Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has been dropping hints — in both actions and words — that a 2028 presidential run is on his mind. From a ramped up national media presence to a podcast where guests actively encourage him to run to his new role as the incoming chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association, Beshear isn’t really hiding his ambitions.
Now, the second-term Democratic governor is appearing at speaking engagements in South Carolina. Sure, it’s the location of his son’s baseball tournament, but it also happens to be an early presidential primary state.
At the state AFL-CIO convention Wednesday, Beshear told the crowd of southern labor union members that he’s both pro-union and pro-business. He also encouraged Democrats to begin “winning back the middle.”
“I believe that Donald Trump is our current president because he was able to convince that last group of undecided voters that he was less focused on culture war issues and more focused on costs and inflation,” Beshear said. “I don't believe that was fair, and it's certainly not what he's doing now. Instead, we get chaos, incompetence and cruelty.”
It’s not new rhetoric from Beshear, who frequently encourages Kentucky to not swerve politically left or right but move “forward, together.” But Beshear also didn’t shy away from more liberal talking points while in the early primary state, including discussing climate change, LGBTQ+ rights and diversity. He also encouraged Democrats to talk more authentically.
“Listen, I understand where a lot of the advocacy speak came from. It was meant to lessen stigma, but you don't lessen stigma by changing words. You lessen stigma by changing hearts,” Beshear said at a private event in Greenville.
At another speaking engagement Wednesday in Columbia, Beshear told a group of state lawmakers and others that he knows the secret sauce to winning as a Democrat in red states after winning his second-term by 5 percentage points over former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who clinched President Donald Trump’s endorsement early on in the race.
“I am living, breathing proof that Democrats can and should win everywhere, proof that we can win governor's races in the South,” Beshear said.
He pointed to the counties he won in eastern Kentucky, where Trump has repeatedly won by overwhelming margins.
“That includes Breathitt County in Appalachia, which is the county JD Vance pretends he's from. Donald Trump won that county by 56 points. I won it by 22 points the year before. So I know that we can win. I know we can win in tough areas,” Beshear said.
It is unclear if the Beshear effect in Kentucky can be replicated by other Democrats — so far Beshear’s success has yet to ripple out to other state offices or the legislature, which remains under Republican control.
Beshear is involving himself in out-of-state races financially. As of February, Beshear’s super PAC, called In This Together, raised $2.56 million in its first year. While the largest share of spending was used to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment in Kentucky, the PAC also supported Democratic governor campaigns out of state.
On Meet the Press last weekend, Beshear left open the door to a potential presidential run. He echoed those comments to reporters in South Carolina.
“If I believe that I'm somebody that can heal this country, then it's something I'll consider,” Beshear said. “What mainly drives me is I don't want to leave a broken country to my kids, but if someone else is in the best position to heal this country, I will always care more about the United States of America than any future for myself.”
Beshear told reporters in South Carolina that we will be traveling more ahead of the midterms to display his version of “common sense.” He said because of things like Medicaid cuts, he thinks the party will be able to win “in a lot of places that people don't expect."
“I'm going to be more active right now in congressional races than I have ever been. Why? Because a lack of a couple seats were the difference between that big, ugly bill passing and not,” Beshear said. “And we've got to do everything we can in the next couple of years to win enough elections and to create enough pressure to undo it before these cuts to health care are irreversible.”
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
South Carolina Public Radio reporter Maayan Schechter contributed to this report.
