Considerable ink has been spilled this midterm cycle covering the Democratic Party’s civil war between progressives and centrists. But what’s been less covered, and may perhaps prove even more crucial in shaping the party’s future, is the divide between state lawmakers and federal ones. Not since 1992 have Democrats nominated a president whose core political experiences took place in a governor’s mansion.
That man was Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, who leveraged his experience chairing the Democratic Governors Association to win in states previously deemed uncompetitive. Since 2000 onward, the party has nominated U.S. senators. To many folks, a politician is a politician.
But in the wake of Donald Trump overhauling Washington via the levers of executive power, some Democrats believe the moment requires a leader who can also act like a CEO. This person must do so in a way that heals rather divides the country, in which case, the thinking goes, red state merits would help. One of the leaders behind that line of thinking happens to be a red state governor himself.
He also happens to chair the DGA. His name is Andy Beshear, and he hails from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. His newly released memoir, Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country, is about how faith informs his worldview and can heal politics.
But even before he announced his book and before he was shortlisted as Kamala Harris’ potential vice presidential running mate in 2024, Beshear was deemed a rising star. After all, it’s not every day a Kentucky Democrat carries a 65 percent approval rating. Beshear did not confirm his intention to run when asked, but said he’d decide when his term as chair of the DGA ends, in December.
Newsweek noted that Beshear’s ideal candidate resembled someone with his resume and asked how Beshear would lead if he were the party’s standard bearer. To this, Beshear spoke about not seeing individuals in Kentucky as Democrat or Republican before going on to state: “I think it’s going to be really important for the next president and the next Democratic nominee to run a campaign that, yes, turns people out, but you’ve got to go where people haven’t otherwise gone. Because that’s not just so that you’re a good candidate; it’s so that you would be a good president.” Therein lies the question for Beshear.
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