University of Oklahoma President David Boren said Friday he will support his son, Dan Boren, if he runs for governor in 2018, but reiterated an earlier statement that he thinks it’s too early to make such a decision.
“I’m very proud of him, of course,” David Boren said in response to a high school student’s question at a Tulsa Town Hall event Friday morning. “I think he rendered excellent service in Congress. But the governor’s race is three years off. A lot could happen between now and then. … There’s plenty of time between now and 2018 for him to make up his mind.”
One of the things happening between now and 2018 is the elder Boren’s attempt to get a 1-cent sales tax dedicated to education on the November general election ballot. He has been trying to put together bipartisan support for the proposal.
“In politics, timing is very important,” David Boren said. “I kind of got surprised by that.”
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David Boren was Oklahoma governor from 1975 to 1979 and U.S. senator from 1979 to 1994. Dan Boren was 2nd District congressman from 2004 to 2012. He currently works for the Chickasaw Nation, and last week said he was exploring a gubernatorial campaign for 2018.
Both Borens are Democrats.
David Boren’s message to a high school group and the Town Hall afterward otherwise centered on the importance of education, what he said is the state’s failure to adequately support it, and the broader future of the United States.
“Many of us feel that our country is at a tipping point,” Boren said. “Will we tip toward continued greatness and continued leadership in the world and a high quality of life here at home? Or will we tip, as other countries of our age and position and experience, toward decline instead of revitalization.”
A self-described “militant moderate,” Boren said he fears the country has become too fragmented and polarized to continue as it has in recent decades. He recited statistics he said illustrate a growing imbalance of wealth and opportunity in America — and with it, a growing cynicism about government.
Boren said fewer Americans are optimistic, and more of them have become disenchanted with the Republican and Democratic parties.
Perhaps, he said, a centrist third party will emerge to capture what he called the “moderate majority.”
“I tell my (OU) students they might live to see a president who is neither a Republican or Democrat.”
Again and again, he returned to his concern that the United States is tearing itself apart rather than overcoming differences to unite in a common cause.
“Why can’t we love and respect each other?” he asked. “Why can’t we do that? Why can’t we forget all of this nonsense? The answer is we can. But it requires each one of us.”
