Utah Gov. Spencer Cox takes ‘Disagree Higher’ to the TED Talks stage

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Then-Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox stood in shocked silence.

A number of dozen “screaming” protesters, packed right into a small Capitol room, insisted “the election had been stolen” and urged Cox to refuse the routine job of certifying the state’s Electoral School votes.

“I do know what you are pondering, and also you’re most likely improper,” Utah’s governor mentioned on Wednesday, interrupting his narrative. “This was not 2020. This was 2016.”

It was additionally the 12 months he begrudgingly started to consider Ronald Reagan’s well-known maxim: American freedom is “by no means a couple of technology away from extinction,” Cox advised the hundreds of thought leaders gathered to listen to him communicate. This worry turned all of the extra actual 4 years later as riots rampaged throughout the nation and public figures seeded doubt in an election that was nonetheless months away.

The nation in chaos made Cox look inward, he mentioned, at how political leaders like himself might higher “uphold the values that we educate our children.”

This was the message Cox shared Wednesday as he introduced his nationwide “Disagree Higher” marketing campaign to his broadest viewers but as the one sitting elected official to talk on the biannual flagship TED Talks convention.

Cox took the stage in the course of the “bridge-builders” session, halfway via the four-day occasion held in Vancouver, Canada, which featured practically 80 audio system, together with Free Press founder Bari Weiss, activist investor Invoice Ackman, Ahead Occasion founder Andrew Yang, and dozens of artists, lecturers and enterprise influencers.

His 12-minute, memorized remarks challenged the depth of America’s political division, arguing that political polarization is much less an issue of variations between Republicans and Democrats, and extra the product of “battle entrepreneurs in each the media and politics” who revenue from exaggerating the extremism of the opposite facet.

However, Cox mentioned, “the very best information of all is that there are very sensible issues that all of us can do daily to assist heal the divides in our nations and our neighborhoods.”

What can people do to lower political polarization?

Cox discovered this lesson firsthand throughout his first gubernatorial marketing campaign in 2020, he advised the auditorium of practically 2,000 attendees. That 12 months Cox made headlines for a viral video he made with the Democratic nominee, Chris Peterson, which he confirmed to the viewers.

Within the clip, the 2 candidates categorical their shared dedication to democratic values and mutual respect. The tip of the video was met by applause and cheers from the TED crowd.

“I might truly really feel my religion within the American thought begin to rekindle,” Cox mentioned of the advert’s recognition. “It appeared like there was a starvation for architects as a substitute of arsonists.”

This hope was bolstered when the video was later utilized in a Stanford examine of 30,000 Individuals, based on Cox. The outcomes confirmed that the advert had “a measurable depolarization impact, together with a discount in urges in the direction of violence” amongst its viewers, he mentioned.

“It seems, there actually are issues that we are able to do to change the trajectory of the USA,” Cox mentioned.

Since taking over the mantle of chairman of the Nationwide Governors Affiliation in 2023, Cox has spearheaded an effort to show America’s leaders, and their constituents, a more healthy type of dialogue. Over the past six months, 20 bipartisan pairings of governors and elected officers have filmed adverts, like Cox and Peterson’s, sharing how they’ll work collectively regardless of their totally different worldviews.

In February, Cox showcased the initiative in Washington, D.C., the place he headlined a discussion board with Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and met with President Joe Biden, who praised the “Disagree Higher” initiative.

Whereas it has earned him criticism from the political left and proper, Cox mentioned a good-faith effort to interact with Individuals throughout the aisle is “the one manner for us to recollect the best way to disagree with out hate and contempt.”

In his discuss, Cox inspired Individuals to take 4 steps:

1. Spend much less time with polarizing headlines that pit one facet of the nation towards the opposite.
2. Spend extra time with individuals who assume in another way than you as a result of it’s “tougher to hate up shut.”
3. Expend extra effort serving and giving again to society.
4. Try and develop “the classical political virtues of humility, endurance and moderation.”

These symbolize nothing lower than a return to the “radical name to like our enemies,” Cox mentioned. “If we actually wish to change the world, now we have to begin by altering our personal hearts.”

The standing applause that adopted Cox’s speech was punctuated by a number of shouts and one loud “Bravo!”