This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Behind a significant number of GOP senators who oppose their party's health-care bill is a governor who also hates it.

Of the 12 GOP senators who don't support or have concerns about the legislation, six of their state's governors also don't support it. Another four of those governors conspicuously won't comment on it or, in the case of Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, R, they begrudgingly support it. (It's "not a really good bill," Bevin recently said.)

Oh, and all but two of these governors are Republican or Republican-leaning (Alaska Gov. Bill Walker is an independent who says he's "very concerned" about the bill.)

In other words, Republicans' health-care bill isn't popular with a significant number of Republicans who would have to vote for it and isn't popular with a significant number of Republicans who would have to implement it.

Which makes sense. How governors feel about this legislation matters a lot with regard to whether the bill can pass.

Republican senators who are on the fence about the bill will have a hard time voting for it if their governor back home doesn't support it.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., came to D.C. on Tuesday and held a news conference to urge Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., to go from undecided to a "no" vote on the bill. "Trust me, by hook or by crook I will get a hold of him before there's any vote," Hickenlooper dramatically declared. "I'll go camp out on his doorstep if I have to."

(The New York Times reports that Gardner called Hickenlooper "literally 30 seconds" later. He's still undecided.)

Alongside Hickenlooper was Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, who has been one of the most outspoken — and quotable — Republicans opposed to this bill, governor or senator.

"They think that's great? That's good public policy?" Kasich said of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimate that the bill would lead to 22 million more people — the equivalent of the population of 16 states — uninsured over the next decade. "Are you kidding me?"

That afternoon, Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio's only Republican senator, more or less agreed: "I continue to have real concerns about the Medicaid policies in this bill," Portman said in a statement announcing his opposition "especially those that impact drug treatment at a time when Ohio is facing an opioid epidemic."

And Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., who has become a bellwether opposition figure, announced his no vote in a news conference alongside GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval, the most popular politician in the state and a huge proponent of keeping the Medicaid expansion. "If you want my support (on repealing Obamacare) . . . you better make sure that the Republican governors that have expanded Medicaid sign off on it," Heller said.

Republican governors have been framing their opposition to this bill in a conservative way: It will cost them money. As I wrote in May after House Republicans passed their version:

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Even watered-down version of Republicans' health-care bill becomes law, states are probably going to be on the hook for billions of dollars of health-care costs, especially for the poor and sick. That means these governors will have some tough choices to make: Do you find a way to raise taxes/cut other services to keep your most vulnerable population insured? Or do you just stop insuring them?

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After the 2020 election, the Senate's health-care bill would pull the federal government's funding for the 11 million people in 31 states who got Medicaid under Obamacare. Right now, the federal government pays almost all of that, 90 percent. Under the Senate's version, the government's contribution would wind down to 65 percent by 2024.

In Nevada, Sandoval warned that would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Democrats are hoping this Senate health-care bill becomes a campaign issue for GOP gubernatorial candidates as much as it's become a budget issue.

Democrats' governors association launched a tracker of where top GOP governor candidates are on the bill. They're also paying for a digital video ad in six states trying to pin down Republican governor hopefuls. Top of the list is Republican's nominee in Virginia's governor's race later this year, Ed Gillespie.

Democrats' case got much easier to make when the CBO estimated insurance premiums would rise for low-income elderly Americans by 280 percent over the next decade. And public opinion is on opponents' side.

Whether Democrats can successfully leverage this health-care bill as a campaign issue against governors remains to be seen, and one we'll be writing about for much of the next year. (The reverse certainly worked for Republicans after Democrats passed Obamacare.)

But right now, there's a real possibility we never get to that point. Enough GOP senators oppose the legislation that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has quickly revised the bill and delayed a vote until after the Fourth of July recess. And behind almost every one of those Republican "no" or "concerned" votes is a very concerned governor.