Can the governor of Kentucky really pick a fight with China? | Opinion
Can the governor of Kentucky fight China? The question has come up a lot lately because of an advertising campaign being waged on behalf of Kelly Craft, candidate for the Kentucky GOP gubernatorial nomination. The campaign leans into Craft’s international experience, suggesting that she’s the only candidate capable of securing the border and warding off Chinese influence.
Fighting China and defending the border (with Tennessee?) aren’t normally considered duties of the Governor of Kentucky. How much power does a governor really have over foreign policy? The short answer is that every state governor has a surprising number of formal and informal powers that allow he/her to conduct what amounts to foreign policy.
The Constitution
The US Constitution is characteristically vague on precisely what a state governor can do in the foreign policy realm. Few of the Founders anticipated the complexity of modern economics and diplomacy, and thus few appreciated any need for state governors to make agreements with foreign powers. Article 1 prohibits states from entering into treaties— preserving high diplomacy for the federal government and especially the executive branch — but allows states to come to agreements with foreign powers as long as allowed by Congress. Over time this has come to include a huge array of social, cultural, education, and economic agreements that states (and often even smaller localities) regularly make with foreign governments.
There are limits, of course. There is a presumption that treaties executed by the federal government create obligations on states, and the courts have been sensitivity to local laws that otherwise conflict with federal prerogatives to conduct foreign policy. These considerations can arise for political reasons (Florida deciding on its own Cuba policy, for example) or basic regulatory issues (how to handle cross-national inheritance issues), and in general the courts tend to favor federal power when it comes into collision with state power.
Practice
In practice, governor’s do a lot of work to sell the economic and cultural interest of their states. This often means being at the lead of delegations intended to drive trade contracts abroad or investment here in the Commonwealth. For example, Martha Layne Collins helped bring the TMMK plant to Georgetown through diligent use of economic incentives. Steve Beshear traveled widely, making visits to Taiwan, Japan, Canada, and elsewhere. Matt Bevin led trade delegations to both China and India. Every recent Kentucky governor has also hosted foreign envoys, business leaders, and cultural figures. Andy Beshear is notable for having done minimal foreign work only because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Governors also manage the state bureaucracy, which has a role in border control, airport control, trade regulation, and law enforcement. The governor can prioritize cooperation with federal agencies or foreign businesses within the bureaucracy to make the process of policy execution more or less efficient. The governor can also spearhead legislation intended to make possible particular investment and trade deals.
Mexico and China
So one thing that a governor of Kentucky could do if she were worried about China is simply NOT do all of the things that make relations between Frankfort and Beijing easier. The governor could refuse to conclude the kinds of social and cultural exchanges between China and Kentucky that have become commonplace. She could forego supporting the elements of Kentucky’s industries — including bourbon and equestrian— that appeal to Chinese tourists and investors. She could use her influence over the state university system to curtail cooperative agreements with Chinese universities and possibly alter admissions policies for Chinese students.
If Kentucky’s governor wanted to fight illegal immigration, she could encourage the elements of the Kentucky state bureaucracy that touch on immigrant life to cooperate more enthusiastically with federal authorities. If a city in Kentucky decided to declare itself a sanctuary, the governor would face obstacles to dictating a change in the policy but would nevertheless have plenty of tools for making life uncomfortable.
In the end, there are quite a lot of things that a powerful public official can do to affect the relationship between the Commonwealth and the international community. Indeed, managing trade and cultural relations has become a big part of a governor’s job, even for states that don’t border Mexico, Canada, or any of the oceans that surround North America.
It’s not wrong for Kelly Craft to talk up her diplomatic experience while making the case for her candidacy. Governors have international responsibilities.
But it might be helpful to tackle the quality of her ideas. Plenty of Kentuckians have come to depend, in one way or another, on cultural, educational, and economic ties with Mexico and China. China is Kentucky’s fourth largest export target; Mexico is number two.
Dr. Robert Farley has taught security and diplomacy courses at the Patterson School since 2005. He is the author of “Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force” (University Press of Kentucky, 2014), “The Battleship Book” (Wildside, 2016), and Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (University of Chicago, 2020). Dr. Farley is also a founder and senior editor of Lawyers, Guns and Money.
