Beshear touts economic investment, says Democrats need to talk more on ‘everyday issues’
This year was the fourth-best year for private-sector economic investment in Kentucky history, with nearly $7 billion in new investments, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said in an interview with the Herald-Leader Wednesday.
The state announced 9,425 new jobs in 2024, with the biggest of those projects being a battery plant in Shelbyville that’s expected to bring nearly 1,600 jobs to the region. The average incentivized hourly wage in the commonwealth was more than $26 for the third straight year, Beshear added.
It’s “everyday issues” like these — jobs, wages, infrastructure — as well as health care, education and public safety that impact people on a day-to-day basis that Democrats need to refine their messaging on, the governor said.
In reflecting on the year and his brush with nearly becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in her unsuccessful bid for the presidency, Beshear said November’s election should be seen as a “gut check about who people thought could make paying the bills at the end of the month just a little bit easier.”
And more people thought the candidate who could best do that was President-elect Donald Trump, Beshear said, in what should be a lesson to Democrats.
“We don’t just have to have the right policies, we have to show people we’re focused on them,” Beshear said.
“It’s the idea that if you’re talking about the offense of the day in Washington, D.C., what Donald Trump said last night, and then jobs, you’re only talking about jobs a third of the time.”
He added: “Donald Trump talked about prices a whole lot. Democrats need to be proactive in talking about how (we’re) working to create jobs or lower health care costs, and then people need to be able to see, touch and feel it.”
When asked what policies of the incoming president he supported, Beshear didn’t answer directly.
“I want to see what those Trump policies are. It’s still a little unclear,” the two-term governor said.
But he supports Trump’s pick for secretary of the interior: North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum.
“He will do a good job, even if we disagree on different approaches,” Beshear said. “Certainly there are others I have much bigger concerns about.”
Beshear said his working relationship with the Republican supermajority in Kentucky’s legislature, which returns to Frankfort for the 2025 General Assembly in January, is “constructive.”
“Nobody’s going to come out and claim it’s good, but we worked very closely, especially with the Senate but also with House leadership, on the budget last session,” he said. “We’re meeting with House leadership today to talk about the session, and that’s not our first meeting.”
Beshear hopes areas of priority for the upcoming 30-day session include investing in more affordable housing, bettering the state’s economic infrastructure and universal pre-Kindergarten.
“Universal pre-K is one of the biggest needs of this commonwealth,” Beshear said, calling it the “single-largest, fastest thing we can do to get people back in the workforce, and we would save families about $14,000 a year.”
Part of Kentucky’s economic infrastructure includes billions of dollars of investment in new electric vehicle battery plants. Trump has vowed sweeping rollbacks of Biden-era policies that support growth of this industry.
But Beshear said he remains optimistic.
“It could potentially alter the timeline but ultimately not stop the future. EVs are the future,” he said.
“I think what we’ve seen in the industry thus far is natural growth that hasn’t necessarily been impacted by these policies, which I think are the right policies that show we can be competitive with China.”
Beshear added, “Certainly any rollback on the EV side is going to mean that, while the future is still coming, how quickly it comes could be impacted.”
As for his plans for 2028 — the year of the next presidential election — Beshear remains tight-lipped: “Right now, my plans are to serve out my term.” Beshear’s second term ends in December 2027.
And starting next year as vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association, he’ll focus on the national task of helping get more Democrats elected governor. Beshear will serve as chair in 2026.
But for now, in Kentucky, “We’re on a roll,” he said.
“And my most important job is to keep it going.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2024 at 12:36 PM.
