Beshear fears ‘partisan donors’ are influencing UK. Who’s he talking about?
Gov. Andy Beshear left something unsaid in his criticism of University of Kentucky leadership, casting doubt on the creation of a high-paying position and the naming of incoming UK College of Law Dean Gregory Van Tatenhove, a federal judge.
He said he worried the “actions are related to certain donors pushing partisan and undue outside influence onto the university,” but stopped short of naming those donors.
A spokesperson for Beshear’s office didn’t clarify who he was referencing.
However, Van Tatenhove’s financial disclosures from 2014 to 2019 indicate one clear candidate.
The judge has a documented relationship with the family of Kelly and Joe Craft, a Kentucky philanthropist and coal magnate worth more than $1 billion. Together, they are some of the biggest Republican donors in the country, recently leading a Republican National Committee effort to raise money for President Donald Trump in 2024.
The Crafts appear repeatedly in Van Tatenhove’s financial disclosures as having provided gifts to the judge and his family or reimbursing him multiple times. The disclosures are publicly available via the U.S. courts system.
For instance, in 2016, Joe Craft is listed as having reimbursed Van Tatenhove’s travel to Charlotte, Chicago, New York City and Florida. Those trips are listed as “personal travel” in the federally-required disclosure forms.
While the Crafts have ties to Van Tatenhove, the gift-giving and reimbursements have slowed in recent years: They haven’t showed up on the judge’s disclosures since
Both alumni, the Crafts are UK Athletics’ largest donors and rank among the top donors to UK’s College of Engineering and in the health care space. Practice facilities for both the football and men’s basketball teams are named after Joe Craft. He also led donations for the Wildcat Coal Lodge, the dorm that houses members of the men’s basketball team.
Kelly Craft was previously a member of the UK Board of Trustees.
In Beshear’s statement, the governor scrutinized both Van Tatenhove’s new position leading the law school — he claims Van Tatenhove “was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty” — and “the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties,” which appeared to be a reference to UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart‘s new job at UK.
Kelly Craft, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, ran as a Republican to unseat Beshear in 2023. She lost in the GOP primary to former Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
In addition to the Crafts, Kiki Courtelis, president of Town and Country Farms in Georgetown and a notable GOP donor in her own right, appears multiple times in Van Tatenhove’s financial disclosures as having provided gifts to the judge and his family or reimbursing them several times in financial disclosures from years 2014 to 2019. They were reimbursed for travel and lodging on two separate trips to Africa.
Both the Crafts and Courtelis are on Van Tatenhove’s “permanent recusal list.” Unlike the Craft family, Courtelis is not as public-facing when it comes to her UK connections, though she’s one of 25 directors on the board of the school’s Gluck Equine Research Foundation.
The code of conduct for federal judges prohibits judges from hearing cases “in which they have either personal knowledge of the disputed facts, a personal bias concerning a party to the case, earlier involvement in the case as a lawyer, or a financial interest in any party or subject matter of the case.”
Under that rule, federal judges have to step back from cases involving someone on their recusal list.
Spokespeople for both the Crafts and Courtelis have not responded to requests for comment on Beshear’s statement or the disclosures.
Van Tatenhove’s office declined comment earlier Tuesday.
Though not as prolific a donor as the Crafts, Courtelis has been a key donor for Cameron, both in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Gov. Andy Beshear in 2023 and this year’s run to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell. Cameron was previously a clerk under Van Tatenhove.
Van Tatenhove is a former legislative aide for McConnell, who nominated him to fill the seat on the U.S. District Court in Kentucky in 2005. His wife, Christy Trout Van Tatenhove, works for the Kentucky House GOP caucus.
UK strongly disagreed with Beshear’s remarks.
“In Judge Van Tatenhove we have someone who will be an outstanding Dean for the Rosenberg College of Law,” UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said. “With more than two decades of experience and an exemplary record on the federal courts, as well as years as a U.S. Attorney and in public service, he is the right leader, with the right skills and the right background and expertise at a critical moment for the College.”
Republicans push back on Beshear’s criticism
Beshear’s comments were quickly denounced by Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams.
“Vandy/UVA grad’s hatchet job on a respected judge who happens to be a Republican,” Adams said in a post to X. “Of course the Governor thinks left-leaning faculty should make all the decisions. I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making of Andy Beshear.”
The Kentucky GOP also took aim at Beshear, and suggested he had sought someone else to be dean of the law school.
“It’s ironic to see @GovAndyBeshear finally admitting there’s a problem at the University of Kentucky,” the Kentucky GOP said in a post to X. “Republicans have tried for years to rein in poor decision making, a scandal-laden administration, and the waste of taxpayer dollars on frivolous contracts and DEI initiatives, with no help from @AndyBeshearKY.”
Gifts and reimbursements from donors
Reimbursements are payments by outside groups to cover judges’ travel and travel-related expenses. They’re required to be disclosed when they exceed $480, but unlike gifts, a dollar amount does not have to be reported.
Van Tatenhove reported relatively few gifts or reimbursements in recent years, according to disclosure records. He received sports tickets from Courtelis worth more than $6,000 across 2022 and 2023. He reported no gifts or reimbursements in 2021.
In 2019, Courtelis reimbursed transportation and lodging to both Saratoga, New York, in September and Skukuza, South Africa — a premier game viewing and safari destination — in October. Courtelis also provided “sporting event tickets” worth $2,920 that year.
Both Courtelis and the Crafts provided gifts and travel money to Van Tatenhove in 2018, according to disclosure records. That included travel to Montreal and sports tickets worth $3,100 from Joe Craft. The Crafts also provided a birthday gift worth $800.
Courtelis provided sports tickets wirth $2,920 that year, and reimbursed travel and lodging for trips to Nashville, Tennessee, Jackson, Wyoming, Botswana and Zambia, as well as travel to Foxborough, Massachussetts, the disclosure records show.
In 2017, Joe Craft provided reimbursement for transportation to Washington, D.C. three times, as well as Memphis, Tennessee; New York City and Ottawa, Canada, that nation’s capital city; at the time, Kelly Craft was U.S. ambassador to Canada. He also gifted “seven athletic tickets” at a value of $2,450.
In 2016, Joe Craft reimbursed expenses for multiple trips within the U.S. to Chicago, New York City, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as Jacksonville and Naples, Florida, the disclosure records show. He also gifted transportation costs to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the Craft family had a residence, totaling $2,025, as well as event tickets worth $1,075.
In 2015, Joe Craft reimbursed travel to Florida and New York as well as travel and lodging in Tennessee, disclosure documents say. He also gifted a sports ticket in New York worth $450.
Town and Country Farm, Courtelis’ operation, gifted $3,550 for two sporting event tickets in Kentucky in 2015, according to the disclosure documents.
In 2014, the only reported reimbursement was from Courtelis for “air transportation” from Georgetown to Hilton Head, South Carolina, Van Tatenhove’s disclosure documents say.
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 7:53 PM.
