Andy Beshear, Drawing Attention

 

As Democrats fight over whether they paid a price for moving too far left on some social issues, Beshear is using his red-state experience to argue the party need not run away from those topics.

--Hannah Knowles 

Andy Beshear has got my attention. He has twice won the governership of Kentucky while Trump was taking the state by over 30 points. Beshear carried his reelection in 2023 by 5 points. He's a boyish man, with "zero coolness," his son jokes, but with the eyes of a killer Huck-Finn. I watched his lengthy interview with Kristen Welker recently on Meet the Press. He keeps a fixed pleasant face as he listens, inscrutable, but the concentrated eyes give away an alert intelligence. When he talks, two very prominent front incisors flash in the light!

I stumbled on this video of Governor Beshear and his wife Brittany doing a funny comedy bit titled "Mean Tweets" in which the two of them read aloud both the praise and the insults that flew at them in 2024. I like the Beshear in this video, who both humorously confirms his nerd-dom and displays quick timing and a genuine chemistry with his wife:

Beshear and Brittany have been doing the "Mean Tweets" act since at least 2020 (check YouTube), and the governor has cemented himself as a self-deprecating good fellow who doesn't have any difficulty hearing the insults. He's achieved what looks to me like the "good dad" vibe of the wise family man who can take the slings and arrows without losing his balance. He bespeaks resilience. One tweet in the 2024 roundup said Beshear "sounded like a goober" and is "the goober that America needs." I'm aware that could be true, so I need to know more about the man.

Beshear just spent some time in South Carolina, ostensibly to present the keynote address for the annual AFL-CIO state convention in Greenville, but he made several other stops that were clearly self-interested in nature, since South Carolina is a very early presidential primary state. Such a visit as Beshear's is a de facto admission of presidential ambition, and he was full of helpful advice for Democrats. Democratic candidates should "talk like normal human beings,” Beshear said, eliminate the jargon of the Left, and "show voters that Democrats are focused on bread-and-butter issues." It seems to work for him in deep-red Kentucky. Democrats can “win everywhere” with good governance and a determination to be “the party of common sense, common ground and getting things done.” Emphasis on common sense.

Hannah Knowles, the WashPost embed with the Beshear expedition into South Carolina, provides color:

Beshear rose in Kentucky politics as the son of a former governor, aided by voters familiar with the family name. Nationally, he isn’t as well-known as other Democratic governors such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was also in South Carolina last week. And his message, as a red-state governor used to working with Republicans, is not as fiery and combative as some in the party are seeking.

Beshear rebuked Trump and the GOP during his stops — calling the president’s agenda a “punch in the face” to the rural communities that voted for him — but also talked about creating “the grace and the space for people to disagree” on hot-button issues....

Beshear leaned into Kentucky’s similarities with South Carolina, telling crowds that as a southerner, “I know if you say ‘bless your heart,’ it’s ain’t good.” ... He urged Democrats to stop using wonky terms such as “substance abuse disorder” and “justice-involved populations” — a phrase that prompted members of one audience to wrinkle their faces and exclaim, “What?”

"Stop picking on those kids!" was Beshear's defiant veto message to Kentucky Republicans about their House Bill 495, an LGBTQ+ bill which he vetoed that aimed to reverse the governor's executive order banning conversion therapy for minors and restricting Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care. “I vetoed it because it was the right thing to do,” he said. “I said my faith teaches me that all children are children of God, and I didn’t want people picking on those kids.”