Laura Kelly, 7 women governors talk politics with ‘Veep’ star Julia Louis-Dreyfus at DNC

She played a politician on TV. But on Wednesday, at the DNC in Chicago, actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus sat down with eight of the 12 women governors in the country — including Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly — and learned what real politics looks like.

During a panel discussion in front of a friendly crowd of Democrats, the governors described being underestimated as women in politics, how and why they recruit women to run for office, how they use humor in tense situations and what they learned about leadership from playing team sports.

They also doubled down on restoring women’s reproductive health rights in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, already a key issue in the presidential election.

Kelly was the first to join Louis-Dreyfus on stage. She replaced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as leader of the Democratic Governors Association when he became Kamala Harris’ vice-presidential running mate.

Louis-Dreyfus set a laid-back tone for a chat that revealed that the governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, is a prankster and Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, keeps a gratitude journal.

At one point the actress paid homage to Kelly’s achievement of being “the twice-elected governor of a red state. What the (heck)“ she said to applause.

“I am not a pundit, not a journalist,” said Louis-Dreyfus, a well-known Democratic activist. “Think of me today as a cheerleader, a friend. And of course an award-winning actress, first and foremost.”

The governors of Massachusetts, Arizona, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and New York participated — and yes, they all knew their state flowers when Louis-Dreyfus asked them the only “gotcha” question.

(It must be noted that Kansas’ sunflowers got the loudest applause.)

“We are very honored to have eight, highly intelligent, highly capable women leaders for the 20th century with us,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “Or what JD Vance might call a coven of semi-menstruating witches. Yeah. we’re gonna have fun, we’re gonna have fun.”

For seven seasons the “Seinfeld” alum played villainous vice-president-turned-president Selina Meyer on HBO’s hit political comedy series “Veep.”

In an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ” from the DNC Monday, Colbert noted how viewership of the show, which ended in 2019, is up 350% since Harris rose to the top of the ticket.

The actress told Colbert that Harris is nothing like her TV character, both female vice-presidents.

“Let me explain to you, on ‘Veep’ I played a narcissistic, megalomaniac sociopath, and that is not Kamala Harris,” she told Colbert, adding: “It might be another candidate in the race.”

With the governors, she noted though the country now has a “historic 12 women governors, eight of them Democrats,” that’s still only 25% of all governors’ offices.. “You ladies and Kamala Harris are truly the tip of a spear to change that,” she said.

She asked the women if there was something they wish they had known on Day One of their jobs that they know now.

“I ran on knowing everything,” Kelly joked to loud applause. “But I think the one thing I wish I had known is how much I was going to have to increase my patience level.

“Because getting things done in state government … is a very tedious, sometimes frustrating process. I think I was a little pushy at the beginning because I was expecting .. I’m the governor, you just do it ... so patience is something I wish I had known I was going to need more of.”

“It turns out you really do need a Gary,” Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts joked, referencing Louis-Dreyfus’ fictional aide in “Veep.”

“It’s the importance of a scheduler. I mean, you get invited to every opening, every ribbon cutting.”

“Like this thing right now,” said Louis-Dreyfus.

“I tried to say no,” Healey joked.

“In an election year you’ll go to the opening of an envelope. Everything. And you have to juggle stuff,” interjected Janet Mills, the first woman governor of Maine.

Louis-Dreyfus asked why it’s important to help women candidates win down-ballot races, noting that she does “a lot of work” for down-ballot candidates.

“The down ballots become the up-ballots,” said Kathy Hochul, the first female governor of New York. “That’s how it is. You start here. I started at the lowest level. I was maybe just a step above dog catcher in my town. I worked my way up. You build the farm team. That’s how you have to do it. You have to invest in people.

”I go out and recruit people. I have a nice, friendly waitress ... ‘you want to run for office someday?’ Because the guys don’t require any qualifications. They just step up and run. Am I right about that? We got a guy whose like, ‘I’m a billionaire, I want to be president, I’m going to ruin the country.’ And he did.

“So I just want to say women should not have to have the greatest resume in the world to start getting into the game. School board. Town board. That’s where the next talent’s coming from.”

Kelly said another “reason you want to go down-ballot is because then you have women who are closer to the people and they can bring you that.

“We’re somewhat removed so it helps to have women down there, on the ground, really hearing what’s going on and bringing information to you.

“And I also quite honestly have found that with women in the legislature, for instance, I always know they have my back because they understand what I’m going through so they tend to have my back and I don’t have to worry as much about bringing them into the fold.”

“All the women listening,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “Run. Just run. Do it.”

When she asked the group if being a female governor is a “leg up” on male colleagues, Whitmer replied immediately: “Yes!”

“And we’re done,” Louis-Dreyfus joked. “Thank you ladies and gentlemen. It’s been a wonderful chat.”

“But I would also say it is a huge advantage to be underestimated in any debate, in any way you show up,” Whitmer said “I do think that’s a huge advantage to come in where people write us off, don’t expect us to be as deep on issues or as thoughtful in articulating a vision or as tough as everyone on this panel is.

“I would much rather be underestimated than overestimated. So we got that going for us. It’s not how it should be, and it’s not that I’m saying that that’s a great thing for our society, but it is an advantage for women running for office.”

Kelly added a footnote.

“I also think though that underestimation is going to fade away as time goes on,” she said.

“With President Harris, you’re right,” Whitmer said.