Andy Beshear

Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd Governor of Kentucky since December 2019.A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of Steve Beshear, the 61st Governor of Kentucky.

Beshear was elected attorney general of Kentucky in November 2015. As attorney general, Beshear sued Governor Matt Bevin several times over issues such as health care and pensions, before challenging and narrowly defeating Bevin in the 2019 gubernatorial election. Since his election, Beshear has been praised for his daily 5:00 pm news conferences focusing on the ongoing 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic.

Beshear is the son of Steve and Jane (Klingner) Beshear. He grew up in Fayette, Franklin, and Clark counties and graduated from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky. Steve Beshear was the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015.

Beshear and his wife Britainy are both members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and serve as deacons. They have two children.

Beshear attended Vanderbilt University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in political science and anthropology. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor. In 2005, he was hired by the law firm Stites & Harbison. He represented the developers of the Bluegrass Pipeline, which would have transported natural gas through the state.

Kentucky Attorney General

2015 Kentucky Attorney General election

In November 2013, Beshear announced his candidacy for the 2015 election for Attorney General of Kentucky to succeed Democrat Jack Conway, who could not run for reelection due to term limits. He defeated Republican Whitney Westerfield by a margin of 0.2 percent, getting 50.1% of the vote to Westerfield's 49.9%.

Tenure

In April 2016, Beshear sued governor Matt Bevin over his mid-cycle budget cuts to the state university system, which Beshear said Bevin was not authorized to do. The Kentucky Supreme Court issued a 5-2 ruling agreeing with Beshear that Bevin did not have the authority to make mid-cycle budget cuts without the approval of the General Assembly.

In April 2018, Beshear again successfully sued Bevin, this time for signing Senate Bill 151, a controversial plan to reform teacher pensions, with the Supreme Court ruling the bill unconstitutional.

By November 2018, Beshear had filed nine lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for their alleged involvement in fueling Kentucky's opioid epidemic.

Beshear joined 15 other attorneys general in December 2018 in opposing the ruling of a Texas judge that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. Beshear said that "for so many families the Affordable Care Act is a matter of life and death."

Beshear only served one term as Attorney General, foregoing a run for a second term in 2019 to instead successfully run for Governor. Beshear resigned from the Attorney General's office on December 10, 2019 to be sworn in as the 63rd Governor of Kentucky. He was replaced by Daniel Cameron on December 17.

Governor of Kentucky

2019 Kentucky Governor election

On July 9, 2018, Beshear declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Kentucky in the 2019 election. His running mate was Jacqueline Coleman, a nonprofit president, assistant principal, and former state house candidate. In announcing his candidacy, Beshear said he would "make public education a priority." In May 2019, he won the Democratic nomination with 38 percent of the vote in a three-way contest.

Beshear and his campaign focused on local issues specific to Kentucky, such as medicaid expansion, education funding, and pensions.

The night of the November 5 election, NBC News and other major outlets called Beshear the "apparent winner" over incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin, though the Associated Press called the race "too close to call" with less than half a percent of the vote separating them. Beshear won by 0.37 percentage points, getting 49.20% of the vote to Bevin's 48.83%. Days later, Bevin had not conceded the race, claiming large-scale voting "irregularities" but not offering evidence. However, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes' office declared Beshear the winner.

On November 14, 2019, Bevin conceded the election after a recanvass was performed at his request that only resulted in one single change, an additional vote for a write-in candidate.

Tenure

Beshear was inaugurated as governor at 12:01am on December 10, 2019. In his inaugural address at the public ceremony later that day, Beshear called on Republicans, who have a supermajority in both houses of the Kentucky Legislature, to reach across the aisle and solve Kentucky's issues in a bipartisan way. Beshear fired all eleven members of Kentucky's state education board on his first day in office, all of whom were appointed by his predecessor, Matt Bevin, promising a fresh start. On December 12, 2019, Beshear signed an executive order to restore voting rights to all adults in Kentucky who have been convicted of non-violent felonies who have served their sentence, affecting over 156,000 eligible individuals.

Beshear is seen as a moderate Democrat. Both his social and fiscal beliefs are seen as left-leaning. However, he has expressed his desire and intent to work with Republicans across the aisle on all issues. Many of his newly-appointed cabinet members are registered Republicans.

Criminal justice

As Kentucky Attorney General, Beshear fought companies responsible for Kentucky's opioid crisis and got US$9.5 million in settlements for 16 treatment centers across the state. Beshear signed an executive order as governor to completely restore the voting rights of those convicted of non-violent felonies, as the law preventing them to vote is widely seen as an unfair tactic to suppress the African American vote, as 4 percent of African American adults in Kentucky are convicted non-violent felons. The executive order restored voting rights to over 100,000 people in Kentucky.

Economic policy

Beshear states that he wants to bring more advanced manufacturing jobs to Kentucky to offset job loses due to the decline of coal. In addition, Beshear wants to increase the number of health care jobs in the state. Beshear opposes the anti-union right-to-work law signed by his predecessor, Matt Bevin.

Education

Beshear supports a major pay raise for all teachers in Kentucky, who earn one of the lowest salaries of any teachers in the country.

Environment

Beshear accepts the scientific consensus that climate change and global warming are real and caused by humans. Beshear wants to create more clean energy jobs to employ those who got laid off of their coal jobs. Beshear wants to expand clean coal technology in Kentucky.

Equality

Beshear supports same-sex marriage and equal rights for LGTBQ people. When he was attorney general, 60% of his staff were minorities and women.

Health care

Beshear supports Kentucky's medicaid expansion, which provides affordable health care to over 500,000 Kentuckians, including all people with pre-existing conditions. Beshear criticized his predecessor, Matt Bevin, for trying to roll back the state's medicaid expansion (which ultimately failed). As Attorney General and Governor, Beshear repeatedly expressed support for the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare), and criticized a Texas judge for ruling it as unconstitutional.

Infrastructure

Beshear supports the project to replace the structurally deficient Brent Spence Bridge, which carries Interstates 71 and 75 over the Ohio River between Covington, KY and Cincinnati, OH. The project has long been delayed, and the bridge is considered to be the most critical transportation link in the state of Kentucky. Beshear has expressed willingness to work with Ohio governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, to start the project. Beshear hopes to fund the bridge through conventional means and not tolling, however, he is unsure if the state has the funds to do that.

Beshear has also expressed support for the construction of the Interstate 69 Ohio River Bridge between Henderson, Kentucky and Evansville, Indiana. He has stated that the project would be a priority for his first term, believing it would provide economic benefits to Western Kentucky.

Pensions

Beshear supports expanding gaming and gambling in Kentucky to help fund the state's pension system, which has accumulated US$24 billion in debt since 2000, the most of any state in the country. Beshear opposes pension cuts made by his predecessor, Matt Bevin, and wants to guarantee all workers pensions for when they retire.

2015 Kentucky Attorney General Democratic Primary
Beshear ran uncontested.

2015 Kentucky Attorney General Election

2019 Kentucky Gubernatorial Democratic Primary

2019 Kentucky Gubernatorial Election