Ron Faucheux: One of these two people should be president

As commerce secretary, Raimondo played a leading role passing infrastructure legislation and is coordinating cybersecurity policy. She’s working to boost domestic chip manufacturing, which she sees as a national security issue, and helping entrepreneurs innovate and grow. Going after China for its threats against America’s economy is a central mission of her wide-ranging agenda.

Though Washington observers marvel at how Raimondo runs circles around others in President Joe Biden’s cabinet, progressives such as U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren have criticized her department’s pro-business policies. In any case, few public officials have mastered the complexities of state, national and global issues the way Raimondo has––and few have displayed her ability and political independence.

Mitch Daniels, 73, is a former two-term governor of Indiana. He served as director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he was a member of the National Security Council. He was White House political director for Ronald Reagan. Most recently, he was president of Purdue University.

Born in Pennsylvania, Daniels is the grandson of Syrian immigrants. He grew up in Indiana, was a Presidential Scholar, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a law degree from Georgetown. He started in Republican politics as a teenager and became chief of staff to respected U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar. He served as CEO of the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

Elected Indiana’s governor in 2004, Daniels defeated the Democratic incumbent by seven points. He wiped out an $800-million budget deficit, slashed government waste, reduced the state payroll by 18%, decertified public employee unions and renegotiated state contracts. He capped property taxes, balanced the budget and ended up with a surplus.

Daniels’ Healthy Indiana Plan provided coverage to 132,000 uninsured workers. He supported charter schools, vouchers, expanded college scholarships and a state “right-to-work” law. Few Republicans in office today have implemented more conservative policy reforms.