'Lame Duck' Baker Heads to Leadership Role at Gov. Assn-- Courts CNN

While estranged from many in his party, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has continued to devote time and energy to a group dedicated to electing more Republican governors across the country.

Baker traveled to the Republican Governors Association, in Florida Monday for RGA meetings. The group provided substantial PAC funding for his prior runs for governor.

Baker has emphasized the importance of bipartisanship in governing during his two terms, at a time when conservatives in his party have gravitated toward former President Donald Trump and may be lining up behind the former president for another White House run.

As election season ramped up in July, Baker attended RGA meetings in Colorado.

The governor plans to return to Massachusetts on Wednesday morning, according to an aide.

He also recently sought a one-on-one with CNN firebrand Jake Tapper. 

In the interview that aired Monday on the national network, the two-term governor said his party needs to realize that "voters want collaborative elected officials."

"I think the biggest issue that played out in the midterms is something that I've talked about a lot over the course of the past eight years, which is voters, generally speaking, especially in battleground states aren't interested in extremism. They just aren't," Baker said in the interview. "They want people who they believe are going to be reasonable, who are going to be collaborative and who represent sort of the fundamental tenet of democracy that it's supposed to be a distributed decision-making model and you're supposed to be OK with that."