‘Not interested.’ Gov. Beshear says (again) he won’t be leaving for Washington, DC. | Opinion
To hear Gov. Andy Beshear tell it, being considered as a vice-presidential pick by Kamala Harris was nothing more than an elaborate economic development scheme rather than a boost into the DC hemisphere.
“I mean how many people in their lifetime are vetted to be a potential vice president running mate?” he said in a sit-down interview with the Herald-Leader Wednesday.
“But what’s most important to me is how Kentucky got a seat at the national table and got hundreds of millions of dollars in positive coverage all over the country and all over the world ... I’ve heard from companies in different parts of of the country that are potentially more interested in Kentucky.
“So in the end of the day, my job was to represent Kentucky well, and I’m excited that that we’ve seen the rest of the country looking up to us instead of looking down at us.”
We could debate whether the ability to land zingers on MSNBC impresses major corporations looking for a place to move. Nonetheless, Beshear says he’s back in Kentucky for good (which is news you can use until a potential Cabinet position comes calling).
He insists he’s going to finish the next three-and-a-half years, and no, he’s doesn’t want to run for the US Senate races in either 2026 or in 2028. At least not now.
“I’m just not interested,” he said. “Not interested. Right now is probably the the only time in my life I haven’t know what’s next. But it’s also the only time in my life I’ve not been worried about it. This is a great job.”
For now, it’s back to the boring but important work of policy here in Kentucky, and at the top of the list is more jobs, universal pre-K, and defeating Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that would allow public school dollars to flow to private schools.
“I’lI plan to be very active and defeat amendment to public dollars or for public schools,” he said.
The legislative GOP supermajority put the initiative on the ballot along with another constitutional amendment to ban people who aren’t citizens from voting, even thought that is already forbidden. But they figured that red meat plus a presidential election would get folks to vote yes, even though Kentuckians have shown themselves to be reluctant to change Kentucky’s foundational document.
“Thankfully, a constitutional amendment isn’t Democrat or Republican,” Beshear said.
“I believe that when people across Kentucky know that this is going to take money out of their public school system — it doesn’t add any more money, it takes it out of their public school and sends it to a private school that’s most likely not even in their county or in their region —that they’ll vote against it. I believe that the support for public education in Kentucky crosses all party lines in our communities.
“It just doesn’t in our state legislature.”
Universal pre-K should have the same, well, universal appeal. There is money to pay for it, businesses want it, parents need it, our dismal labor workforce numbers require it.
It “should not be a political issue,” he said. “This is about being competitive, and it’s a big part of solving our childcare crisis.”
He hopes to work with lawmakers in Frankfort to get legislation passed. As for the numerous complaints from Republicans that he won’t work with them on anything, Beshear dismissed it as “political theater.”
“All you have to do is look at the difference between what you see here in Frankfort where you get a lot of theater, and every other day that I’m out in those individuals’ communities, where they’re standing next to me, saying that we wouldn’t have gotten these new jobs without us working together.”
Political theater or not, Republicans have effectively blocked Beshear from achieving things like teacher pay raises or universal pre-K. The solution to that problem would be trying to build back the state Democratic Party, a donkey increasingly on its last legs with every legislative elections.
Beshear sidestepped the idea that as the party’s leader, he could help rebuild it from the bottom up. He thinks Democrats will pick up between two and five seats in the General Assembly in November’s election.
But he also said he thinks Kentucky will follow a national trend of general frustration with divisive red vs. blue politics.
“You’re asked to pick a side on everything from the car you drive to the beer you drink at the moment,” he said. “My election last November shows that people just want a better life ...And the desire to see things being less political is gonna open people up to voting in different ways or for the best candidate.
For now, Beshear will have to return to far less-glamorous matters than the veepstakes, such as a federal investigation into the state’s juvenile justice system, and as was revealed a few hours before our interview, an FBI investigation into the Addiction Recovery Care corporation, the largest network of addiction recovery centers in the state.
In his 2024 state of the commonwealth speech, Beshear called ARC’s founder Tim Robinson an “essential partner” in the state’s battle to fight addiction.
“I can’t comment on details of a federal investigation, but we cooperate with all federal investigations, and it’s not unusual for there to be an investigation in the Medicaid space. It is highly regulated. And so there are it is it is common that there are investigations that are going on. ARC provides significant services throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the 46-year-old governor said.
“And it’s important that we have both treatment and recovery services in each part of Kentucky. I don’t think that that that means there’s any presumption of guilt.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 1:53 PM.
