Gov. Beshear appealed to younger voters. It must have worked. | Opinion

In the days leading up to the gubernatorial election, Gov. Andy Beshear and opponent Daniel Cameron embarked on two very different Get out the Vote operations.

Cameron toured with Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kelley Paul, writer and wife of U.S. Senator Rand Paul, and invited prospective voters to observe a 10-minute “tele-rally” with Cameron and Donald Trump.

During the phone call, Cameron introduced the former elected official, currently indited for 91 felonies in four states, as “the next president of the United States.”

While the former attorney general opted to have Trump slew ad hominem attacks over-the-phone, Gov. Andy Beshear took a different approach: excite Generation Z voters.

Beshear spent the days leading up to the Nov. 7 election on a statewide Get Out the Vote campaign, stopping at universities across Kentucky to connect with his Generation Z base.

At University of Louisville’s Red Barn, Beshear appeared with rapper Jack Harlow: a musician unknown to many Gen X and Baby Boomers, but an icon of Kentucky youth culture.

The 25-year-old, Louisville-born rapper promotes Kentucky in his music and fashion, often adorning a 61 carat diamond Kentucky-shaped chain as a symbol of his state pride.

In the weeks leading up to the election, Beshear and Cameron were polling at an equal 47%.

Why, in a close election, did the Beshear campaign enlist the help of a Generation Z rapper?

As a Generation Z Kentuckian, the choice to campaign with Jack Harlow is a no brainer: Beshear understands the value the Generation Z voting bloc brings to his political base.

In 2019, Beshear rose to popularity as an opponent to former Gov. Matt Bevin, who became deeply unpopular for slashing education budgets.

Today’s 18 - 24 age voters were high school students when Bevin cut their teacher’s pensions. I remember being a freshman at Simon Kenton High School, watching my teachers spend what little time off they had to protest at the state Capitol in an anxious effort to secure their retirement futures.

Gen Z voters, the vast majority of whom are graduates of public high schools, have not forgotten how Kentucky’s Republican party betrayed their teachers.

Once elected, Beshear made additional strides with Gen Z through his steady, stoic leadership during crisis.

In an age of political theatre, where both parties are oversaturated with politicians who build bases on ostracizing the ‘political other,’ the stoic Beshear stands out as a moderate governor who spends his time creating bipartisan solutions for a state struggling with pandemics, natural disasters, and economic inflation.

At the height of COVID-19 in June 2020, the Beshear administration ensured the continuation of the Governor’s Scholars Program, a state-funded educational summer program for high school juniors to explore higher education options.

Beshear virtually met with my cohort of Governor’s Scholars at Centre College to encourage us on our educational journeys and share stories of his days as a Governor’s Scholar. In a time where Kentucky was facing unprecedented devastation, Beshear’s commitment to supporting Kentucky’s youth did not go unnoticed.

Moreover, Beshear’s expansion of high-speed Internet, support for COVID-19 public health measures, and legalization of medical marijuana and sports betting made particular strides with the younger generation.

In attempting to craft an attack narrative against Beshear, Cameron tried to characterize Beshear as “the abortion candidate.”

However, as the failure of Amendment 2 in 2022 has shown, a hard-line, pro-life stance that does not offer exceptions for rape and incest is not a winning stance in Kentucky.

Beyond advocating for healthcare access, Beshear has accumulated popularity among young voters through his support for the LGBTQ+ community. In a state where conversion therapy is still legal and many young LGBTQ+ individuals face discrimination in Kentucky schools, Beshear’s vetoes of anti-trans legislation has built a base of Generation Z LGBTQ+ support.

Beshear’s appeal to Gen Z voters extends beyond his policy repertoire.

Compared to Cameron, who has followed the path of many coattail-riding copycat-Trumps, Beshear has not built a political base on the ostracization of political “others.”

In his victory speech on Nov. 7, Beshear described his re-election as “a choice to reject team R or team D” and “a choice of Jack Harlow over Sarah Huckabee Sanders.”

For Gen Z, a politician that truly promotes bipartisanship and embraces “Team Kentucky” over divisive party labels is a rarity worth supporting.

Members of Gen Z do not remember a time before X debates, the 24-hour news cycle, super-PACs, 4-chan conspiracists, and bot-generated Facebook ads fanned the flames of political division.

Gov. Beshear offers a vision of modern politics that seeks to remedy the culture of division fostered by other Gen X and Baby Boomer politicians: a vision of politics that listens to the needs of Kentucky’s next generation.

The future of Kentucky is not sitting in a senior center: the future of Kentucky reposting videos of Jack Harlow at University of Louisville Red Barn.

Meredith Perkins is a Presidential Fellow at Miami University and a native of Independence, Ky.