Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear greets supporters at the annual Marshall County Democratic Party bean dinner, Aug. 4, 2023 at Kentucky Dam Convention Center. He was successfully campaigning for a second term as governor. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear says he’s focused on leading Kentucky for the remaining two years and 340-some days of his second term.
“I’m seeing a state that I love and that I’m from transformed, and I don’t want to lose today by thinking about tomorrow. It’s just too important,” Beshear said in a Wednesday interview with the Kentucky Lantern.
The Kentucky governor also spoke about his growing role on the national political stage, Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration and GOP state lawmakers’ plan to again make cuts to the state income tax.
Over the past year, Beshear, 47, has taken steps to raise his national profile. After his reelection in 2023, Beshear formed a political action committee, In This Together, to support Democratic candidates in Kentucky and across the country. He also had a chance to introduce himself to the country when he was under consideration as a possible running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris this summer. He continued to stump for her across the country after she ultimately selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
In the recent interview, Beshear did note that he’s “taken on a big role in the Democratic Governors Association.” Last week, he was voted as vice chair of the DGA for 2025 and chair-elect for 2026, an important year for Democrats nationally hoping to take back ground in Congress in midterm elections.
“If I do my job right, especially in ’26 with 36 races, and we have not just candidates, but winners, that are running messaging and will govern on the core issues that people care about the most, that list for future offices will grow and grow, and there’ll be a lot of great candidates out there, some of which we’re not talking about right now that’ll be in the mix for ‘28,” Beshear said.
As for the 2024 election cycle in Kentucky, Democrats maintained the same caucus numbers in the state House and Senate — 20 seats in the 100-member House and seven in the 38-member Senate. Republicans continue to hold supermajorities in both chambers, giving them the power to easily override any Beshear veto.
Beshear said Democratic candidates messaging to sway voters “was right” in 2024 because while Trump won the state by 30 points, Democrats kept their total number of legislative seats. He also predicted it’s a good sign for Kentucky Democrats in the future and that the “the numbers of Democrats will grow.”
“From a good government standpoint, they should grow. I don’t think the supermajorities are helpful in either party, and we see across the country that they can lead to moving too far, one direction or the other,” Beshear said. “Most people want middle of the road, common sense, common ground type of policies. And that grows harder with super majorities. We start seeing more extreme members getting elected, and at the end of the day, our job, I think, is to come through on jobs, health care, infrastructure, public education and public safety. Those are those core things that if people feel concerned about, they just don’t get to anything else.”
Beshear did celebrate one standout from Kentucky’s elections — the defeat of Amendment 2. If it had passed, the proposed constitutional amendment would have allowed the General Assembly the power to fund nonpublic schools. Kentucky Democrats, including Beshear, campaigned hard against the measure.
“Defeating Amendment 2 was necessary to ultimately providing the type of education that all our kids deserve,” Beshear said.
Biggest accomplishments
Overall, Beshear said the biggest accomplishments of his second term so far have been in areas of economic development, health care, infrastructure and public safety. He highlighted developments in the state, such as Toyota’s announcement of r a $922 million car paint facility in Georgetown and UofL Health opening a $78 million hospital in Bullitt County. Overdose deaths in Kentucky also decreased in 2023 for the second year in a row.
Now “is the perfect time to reintroduce ourselves to the world, to leave stereotypes of the past in the past, to be able to bring together tourism and economic development and workforce attraction all under that one initiative,” Beshear said.
He plans to focus on “the exciting things happening in Kentucky” in his upcoming State of the Commonwealth address next month. Per tradition, Beshear will address the House and Senate when they return to Frankfort for the 2025 legislative session.
One GOP priority for the upcoming session will be another half-percent reduction of the state income tax rate. When they return to Frankfort in January, Republican lawmakers are likely to act quickly on such a measure.
Beshear signaled support for another half-percent reduction in the personal income tax rate earlier this month. He told the Lantern that Kentucky’s economy is still growing at the moment to support cutting the state income tax, but he added that “I do believe in balance.” He pointed to issues in Kansas over a decade ago where income taxes were cut but the state’s economy slowed.
“My concern with what the General Assembly set up is, while it has guard rails, the train only moves in one direction,” Beshear said. The Kentucky governor vetoed an income tax reduction in 2022 and signed another in 2023.
Second Trump administration
In January, Beshear must contend with a new Trump administration. Beshear has already been a governor with a president of his opposing party. When Beshear took office in 2019, he overlapped with Trump in the White House
During Trump’s first term, the European Union enacted retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, including bourbon — and some within the industry are worried more could be coming as Trump signals support for tariffs on countries such as Canada, Mexico and China. The Kentucky Distillers’ Association recently said the past retaliatory tariffs have cost Kentucky Bourbon a half-billion dollars in exports since 2018.
Beshear noted concerns from those in Kentucky’s bourbon industry and added that he hoped Trump “will be very surgical in what he chooses to do” with tariffs. Beshear said widespread tariffs would raise costs for all Americans, but in some cases tariffs can be useful, such when they’re applied to Chinese electric vehicles to counter thatcountry flooding markets.
“If that’s done correctly and surgically, that makes sense, and that can help our American businesses, but my hope is that it will be done wisely, that we don’t hurt our allies that are out there, that their economies are important to us too. And overall, I worry that a tariff-based policy is going to harm our economy instead of helping it.”
Trump has also promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants but it is unclear what exactly that plan will be. Some Republican governors and lawmakers are making proposals to aid the Trump administration with deportations. However, Beshear says he wants to see Trump’s plan before making any declarations.
“We’ll need to see, number one, what their plans are, and number two, how they plan to go about it,” Beshear said. “It’s important that any plan protects the constitutional rights of citizens and those that are here legally. It’s also important in how they implement it that it doesn’t put Kentuckians in harm’s way.”
Beshear said most of Kentucky’s National Guard members do not have police training, which they would need if deployed to to apprehend individuals. Beshear said immigration laws must also be navigated.
When asked if he anticipates the Trump administration requesting state or local law enforcement aid for deporations, Beshear said he did not want to speculate without knowing Trump’s plan.
“We’ll just want to make sure anything is legal and that anyone asked to participate would have the skills to do something safely,” Beshear said.
Presidents may federalize the National Guard in some cases. Under both Trump and President Joe Biden, Kentucky has sent National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border.
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