‘You can’t love your country if you hate half the people in it’

When Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, agreed to film an advertisement for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s “Disagree Better” initiative, he knew just who he would ask.

It was a Republican from the western side of his state, Mayor Jack Coburn of Lonaconing, who Moore had visited shortly after assuming the governorship. The town was having a water crisis at the time.

Moore said when they first met, the mayor said, “‘Can you do me a favor?’ He said, ‘Turn 360 degrees.’ So I turned 360 degrees. And he said, ‘The only...