Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: We're joined now by former Massachusetts Governor Daval Patrick, who
Speaker 2: is here with us in studio. Governor, great to see you,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you for coming in. It's
Speaker 2: hard to acknowledge the week that it is being had
Speaker 2: here in Chicago without.
Speaker 1: Has been just a week.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess it's been two days. But you know,
Speaker 2: these are stacks. Yeah, the last four weeks I think
Speaker 2: has probably felt like a year to many, but it
Speaker 2: is historic in nature. We're about to see not just
Speaker 2: a woman, but a woman of color for the first
Speaker 2: time accept the Democratic nomination for president, and there is
Speaker 2: obviously very charged language on the other side of this campaign.
Speaker 2: How should we be thinking about the politics of race
Speaker 2: in this election cycle, especially given the candidacy of Kambala Harris.
Speaker 1: Well, I think, first of all, the there's probably more
Speaker 1: race in our politics than I'd like, and I think
Speaker 1: probably most people would would like. But I love firsts
Speaker 1: as one and I think I feel incredibly blessed at
Speaker 1: a time like this to live in a country where
Speaker 1: you can be a Kamala Harris and come from what
Speaker 1: she's come from and become the nominee of the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party for President of the United States, and I think
Speaker 1: she will win, and I think she'll do a great job.
Speaker 1: I feel the same kind of elation about Tim Walls,
Speaker 1: who grew up on a farm I think in Nebraska
Speaker 1: and has lifted himself and been in service like Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris of lifting others, and has the opportunity now to
Speaker 1: be the Democratic nominee for vice president. That is an
Speaker 1: American story, and it is in the instance of Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: associated with race, but it is a story that once
Speaker 1: was told more often in this country than any other
Speaker 1: country on Earth. And I'm a Democrat for some of
Speaker 1: the reasons that Frank They've been talking about that we've
Speaker 1: got to create in the collaboration between government and the
Speaker 1: private sector, circumstances that permit people not just to imagine
Speaker 1: a different place for themselves, but actually practically to reach
Speaker 1: for it.
Speaker 3: People should know you were only the second black man
Speaker 3: elected governor in the United States of America. I had
Speaker 3: the pleasure of covering you for some time as the
Speaker 3: governor of Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Joe.
Speaker 3: I also remember what happened when Danielle Allen tried to
Speaker 3: run for governor she dropped out of the race because
Speaker 3: she said there was no path. What about the challenges
Speaker 3: specifically facing women of color, black women trying to reach
Speaker 3: higher office.
Speaker 1: Well, first of all of Danielle, who is immensely talented,
Speaker 1: I hope she'll come back into politics. I don't know
Speaker 1: that the only factor in her decision to drop out
Speaker 1: was being a woman of color. I think probably I
Speaker 1: stayed in because I didn't know any better. It was
Speaker 1: my first time running for anything. You remember, Joe, and
Speaker 1: our dynamic at home in Massachusetts, I would say is
Speaker 1: less Democrat Republican than it is the inside or outsider
Speaker 1: by the way, I think that's the dynamic increasingly all
Speaker 1: over the country. And so I think now having said that,
Speaker 1: I think there are special challenges and maybe opportunities for
Speaker 1: the Harris Walls candidacy because it's such a short period
Speaker 1: of time and they will have to do some things
Speaker 1: that aren't always done in our kind of unlimited political campaigning,
Speaker 1: and a lot more direct to voters, a lot more direct,
Speaker 1: a lot more volunteer organizing that's outside the campaign, which
Speaker 1: I think has been one of the most inspiring parts
Speaker 1: of this of this experience, she's finding her voice. We
Speaker 1: did the first event six days I think after the
Speaker 1: torch was passed in Western Massachusetts, and she showed up.
Speaker 1: It was absolutely electric. I see her now at podium
Speaker 1: and she seems a lot more relaxed. He's paying less
Speaker 1: attention to the teleprompter. So there are those challenges and
Speaker 1: converting all this energy and excitement to actual organization and
Speaker 1: turn out. That's not a small thing. But as I say,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of other folks are taking that
Speaker 1: on themselves outside the campaign, and I think they will
Speaker 1: have to rely on some of us just doing it
Speaker 1: on our own.
Speaker 2: You, of course have had a storied career in politics,
Speaker 2: but you now also work in business and come on
Speaker 2: Bloomberg for that reason and others. How do you consider
Speaker 2: what a Kamala Harris presidency would look like and what
Speaker 2: kind of investment opportunities or the way in which it
Speaker 2: may change the business climate? Knowing specifically there's been a
Speaker 2: focus on democratic values for you have a sera specifically,
Speaker 2: how does that how do you see her reflected in
Speaker 2: the business world.
Speaker 1: Well, so to the first to the notion of democratic values,
Speaker 1: and I use that term in a nonpartisan way, the
Speaker 1: notion that communities that people that place all matter, they
Speaker 1: all count. One of the things we do at the
Speaker 1: Vistria Group, and that I did at the fund that
Speaker 1: I founded at Bank Capital, so called Impact Investing Fund,
Speaker 1: was invest in ways that demonstrated you didn't have to return,
Speaker 1: you didn't have to exchange superior financial return for stakeholder
Speaker 1: engagement and stakeholder positive stakeholder impact. And I think that
Speaker 1: is important to long term value. It's also important to
Speaker 1: the long term success of businesses. What I want to
Speaker 1: see going forward is a lot more conspicuous collaboration with
Speaker 1: the business and the not for profit community. I'm not
Speaker 1: just talking about how to regulate, or the importance of regulating,
Speaker 1: as we used to say in Massachusetts at the speed
Speaker 1: of business, so it's not a barrier, it's an enabler.
Speaker 1: But I mean just really trying to identify what the
Speaker 1: opperation tunities are, How, for example, you leverage these enormous
Speaker 1: new tools in the Infrastructure Bill and the Chips and
Speaker 1: Science Act and in the Rescue Plan alongside private sector
Speaker 1: assets and investment to create lasting economic growth, because that
Speaker 1: is a part of that story of opportunity in this
Speaker 1: country too. Right, we have to have an economy that grows,
Speaker 1: as the President says and I have said, it has
Speaker 1: to grow out to the middle and the marginalized and
Speaker 1: not just up to the well connected.
Speaker 3: Well, it's nice to see you here in Chicago. People
Speaker 3: might not realize your hometown.
Speaker 1: Isn't it It is here.
Speaker 3: We are. It is nice to see it's good to
Speaker 3: be here.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: Here at the table. Deval Patrick, the former governor of
Speaker 3: Massachusetts at the DNC here in the Chicago