(The Center Square) – It remains to be seen whether Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will become the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate. Nonetheless, the two-term elected leader and one of the more popular governors in the country has already embraced becoming a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
The latest proof came Thursday afternoon during his regular weekly press briefing. The conference featured a larger-than-normal contingent of reporters, and before taking questions, Beshear told them his only comment about the vice-presidential selection process was that he was “honored to be considered” by the campaign. No matter that outcome, he’d work through November to help Harris win.
During his re-election campaign last year, Beshear frequently said he was running to move Kentucky forward – not to the left or right – in hopes of winning voters from both parties and independents. While he referenced that same line at the beginning of his update, he later showed his partisan side when responding to questions about former President Donald Trump and Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate.
Beshear continued the same line of attack on Vance that he unveiled earlier this week in an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. In that national appearance Beshear said the venture capitalist turned politician “ain’t from here” despite Vance writing and frequently talking about his family’s roots in the eastern part of the state.
The governor laughed off a reporter’s comment saying he’s become the party’s “attack dog” on Vance, adding it’s his job to defend the state when its people are attacked. Beshear then claimed Vance “exploited” Eastern Kentuckians.
“To spend summers or parts of summers or weekends or come into special events, and then to claim that you know the people of Eastern Kentucky, the culture of Eastern Kentucky – to make money off of that claim, and then to call our people names – is just not acceptable,” the governor said. “If anybody else had done it, I’d be speaking up, too.”
Beshear didn’t just save his criticisms for Vance. He also went after the former president, agreeing with comments that Trump is a threat to democracy for not accepting the 2020 election results and stoking the crowd that raided the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“We deserve better,” Beshear said. “I can’t believe that he is somehow a presidential candidate after all of that.”
As he continued, the governor worked to bridge the dichotomy between Beshear the governor and Beshear the Democratic attack dog.
“It just shows why we need, after this election, to get to such a better place,” the governor continued. “The temperature of our country is too high. Too many people yelling at each other simply because of their party registration. We’re supposed to be Americans first before we’re Democrats or Republicans, and we seem to have forgotten that.”
A message to the Trump campaign seeking comment was not immediately returned.
