‘Focus less on the president’: Beshear among Dem governors urging Schumer to fight Trump
Kentucky’s Andy Beshear was among six Democratic governors who issued private directives to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on ways to better combat President Donald Trump’s dizzying raft executive actions and cabinet appointments.
“Gov. Beshear’s comments focused on how Democrats must be laser-focused on jobs, health care, infrastructure, public safety and public education,” Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley told The Herald-Leader of the Wednesday evening call.
Beshear also pointed out Trump looked like he was more consumed with acquiring Greenland than on prices at the pump and the grocery store. He urged Democrats to focus on his lack of progress on kitchen table issues over Trump’s alleged threat to democratic institutions.
“His advice both publicly and on the call was to focus less on the president himself and more on how his recent policies make it harder for families to pay the bills at the end of the month,” Staley added.
The Wednesday night call, first reported by The New York Times, also included Beshear’s suggestion that Democratic governors whose states have Republican attorneys general — like Kentucky — needed to forge their own legal and communications strategies for fighting Trump’s policies.
A Schumer aide confirmed the meeting occurred to speak about Trump’s “executive orders, his erratic policies and the impacts in their states.”
“The group discussed paths forward to best respond and fight back against policies that will hurt their states, litigation options, and how Senate Democrats can support state efforts in D.C.,” the Schumer aide said.
During the call, Beshear added that the most difficult part of dealing with the new administration was the pain the American people would feel in order to “not make the mistake of electing someone like him again,” per the Times.
Beshear, who was considered for the Democratic ticket that ran against Trump in 2024, recently acknowledged that voters believed the New York City real estate mogul would make it easier to meet their bills.
But he’s also begun to come out and criticize some of Trump’s off-the-cuff policy musings, including his idea to scrap the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“If you dissolve it, all 50 states would have to create their own administrative arm, and that would eat up so much of the funding that ultimately needs to go to the people and to the states to rebuild,” Beshear said recently.
The Republican Party of Kentucky dubbed Beshear a hypocrite Thursday for plotting with Schumer on messaging strategy.
“Andy Beshear’s hypocrisy is truly staggering. In public, he talks about the Golden Rule and the need to end divisive politics,” said Andy Westberry, spokesperson for the Kentucky GOP. “Behind the scenes, however, he is advocating for Democrats to inflict pain on the American people, simply because they didn’t vote for Kamala Harris.
“Kentuckians overwhelmingly support President Trump’s efforts to protect families from violent crime, deadly drugs and out-of-control inflation. Instead of standing with Kentuckians, Andy Beshear wants to punish them.”
In addition to Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, were on the Wednesday call.
With an approval rating at 65%, Beshear remains one of the most popular governors in the country. He’s widely expected to consider the 2028 presidential race, when Trump will be term-limited.
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 3:41 PM with the headline "‘Focus less on the president’: Beshear among Dem governors urging Schumer to fight Trump."
