Republicans pounce on comment Beshear made about Trump. Now it’s in a campaign ad.
The Republican Governors Association quickly pounced on a comment Attorney General Andy Beshear made last week about President Donald Trump and turned it into an attack ad Monday.
On a campaign stop Wednesday with former Auditor Adam Edelen, who Beshear defeated in the May primary, the Democratic nominee for governor promised to “stop the negative policies of Donald Trump.” That sentence quickly made it into the RGA’s latest attack.
“Andy Beshear stood with Hillary. When she lost, he became a part of the radical resistance, repeatedly suing to stop Trump’s agenda....” the ad says after pairing the clip of Beshear with clips of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Andy Beshear’s with them, not us.”
Beshear’s campaign said the attack shows just how eager Republicans are to make the race about anything other than Gov. Matt Bevin’s record in office.
“This is another desperate attack from Matt Bevin’s allies because they know he’s a weak governor who can’t run on his failed record of bullying teachers, ripping away health care, and trying to illegally slash pensions for first responders and public educators,” said Eric Hyers, Beshear’s campaign manager. “Andy has proven time and again that he cares about doing right by Kentuckians.”
Beshear had been disciplined when talking about Trump on the campaign trail before last week. When he’s asked about Trump, Beshear typically gives the same answer about how he appreciates some of the things the president has done for Kentucky, but opposes others.
“I’m willing to work with any president when their policies are helpful for Kentucky,” Beshear said Friday. “Now any president that has policies that are harmful to Kentucky, I’m going to oppose.”
Beshear is currently part of a lawsuit with several other Democratic attorneys general opposing the Trump Administrations expansion of Association Health Plans, which the group says undermines protections offered to patients under the Affordable Care Act. Bevin’s attorneys have written a legal brief supporting the Trump Administration.
Beshear’s efforts to avoid criticizing Trump are intentional. Bevin is unpopular in Kentucky, but Trump still enjoys deep support. By attempting to nationalize the race, Republicans hope to remove some of the focus on Bevin and shift it to party ideology, where they enjoy a clear advantage.
Bevin was not mentioned in the RGA’s ad.
On Friday, Beshear emphasized his desire for the race to stay focused on Bevin.
“This race I don’t think is going to be about Donald Trump at all,” Beshear said. “It’s going to be about Matt Bevin versus Andy Beshear and who can move our families forward.”
But the RGA has already spent more than $1.5 million on ads attacking Beshear since May and Bevin has loaned his campaign $2 million — almost as much as the $2.4 million Beshear campaign has raised since July 2018.
Neither the Beshear campaign nor any outside group supporting him has aired television ads attacking Bevin.
“Those ads show that Matt Bevin is very worried and he wouldn’t be on television in June if he wasn’t trailing,” Beshear said Friday.
This story was originally published July 1, 2019 at 2:11 PM.
