As a popular governor in a ruby red state and Republican-controlled legislature, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is sort of a unicorn in Democratic politics. The 47-year-old Democrat’s impressive re-election in 2023 quickly placed him on the shortlist of possible presidential candidates. Beshear was also under consideration to be the vice presidential running mate to 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
However, after Harris’ devastating loss and President Donald Trump‘s dominating return to the White House, the Democratic Party is in a state of rehabilitation and deep reflection. Some have suggested the party, which nominated the first Black and South Asian woman for president, has moved too far to the left and is too “woke” and out of touch with American voters.
Those arguments have caused concern for civil rights leaders and advocates who worry that Democrats would abandon racial justice issues and risk alienating Black and Brown voters at a time when the Trump administration is eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs that have made modest progress on closing racial gaps in wealth, housing, health care and beyond.
Beshear, who is openly considering a run for president in 2028, tells theGrio that now is the time for Democrats to fight for racial justice even more.
“Diversity is a strength and never a weakness,” declared the Kentucky governor, who said he opposes Trump’s anti-DEI agenda. “I know I will never be able to feel the weight of racism and the scars left by Jim Crow, segregation, even slavery. But I can listen, and I can hear, and I can take steps with our community forward, like we have.”
Despite his state’s conservative leanings, Beshear hasn’t shied away from tackling racial justice issues. He has vetoed bills from the Republican-majority legislature, like one that sought to ban DEI from public universities. Beshear has also used his executive powers to remove the statue of Confederate Jefferson Davis from the state capitol and signed a “CROWN Act” order to protect natural hairstyles from racial discrimination.
Last month, in honor of Juneteenth—which he made an executive branch holiday last year—Gov. Beshear debuted a new statue honoring abolitionists Lewis and Harriet Hayden, who escaped slavery in Kentucky in 1844. He also called for the Kentucky General Assembly to make Juneteenth a state holiday and opened the African American Heritage Trail, which includes 50 sites celebrating Black history.
Reflecting on his record advancing racial justice, Gov. Beshear told theGrio, “We built the first hospital in our largest African-American community in 150 years. We’ve located about 1,000 new jobs there. When the pandemic hit and we were seeing Black Kentuckians disproportionately dying, we got to work, and we put extra vaccination clinics there.”
Beshear said Republican governors also have a responsibility to advance racial justice because, simply, it’s the right thing to do.
“When you’ve got these jobs, your goal is to create a better state and create a better country, and that means doing what’s right most of the time, doing what’s right is also politically good,” he explained. “But people respect conviction. People, even if they disagree with you, can respect something if they know that you believe it’s right.”
Quoting fellow Democratic Governor Wes Moore of Maryland, Beshear said, “If the Bible says we are all children of God, then we’re all each other’s brothers and sisters.”
In 2020, during the Black Lives Matter uprisings following the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Beshear’s state of Kentucky, the country appeared to be coming together to denounce systemic racism. Following Taylor’s death in a botched Louisville Police Department raid at her home, Beshear signed a bipartisan bill that limited no-knock warrants in 2021.
But a lot has changed since then, culminating with the re-election of Trump and the emergence of the “anti-woke” and “anti-DEI” conservative movement. Despite the present and very palpable political and racial divides of today, Beshear said he still believes the country could come back together.
“This constant attempt to divide us that the Trump administration is engaged in…is antithetical to who we are as Americans,” the Kentucky governor told theGrio. “I believe at their core, people are good, and if we give people the right information, if we bring them back together, we can get to a place where we recognize that this country has made mistakes in the past [and] that certain programs are needed to make sure everyone has real opportunity.”
Next week, Beshear is taking his message to South Carolina, where he will deliver remarks at an AFL-CIO convention and a dinner hosted by the Georgetown County Democratic Party. It’s not lost on political insiders that South Carolina is the first primary state for the Democratic Party’s presidential cycle (and heavily influenced by Black voters in the Palmetto State), making Beshear’s visit a significant one.
While Beshear tells theGrio he is “focused on being the best governor of Kentucky I can be,” the Democrat said he wants to do his part to make sure the party is out there speaking to the “everyday needs” of Americans.
“It’s recognizing that there are a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump this time around who disagree with him on a lot of things, but they believed that he was more focused on helping them pay bills at the end of the month than his opponent was,” said Beshear. The Kentucky governor asserted, “Donald Trump’s doing anything but that,” adding, “This big, ugly bill is going to hurt people. Tariffs are hurting people.”
Beshear said Democrats “now have the chance to regain the trust and the faith of the American people.” He added, “We’ll work every day to make their lives better, and if we’re doing it right, they’ll recognize that we’re working to make everybody’s life better; Democrat, Republican, and Independent.”
