Gov. Andy Beshear (D., Ky.) has national aspirations as a potential dark horse nominee for the Democratic Party, should Democrats look for a nominee who doesn’t hail from either coast.
But, his latest moves at home in Kentucky are already undermining a core part of Beshear’s potential national candidacy: his perceived moderation. Beshear endorsed former state lawmaker Charles Booker, who is the Democrats’ sacrificial lamb candidate against Rep. Andy Barr (R., Ky.).
Following Beshear’s endorsement, Booker said that Beshear “has helped shine the light that politics rooted in kindness, faith, and humanity can win statewide in Kentucky. Having worked with him during my time in the state legislature and later in his administration, I am proud to stand with him now and continue to show what’s possible when we lock arms from the hood to the holler and fight for team Kentucky.”
Booker, who previously served as the director of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and Community Involvement in the Beshear administration, is mounting his third Senate campaign; in 2020, he failed to win the primary. In 2022, Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) decisively defeated him.
But while Barr is favored to defeat Booker, his campaign is trying to make Beshear pay for the endorsement.“Andy Beshear just endorsed a guy who is to the left of Karl Marx, who supports giving out reparations, Universal Basic Income, abolishing ICE, and a laundry list of other socialist policies,” Barr spokesman Alex Bellizzi told the Washington Reporter. “It is laughable that any national Democrat thinks Andy Beshear is the Democrat who can appeal to centrist voters who abandoned them in droves in 2024. Andy Beshear, Charles Booker, and the Kentucky Democrat Party are radical and wrong for the Commonwealth.”
