Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is starting to put together his 2028 presidential campaign, Politico reported.
Beshear, a Democrat in a deep-red state, has been meeting privately with donors, hired a former Kamala Harris communications staffer, recorded a podcast and has been speaking at national events, Politico said.
A Beshear super PAC spent six figures in the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, and he has headlined fundraisers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and delivered a speech in Davos, Switzerland, according to Politico. Next year, Beshear will begin serving as chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
“What you see are cable news stations that set up a camera outside of Congress, because it’s the easiest thing to do, and then take whatever is said there and say, ‘That’s this party or that party.’ Governors are very different,” Beshear said in an interview with Politico. “You have a big difference, I will say, between the D.C. bubble and when you’re a governor.”
Beshear faces several challenges, including his lack of name recognition and cable TV appearances.
“He’s just not exciting or interesting enough,” a Democrat political operative told Politico. “He strikes me as a great Cabinet secretary.”
But other Democrats are starting to take Beshear seriously. Democrat senators have reached out to him about how he frames key issues to Democrats, and he keeps being invited to House Democrat leadership conferences, Politico said.
In Kentucky, Beshear has been able to defy political gravity, winning in a state President Donald Trump won by 30 points, including improving his margins in rural Kentucky counties. The governor said Democrats need to focus on the reality of what people think about when they wake up in the morning to re-earn the trust of the American people.
Democrats need to start “talking like a normal human being,” Beshear said. “The next presidential candidate needs to get dirt on their boots.”
Beshear has also criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential 2028 candidate, for interviewing Steve Bannon on his podcast.
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