Michael Baumgartner, Eastern Washington’s congressman-elect, hopes for bipartisanship despite heated election year

WASHINGTON – Michael Baumgartner intends to be a team player when he’s sworn in as a member of the House Republican conference in January, but Eastern Washington’s newly elected congressman says that doesn’t mean always being at odds with the opposing party.

After Donald Trump won a decisive victory and Republicans regained control of the Senate on election night, it remained to be seen on Wednesday which party would seize the House majority. But even if Republicans win a “trifecta” – controlling the House, Senate and White House – filibuster rules in the Senate require bipartisan support to pass most legislation.

Trump’s return to the White House after a campaign in which he repeatedly called Democrats “the enemy from within” and promised retribution against his foes raises the specter of a political environment even less conducive to bipartisan problem solving than the current Congress has seen. But Baumgartner, in a phone interview Wednesday, said it shouldn’t have to be that way.

“I would like to see the political temperature in America come down,” he said. “The hyperpartisanship and the tribalism in America, I think it really is a disheartening strategic threat to our nation’s future. We don’t have to agree, but we have to make sure that while Republicans and Democrats are in opposition, that they’re not the enemy.”

The former state senator, who most recently has served as Spokane County treasurer, said he hopes to apply the “skills of teamwork and political diplomacy” that he gained in the state Legislature when he arrives at the U.S. Capitol.

“The job is to be a representative,” he said. “I have to represent everybody in Eastern Washington and work for them. I’m very cognizant of that, and I’m very sincere that the folks that didn’t vote for me, I’ll still be their congressman, and they need to bring their issues and their ideas and their concerns to me.”

Baumgartner said a scenario in which Republicans control the House, Senate and White House could create an “opportunity to provide meaningful solutions to some really big problems in government that really need to be addressed,” adding that his first priority is “to bring some sanity and safety to the situation on our southern border.”

“There’s not a silver bullet on immigration and the border situation,” he said. “It’ll take a whole-of-government approach and working with partners in Mexico.”

While President-elect Trump will have some tools at his disposal to change policy, any effort to overhaul the U.S. border and asylum system is likely to run into the reality that Congress has failed for decades to pass durable immigration reform. Baumgartner said that kind of legislating can’t happen until border security improves.

“I think the most important thing is to have a bipartisan consensus,” Baumgartner said. “And I think if anything comes out of this election result from last night – with the victory that Trump has in both the electoral college and with the popular vote – I mean, this is absolutely a mandate to get the southern border under control.”

Baumgartner suggested that Trump’s pugilistic approach to governing in his first term was due to criticism from Democrats. But Trump’s campaign rhetoric – casting immigrants as dangerous criminals and promising unprecedented “mass deportations” – could make Democrats less willing to collaborate with his administration and congressional Republicans on immigration reform.

“Trump, I think his mindset is, ‘If you’re attacked, you hit back,’ ” he said. “That is a cycle which really played out in the first Trump presidency, and it really is a distraction. It leads to a lot of combat and nonproductive policy.”

From 2007 to 2009, Baumgartner worked as a State Department economics officer in Iraq and as a civilian contractor focused on counternarcotics in Afghanistan.

Based on that work and his experience as a Jesuit missionary in Mozambique, he said, “I’m very sympathetic to the plight of refugees.”

That could put him at odds with the new administration. In addition to cracking down on illegal border crossings, Trump restricted legal migration in his first term, including a sharp cut to the number of refugees allowed to enter the country.

Asked what he would do if the Trump administration’s policies conflict with his principles, Baumgartner pivoted and said, “I just look forward to being a team player and advancing the football on behalf of Eastern Washington.”

“The brand I want to build is really a champion for Eastern Washington,” he said, citing protecting Fairchild Air Force Base, the Lower Snake River dams and trade with Asia as some of his top priorities.

Much of what a lawmaker does in Congress depends on committee assignments. Baumgartner joked that because a former speaker of the House and the current chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee have both represented Eastern Washington’s 5th Congressional District, “I just presume that my colleagues will slot me into one of those two positions from the start.”

Turning serious, he said he would like a seat on the Armed Services Committee or Energy and Commerce Committee. The latter, led by retiring Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane, would let him be part of regulating the nascent “name, image and likeness,” or “NIL,” rules in college sports, which he cited as a particular interest.

“We already have one NFL; we don’t need two,” he said. “And the current trajectory of professionalization of college sports is really unhealthy for college athletics and dramatically impacts institutions like Eastern Washington University and Washington State University.”

Federal NIL legislation has stalled in the House and Senate, an example of the quagmire that exists in Congress for even relatively nonpartisan issues.

Baumgartner said he believes the answer to a more productive federal legislature lies in the founders’ design for the government itself.

“I really think the answer to all the political divisiveness is just to remember our federal system and strengthen that federal system, based on our Constitution, and allow diversities of thought,” he said.

“It’s when folks try to impose their own political philosophies on other folks that you get the friction and the distrust.”