Kentucky’s Andy Beshear still ranks as most popular Democratic governor, survey finds
Gov. Andy Beshear remains one of the most popular governors in the country, according to a recent survey result from Morning Consult released Friday.
The pollster found that Beshear had an approval rating of 65%, the highest of any Democrat and third-highest overall. He ranked behind Republicans Phil Scott of Vermont and Jim Justice, the former governor of West Virginia now serving in the U.S. Senate.
The 47-year-old governor registered a disapproval rating of 27%. The findings roughly match up with the results from Morning Consult’s poll released last July, which resulted in 67%-28% approval-disapproval for Beshear.
Founded in 2014, Morning Consult specializes in online survey research technology. The firm collects data from more than 250,000 registered voters nationwide to assess popularity of politicians in all 50 states. This survey was conducted during the last three months of 2024.
The findings come at a time when some Democrats see national potential for Beshear.
Having been through the ringer of the “veepstakes” late last year — he was one of a handful of Democrats considered to run alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to run the country — Beshear’s name ID has grown somewhat.
Now, with the Democratic party in the proverbial woods as Republicans control the presidency, the Senate and the House, national Democrats are looking for a new face for the party. The Kentucky governor was named one of the top early contenders for the 2028 presidential nomination in a POLITICO story published one month ago.
“The clearest winner out of the gubernatorial bracket is Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, who last year proved his electoral durability in a red state by winning reelection to a second term. Beshear doesn’t have coattails either — he has only governed alongside veto-proof Republican legislative supermajorities — but that obstacle only lowers the bar for judging his accomplishments,” Bill Scher, editor for the Washington Monthly, wrote.
Beshear has not exactly been incognito on this front.
In recent months, he’s formed a political action committee in New Hampshire — once a key state in presidential primaries — got the nod to become chair of a powerful Democratic Governors Association during the 2026 midterms, and penned a New York Times oped offering “a way forward” for Democrats in the aftermath of Harris’ loss.
“I don’t think he’s really hiding it,” Jared Smith, a Kentucky Democratic political consultant and lobbyist said of Beshear’s maneuvering to set up a 2028 run.
The Kentucky governor is currently at the World Economic Forum, an annual hub for some of the world’s most influential political and business figures in Davos, Switzerland.
Beshear has pitched the trip as a chance to tout Kentucky on the world stage. He said he wants “to connect with growing companies” that already operate in Kentucky, as well as those who could invest in the future.
In the Morning Consult poll, Beshear’s popularity among his constituents was rivaled by only one other governor regularly cited as a 2028 Democratic presidential prospect. Wes Moore of Maryland garnered 62% approval and 25% disapproval.
The Kentucky and Maryland governors fared much better in the Morning Consult survey than many of the other Democratic governors being floated as 2028 prospects, such as Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and JB Pritzker of Illinois.
Shapiro and Whitmer garnered 56% approval while Pritzker came in with 53%. Only 31% of Pennsylvanians disapproved of Shapiro while 39% of Michiganders disapproved of Whitmer and the mark for Illinoisans disapproval of Pritzker was 41%.
Gavin Newsom of California, a very prominent governor, registered 52% approval and 42% disapproval.
Beshear has ranked among the most-liked governors in the country in three previous iterations of the group’s work.
The elections analysis website fivethirtyeight.com gives Morning Consult a “pollster rating” of 1.9 out of 3 in their rankings of pollsters by reliability and transparency.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
