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Former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on running for president: "Never say never"

Former Gov. Charlie Baker talks running the NCAA and whether he'd run for president
Former Gov. Charlie Baker talks running the NCAA and whether he'd run for president 08:55

CONCORD - Former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said if he ever decided to run for president, it would come down to how his family feels about it.

Baker was at the Concord Museum Thursday night to promote and sign copies of his book "Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done."

Would Charlie Baker run for president?

When an audience member told Baker he should run for president, he said, "Being in public life is hard on other people in your family. The hours are nuts and all the rest ... I would never say never to anything associated with public life ... but it would have to be a real family decision because it's challenging, with respect to that. When you're doing the work, you get the benefit of the work, what your family gets is the burden of the job and that's about it."

Baker was governor of Massachusetts from 2015 to 2023 and is now the president of the NCAA. He talked about how he got the job, saying he was recommended by Sam Kennedy, the CEO of the Boston Red Sox. He said the best part of the job was interacting with the student athletes.

Loves talking with NCAA athletes

"I really do love, love, love the kids. I've spent a ton of time with young people, thousands of them, and I've told many of them they kind of restored my faith in the future when I talk to them about how they think about things, why they are the way they are and what it is they're choosing to study, how they got interested in the sport they're playing," said Baker.

Learning from his parents

One of the first questions Baker was asked was what it was like growing up with a Republican father and a Democrat mother. Baker called it "entertaining" and said the biggest thing he learned from them was how to listen to other people.

"They both were big believers that you get a lot smarter by listening and learning from others than you do assuming you know everything you need to know and that was the biggest lesson I got from them," said Baker.

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