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