them with the leading organizations, so they can help elevate and accelerate such work in their states.

The goal is for Governors to model how to disagree better, setting an example and creating the permission structure and template for other public officials at every level to follow.

The power of service

A key part of our Disagree Better initiative is service and  First Lady Abby Cox will be leading the way. We’ll have four convenings across the country over the next year, and the first lady will be leading efforts to incorporate a service project at each of these meetings to benefit communities.

The research is clear that participating in service activities breaks down barriers, lifts up others and improves mental health. Service has always been important to our family, and it’s a quality we have carried throughout our public service. So we’re inviting all of you to Show Up with us. To serve. To do good. Learn more about First Lady Cox’s Show Up initiative here. 

Research and resources on healthy conflict

Dozens of groups across the nation are involved in depolarization work, and the Disagree Better NGA Initiative will work to elevate their research and resources.

Here is a list of individual leaders and organizations we have relied on in developing Disagree Better:

Op-Eds/Columns

Podcasts/Videos

Academic Studies

Organizations