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Dear Board of Directors,

While the USGLC team joined the rest of Washington in Rocking the Red last night, we’re in the final sprint preparing for our State Leaders Summit. It kicks off on June 18th and we’re really excited:


* It will not only be our largest ever, but perhaps one of our most important, so watch for the final details about joining us in the Green Room.


* Headliners include Governor Chris Christie, General Paul Selva, Administrator Mark Green, Senators Todd Young and Chris Coons, and many more.


* You won’t want to miss our special lunch tribute to PEPFAR@15 with Senator Tom Daschle, President Bush’s Chief of Staff, Tony Fauci, and others – plus an extraordinary video presentation.

A few updates before the weekend:

1. USGLC Across the Pond. Over the years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has asked me to help them advise other groups/individuals in creating a “USGLC” in other ally countries. To be honest, none of them have been successful until this year in the UK – and it’s worth sharing a few highlights:


* The “Coalition for Global Prosperity” was launched this past week, headlined by David Cameron in what has been dubbed his most significant public appearance since stepping down at Downing Street – and the British media linked the new effort as a direct response to rising populism.


* The story from the Daily Express looks remarkably familiar: “During the launch of the new Coalition For Global Prosperity campaign – a group of military, political, business and faith leaders fighting to maintain Britain's spending commitments on foreign aid – [Cameron] said a ‘positive approach’ is needed to engage with the surge of global populism.


* The Coalition’s new director, Theo Clarke, has spent a great deal of time in our office, learning from our team and even traveled to one of our statewide events last year. She will be at our annual Summit if anyone would like to meet her.


* Not only are our friends at the Gates Foundation appreciative of our help, but all of you should be proud of the inspiration the USGLC played in contributing to this effort.

2. Voters Rate Foreign Policy. Sorry to say, but probably not surprising to any of you. In the latest NBC/WSJ poll of registered voters, foreign policy ranks last in voter priorities – after health care, the economy, guns, taxes, immigration, and support/opposition for President Trump. Just 6% of voters say it’s their top priority, 18% place it as 1 of their top 2 issues. A couple thoughts:


* While midterms are often more focused on domestic politics and presidential elections are more decisive on foreign policy, this latest polling underscores our challenge in making our agenda a priority with Democrats and Republicans alike.

* Nonetheless, as I shared at the board meeting, we’ve reached more than 150 high-level candidate briefings to date – 75% of our goal – with more to come.

3. Kasich on Foreign Policy. In case you missed it, John Kasich just put down a marker in Foreign Affairs – entitled “Reclaiming Global Leadership, The Right Way to Put America First.” A few takeaways:


* While his internationalist voice has certainly been growing in recent weeks – including on the Sunday shows – this new article is clearly a move to signal his views to the foreign policy establishment (particularly in the same moment that Trump invites Russia back to the G-7 and slaps new tariffs on our allies).

* I was pleased with his embrace of U.S. efforts to reduce “poverty and disease” and his alarm bells on continuing to “hollow out the State Department.” He has often qualified some of his comments around our issues, so this is encouraging and was likely helped by our engagement during the 2016 campaign and our Ohio event with him and Secretary Bob Gates.

4. The Mulvaney Agenda. Unfortunately, Mulvaney may be at it again when it comes to a whack at the State Department and USAID. According to a recent scoop from POLITICO on how “Trump seeks to reorganize the federal government,” the plan includes more efforts to slash development and diplomacy. We’ve already alerted our friends on the Hill – who this week passed the first $15 billion rescissions package in the House (and were very helpful in removing Ebola funding as one of the items on the chopping block). Unclear how the Senate will react to the overall rescission package.

Last but not least, this weekend marks the first “USGLC wedding” as the bride (Sara Locke) and groom (Hank Lester) met at our office – so that along with the Caps Parade makes for a wonderful time to celebrate! All eyes turn to the Singapore Summit next week, which seems to be shaping up to be a made-for-TV moment for this new brand of diplomacy.

Stay tuned,

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC