Bevin and Beshear trade jabs in first joint appearance. Bevin gets the applause.
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin got a partial standing ovation Friday after his speech to a room full of county commissioners, judge executives and magistrates. Attorney General Andy Beshear did not.
In a preview of the next four months, the two rivals shared the stage for the first time in the 2019 race for governor at the Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association and Kentucky County Judge Executives Association conference in Lexington and made their pitch to be the next governor.
Beshear, who went first, stuck mostly to his stump speech, landing a few light jabs. He criticized the governor for the “things he says about our friends, our family members who are teachers or social workers” before asking him to stop the Kentucky Labor Cabinet from fining teachers who participated in “sick-outs” in February.
“This governor has shown he is willing to fire members of his administration, even if they work for someone else in his administration,” Beshear said. “So he can certainly go to that Labor Cabinet secretary and say ‘you will stop, or you will pack your bags.’”
But it was Bevin who caused the crowd to break into applause at several points in his speech.
Though Beshear pledged to provide pension relief to the counties by raising revenue through expanded gambling and legalization of medicinal marijuana, it was Bevin who got applause for saying he and the legislature fully funded the state pension systems’ annual required contribution for the first time ever. (The pension system had not been fully funded for many years, but it was fully funded in the late 1990s.)
Bevin also pushed back at Beshear for criticizing some of Bevin’s controversial comments about teachers.
“These lies about things I have supposedly said is absolute rubbish and you know it,” Bevin said, before repeating his pledge to give $1,000 cash to anyone who produces audio or video evidence of the comments. “It’s never happened ever. It’s a lie.”
There are audio and video recordings of Bevin saying several things that have upset Kentuckians. Bevin has said some of the teachers and state workers who protested a bill overhauling the pension system displayed a “thug mentality.” He said on another radio show that Kentucky children were “soft” after school was canceled because of cold weather. And, in his most famous gaffe, looked directly into a camera and gave a “guarantee” that a child was sexually assaulted because of teacher protests that canceled classes in April 2018.
“When Matt Bevin says he hasn’t called teachers names, he is being directly dishonest,” Beshear said. “And he said it in a speech where he said he will always tell the truth.”
Bevin drew his biggest applause of the day when he shifted to social issues, saying he was “unapologetically pro-life” before turning and directly addressing Beshear who was sitting on the stage.
“That is a huge difference between the two of us,” Bevin said. “The fact that in order for you to win this primary, you needed the most activist, pro-abortion people in America to come here, stump for you, grass roots for you, and endorse you, NARAL and Planned Parenthood, that they’re on your side, you’re happy to take their money and their support, they will never support me and I am proud of that fact.”
Beshear wouldn’t say whether he agreed with Bevin’s assertion that the state is largely anti-abortion after the speeches had ended, but acknowledged the importance of the issue.
“I believe that that’s an important issue for many people, but there are many important issues for folks out there,” Beshear said.
Bevin also hit on what has already become a refrain for his campaign — his close relationship with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Bevin seized on a comment Beshear made in Louisville Wednesday, when Beshear said he would “oppose the negative policies of President Donald Trump.”
“I have a personal friendship and a professional relationship with the president and the vice president and we have somebody who just this week said he’s going to actively fight against the policies of Donald Trump,” Bevin said. “Good luck with that, good luck with that. ... Do you want a governor that is fighting against the president of your own country?”
As attorney general, Beshear is taking part in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s expansion of Association Health Plans, which he says will weaken health-care protections for Kentuckians. Bevin has filed an amicus brief in support of the Trump Administration.
“I’m willing to work with any president when their policies are helpful for Kentucky,” Beshear said before complimenting the Trump Administration for giving the state money to support his cold case unit. “Now any president that has policies that are harmful to Kentucky, I’m going to oppose.”
Bevin, who is unpopular in many parts of the state, is hoping to get a boost from Trump’s popularity. Bevin has said he expects Trump to campaign for him over the course of the election and Vice President Mike Pence made two trips to Kentucky during the primary campaign season.
Bevin is spending some of his own money to boost his reelection bid. According to his most recent campaign finance report, Bevin put $2 million into his campaign the day before the May 21 primary, more than tripling the amount he had raised in the race at that point.
He’s also getting support from the Republican Governor’s Association, which has spent more than $1.5 million on ads attacking Beshear since the primary, including ads that ran during the Democratic presidential debates this week.
Beshear’s full campaign finance report has not yet been released, but a summary says he raised $301,236.28 between May 7 and June 20, for a total of $2,465,029 over the course of his campaign.
“At the end of the day, one of the two of us is going to be the next governor. That’s it,” Bevin said. “And that’s going to be the decision, it’s a binary choice.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2019 at 2:36 PM.
