United States | Checking and balancing

America debates how much power state governors should have

State legislatures want more oversight over their executives in an emergency

A sober reckoning with gubernatorial power
|DENVER

ONE YEAR AGO, America’s governors were having a moment. Covid-19 cases were rising, federal leadership was absent and much of the responsibility for fighting the pandemic fell on their shoulders. Before Andrew Cuomo was mired in personal and professional scandals, his daily press briefings were must-see TV. Gretchen Whitmer’s star rose in the Democratic Party after she sparred with Donald Trump, who referred to her as “the woman from Michigan”—a phrase her supporters soon had emblazoned on T-shirts.

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