Retiring Sen. Tom Carper talks bipartisanship and endorphins

WASHINGTON — Tom Carper has a roundabout way of sneaking up on an answer. If you ask him to reflect on his 24 years in the Senate, he might start with an anecdote about a nomination; inquire about his concerns for the future, and he’ll start talking about his MBA.

While most lawmakers with résumés like Carper’s share their opinions as if they were unquestionable pronouncements from on high, the soft-spoken Delaware Democrat takes his time.

As he finishes out his final term as a senator, the 77-year-old credits his workout routine with helping him not “stay mad at people.”

“I either go out and run a 5k outside, or I go lift weights,” he said. Pushups are just his warmup. And it doesn’t hurt that his commute home was not a cross-country flight, but a 90-minute train ride (or for many years, a drive in his “Silver Bullet” minivan).

Sitting in his office earlier this month, Carper looked back on his political career, from his early years in the House to his Senate tenure. In between, he served as Delaware’s governor. “I’ll never retire. I’ll find other ways to serve,” he said.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q: What do you hope your legacy will be?

A: I’ve stolen a line from a guy named Rob Wallace, who was a close friend of John Barrasso when he and I were leading the Environment and Public Works Committee. Rob Wallace was nominated for a senior position in the Trump administration in the Department of the Interior, and at his confirmation hearing, he said these words: “Bipartisan solutions are lasting solutions.”

I have repeated that sentence 1,000 times or more over the last several years. I hope people in the future will look at what Shelley Capito and I have been able to accomplish in our committee by working together. She and I meet either in person or by phone most Thursdays. When I was brand new here, I learned this from Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley. I asked them how they were able to get so much done on the Finance Committee, and they said, “We meet every week, and we don’t stab each other in the back.”

I said to myself, if I ever get to chair a major committee, I want to take that model and put it in place. Joe Biden likes to say that all politics is personal. He also says all diplomacy is personal, and I think he’s exactly right. And the way I work on my committees mirrors that.

Q: If all politics is personal, what do you make of increasing polarization? What is driving that?

A: I think part of it is how our work is covered. [State or local] newspapers used to have full-time staff down here in D.C. Now people get their news in different ways, and sometimes not so thoughtful ways. If I wanted to get attention, what I could do is attack Shelley Capito or somebody else, and I could get on the news, but that’s not going to get anything done. The media has changed, but I haven’t changed. I still treat people the way I want to be treated. My mother was a deeply religious woman, and the thing she was firmest on was the Golden Rule.

Q: What are your biggest accomplishments in the Senate?

A: Joe Biden had been in office for like a week, and he called me and said, “Tommy, in the last administration, they talked all the time about infrastructure week, infrastructure month, and nothing ever happened. I want you to come to the White House, bring with you key members from the EPW committee, and let’s talk about how we’re going to have a bill on my desk this year that I can sign.”

We passed and we’re implementing the most comprehensive and transformational infrastructure legislation, maybe in the history of the country. And not only are we doing the right thing in terms of roads, highways, bridges and access to the internet and water, but we’re creating huge numbers of jobs, [including through] the climate provisions in the legislation.

As the next Trump administration is gearing up, he’s starting to hear from his Republican House members, Republican senators, “Don’t get rid of this. It’s creating all kinds of economic opportunity.” Part of my legacy, one I shared with a lot of other people, is having a planet for our children and our grandchildren to grow up on, and making sure they have good jobs. And I think we’re headed in the right direction, and I want to make sure we actually implement what we start.

Q: It sounds like you’re not too concerned about those gains being clawed back under Trump.

A: I studied economics as an undergraduate and got an MBA. I probably didn’t study as much as I should have, but I am a big believer in market forces. To the extent we can harness market forces, whether it’s for health care or transportation, then we can get a lot more done.

The same thing happened with the Affordable Care Act. Republicans, for years, wanted to get rid of it. God bless John McCain. I was standing on the Senate floor, it was after midnight, when John McCain got called off to talk to Trump on the phone. Trump was trying to browbeat him and get him to vote to kill the ACA, but he finally comes out and gives his famous thumbs-down. I could have kissed him. He and I came to the House together, came to the Senate together, served at the same time in Southeast Asia. He was a hero.

But what’s happening now is market forces are taking over with the ACA. This actually works, and we’re able to provide better health care for people who otherwise wouldn’t have it. We hung on with the ACA until market forces kicked in, and I think the same thing is happening with the [infrastructure] provisions.

Q: Do you have any regrets?

A: I have what my wife says is a quirk in my personality. She said, you don’t harbor grudges. You don’t keep it in your mind, like all the bad stuff. You wash that out. I wake up every morning, I work out, and I’m in a good mood all day. Six days a week, I either go out and run a 5k outside, or I go lift weights. I do 100 pushups, and that’s just part of my warmup. I’ve done that ever since I was in the Navy. The thing is, when we work out, the brain creates endorphins that make us feel good, happy.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: People have been saying to me since I announced I wasn’t going to run, how’s your retirement? And I say, “I’ll never retire. I’ll find other ways to serve.” But we do want to go coast to coast and see our children and grandchildren. My wife wants to visit the presidential libraries, and we have a great fondness for national parks. And one of the newest national parks in America is in Delaware, so there’s plenty to do.