‘She’s ready.’ What the Jacqueline Coleman believers and detractors are saying
Jack Coleman has always believed in his daughter.
A former rural Democratic state representative from Mercer County, he kept the faith in Jacqueline, the current lieutenant governor, even after she lost in a landslide to reclaim his old seat in 2014.
It’s been a good bet so far, since she was tapped by Gov. Andy Beshear to be his running mate and has served as his No. 2 for more than six years. Now, Jacqueline Coleman’s father is betting she’ll rise even higher.
“I always knew she had the ability, but I didn’t know she’d ever have the opportunity. Then Andy picked her, and you can just watch the progression. She’s a leader, she leads by example, and she cares about people,” Jack Coleman said.
That was the assessment of many at Jacqueline Coleman’s launch event for her Democratic primary run for governor: She’s paid her dues as lieutenant governor, and now is the time for her to take the top job.
Coleman made it clear in her speech and her launch ad that education will be the calling card in her run to become the second woman governor in Kentucky history. The ad features her, a former high school coach and guard at Centre College, shooting baskets at Woodford County High School.
“I’ve been a high school civics teacher, an assistant principal and a basketball coach, which means I know when it’s time to shoot my shot,” Coleman said in the ad.
Education was seen as a winning issue for Beshear, where he and Coleman narrowly defeated former GOP Gov. Matt Bevin in 2019, and beat former AG Daniel Cameron by five percentage points in 2023.
Jack Coleman lumped education in with a suite of issues Kentuckians see as less partisan, or “kitchen table.”
“I think there’s a propensity in Kentucky to be about the kitchen table issues. I know this is a red state, but you know, Andy and Jacqueline have gone a long way with Eastern and Western Kentucky and the disasters. People just love the way that they operate. They don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican, it’s ‘Do you need help,’” Jack Coleman said.
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said he thinks education will propel her to win — predicting that she will usher in implementation of universal pre-kindergarten during her tenure.
Thomas was one of several elected officials at Coleman’s launch event who has already endorsed Coleman.
Beshear made clear in a statement to the Herald-Leader provided by a spokesperson that he is not endorsing in the race due to his position leading the Democratic Governors Association.
“She is a great Lieutenant Governor, she is gonna be a great candidate. If elected she will be a great governor. As head of the DGA, I’m prohibited from endorsing this year, but I’m excited she is in the race,” Beshear said.
Kentucky has not elected a woman for governor since Martha Layne Collins won in 1983. The last time any party nominated a woman for the post was 1999, when Peppy Martin was the longshot GOP nominee.
“Don’t you think it’s about time we have another woman leader,” Thomas asked. “She’s ready and she’s prepared. She’s gone through every kind of challenge, calamity that a governor can go through and come out very successfully.”
Rachel Kirk, who’s been a close friend of Coleman’s since attending Centre College together in the early 2000s, said she’s someone Kentuckians can relate to.
“She’s not someone who is a career politician. She’s someone who (people) can look at her and see themselves in her,” Kirk said.
Compliments for Coleman were not limited to Democrats on Monday.
Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican who has floated a run for governor, called Coleman a “strong candidate.”
“Jacqueline Coleman is a strong candidate. If Republicans don’t nominate our best vote-getter, appeal beyond our base, and focus on improving Kentuckians’ lives, we will have a third term of Andy Beshear,” Adams wrote in a post on X.
Adams was the top vote-getter in the 2023 general election, where Republicans swept the ticket except for Beshear and Coleman’s win over Cameron and Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson.
T.J. Litafik, a Kentucky Republican consultant, said Coleman’s political persona matches the base of the state party.
“Jacqueline is telegenic, a former public educator, and a working mom,” Litafik said. “That matters to a lot of voters. She has a mainstream appeal to the current base of her party, which is progressive to moderate, instead of a more old school, rural-oriented moderate to conservative party led by (former governors) Paul Patton or Steve Beshear. The average 2027 Democratic primary voter will be a lot different than they were in 1995, 2007, or even 2019.”
Labor unions also played a role in Coleman’s launch.
Coleman gave a shoutout in her speech to one of the state’s largest unions, Teamsters 89 of the Louisville area, whose leader was in attendance. Also in attendance was Dustin Reinstedler, the president of Kentucky’s chapter of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, whose name has been floated as a potential running mate with Coleman.
“Jacqueline has been an excellent pro-labor lieutenant governor,” Reinstedler said. “She’s had an open door and open phone policy. Anytime that I bring rank and file, working class members to Frankfort to lobby issues that matter to them, no matter what she has going on, she wipes her schedule clean.”
When asked if running with Coleman was on his mind, Reinstedler told the Herald-Leader he “would never turn down an opportunity to serve Kentucky in a larger capacity.”
The detractors
A spate of Republicans took to the internet to offer critiques of Coleman in the hours after her announcement.
Some of them referenced a 2021 report that Coleman sought help getting close associates, such as her hairdresser, unemployment insurance benefits while many Kentuckians were waiting for months during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, the Office of Unemployment was moved out from the cabinet she oversaw, then called the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. She later stepped down from her role leading the cabinet in 2021.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Jacqueline Coleman is even more corrupt than Andy Beshear. When you were struggling through the lockdowns, Coleman used her position to ensure her friends got to cut in front of line to get unemployment. She can never be Governor,” Rep. T.J. Roberts, R-Burlington, wrote in a post to X.
Litafik pointed out that Coleman has not won an election without Beshear at her side.
“She has been an effective surrogate for Gov. Beshear, but the office of lieutenant governor has almost no formal duties of power or significance beyond what a governor is willing to assign. Also, Coleman is as of yet unproven as a fundraiser, and it remains to be seen how well she will connect with certain constituencies that matter in a Democratic Primary for governor,” Litafik said.
The specter of Rocky Adkins, currently a senior adviser to Beshear, running also colored many people’s comments. Adkins, the former top Kentucky House Democrat, gave Beshear a run for his money in 2019, losing to the governor by just six points in the primary.
Adkins, in a statement, said he was “thinking carefully” about his future, adding that “you can’t keep a Kentucky boy out of the fight when the future of our state is on the line.”
Tres Watson, former spokesperson for the state GOP, wrote on X that Coleman was “most likely to win the primary, least likely to win the general.”
Rep. James Comer, a Republican representing the 1st Congressional District, who is widely seen as eyeing another run for governor in 2027, had a similar assessment last summer during the Fancy Farm political speaking event.
Adkins ran as a moderate Democrat in 2019, though some have speculated that his House voting record on pro-life issues and gun rights — he voted for the current law banning most abortions in Kentucky — would bog him down with progressives much like it did in 2019 when he was blown out in urban areas like Louisville.
Coleman has her own anti-abortion record, though her views shifted from her 2014 run to when she became Beshear’s running mate.
Jack Coleman, who served with Adkins when he was in the state legislature, counts Adkins as a friend. He’s heard mixed news on his plans.
For his part, Thomas said he thinks Coleman will be seen as a strong Beshear ally, and the results will play out much like Beshear’s successful bids for office.
“He’s been very successful. I don’t see why she can’t follow that,” Thomas said.
