Post-election comments from Beshear team show one sore winner in sea of gracious losers | Opinion

Since 2020, journalists and political commentators have made a living off asking how a candidate should accept electoral defeat. What did and didn’t President Trump do right in his own loss in 2020? How does that action impact democracy?

It’s a reasonable ask. No different than judging the questions raised by Stacey Abrams of Georgia who doubted her own gubernatorial loss in 2018 and those who questioned the 2016 results in which President Trump prevailed.

I was in the room on Nov. 7 when Republican leadership was told Attorney General Daniel Cameron had called Governor Andy Beshear to concede the election. It was not a fun moment. I experienced it myself earlier this year on Primary Election Day when I had to tell my then-boss Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles that he lost his bid to be the Republican nominee for Governor to Cameron.

Quarles called Cameron and congratulated him on his victory, offering support to continue improving our great Commonwealth. I experienced the same with Democrat nominee for Auditor Kim Reeder who called my cell phone on this most-recent election night to concede to Auditor-elect Allison Ball. It’s precisely what Cameron did on Tuesday after realizing his own defeat.

It’s what democracy is all about.

What we’ve seen with gracious losers, we’re now seeing the opposite with a sore winner here in Kentucky. I was repulsed after reading the recent interview with Beshear’s campaign manager Eric Hyers, where he decided to make it personal against a gracious loser in Cameron and his entire campaign.

Hyers called Cameron’s campaign “gross, disgusting” suggesting that they should “be embarrassed.” He declared, “they deserve to be made an example of.”

Hyers is referencing the Cameron campaign’s attempt to make this race about transgender surgeries on minors and boys playing in girls’ sports. Somehow agreeing to disagree became an objectionable thing in Beshear-world even if it meant Republicans standing up for what they believed to be morally right.

No campaign is without flaws, and I know Cameron’s team along with the entire Republican Party is ruminating on everything we could have done to get the race closer… to win. However, what Hyers is saying is just a continuation from Beshear’s team – shameless arrogance in the face of humility.

It’s what earned Beshear the ire of the entire legislature and most professional Republicans that I know.

What we’ve seen from Beshear and Hyers post-election, aren’t the words of adults, but those of petulant children who think they are without sin, despite the outright lies they ran on to win this campaign.

They said Beshear cut taxes, legalized medical marijuana, and brought sports gaming to the state.

Ask any Republican – and I mean any, save the corrupt mayor of London – when was the last time Andy Beshear called you to get anything accomplished?

Never.

What has Andy Beshear done to bridge the gap between rural conservatives and urban moderates?

Nothing.

The fact is what has gotten every successful thing across the line here in Kentucky has been the work of a veto-proof Republican supermajority in the General Assembly. But if you’re not paying attention, you may not notice Beshear spontaneously appearing at the front of the parade to declare himself the marshal while handing out taxpayer dollars as though he himself had miraculously spawned the funds.

This incessant need by the Beshear-orbit to spit in the eye of Republicans in a red state led us to a point where praising former Democrat Governor Steve Beshear for his political skills is an opening salvo for any conversation before bashing the current Beshear.

Hyers’ comments are the embodiment of everything we Republicans take issue with this Governor.

Now to be sure, Beshear and his team clearly don’t care about what Republicans want as elected leaders. But the problem they’re going to run into is that Republicans control everything but one singular office.

An office that over the last four years Republicans have shown no issue with minimizing and relegating to a ceremonial role.

If Beshear wants to start off on better footing than he did in 2019, I assure you Republicans aren’t viewing him better after these comments. In fact, they poisoned any political capital he thought he had after winning re-election.

Jake Cox is the former campaign manager for Senator Rand Paul’s 2022 re-election campaign, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles’ 2023 gubernatorial primary election campaign, and Treasurer Allison Ball’s 2023 campaign for State Auditor.