FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gavin Newsom was part of him, walking and shaking among the rich and powerful in Davos.
He scolded European leaders for insulting President Trump.
He issued a defamatory notice during the presidential debate and grabbed headlines after being barred from delivering a high-profile speech, allegedly at the behest of the White House.
All the while, another governor and a Democratic president were mixing and mingling in the unusual Swiss atmosphere — even if you wouldn’t know it.
Flying under the heat-seeking radar, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear leans into the role of an economic ambassador, focused on job creation and other toxic, toxic things that pay little attention to the active political climate.
Like Newsom, Beshear is running for president-but-not-outright. He was not willing to give a big difference to the governor of California, the front runner of the Democratic Alliance in 2028. But he did just that.
Looking for someone to match Trump’s insulting, over-the-top meme and howl whenever the president commits a new outrage? Look to Sacramento, not Frankfort.
“I think by the time we get to 2028, our Democratic voters will be fed up,” Beshear said during a speech in his state’s snowy capital. “They’re going to be bothered by Trump, and they’re going to be bothered by Democrats who respond to Trump as Trump. And they’re going to want stability in their lives.”
All candidates enter the race with a backstory and a record, which is condensed into a summary that serves as a calling card, the basis of tactics and the reason for their run.
Here’s Andy Beshear: He’s the popular two-term governor of a red state that voted heavily for Trump three times.
He knows the language of faith well, is popular with the kind of rural voters who have left the Democrats in droves and, at 48, offers a new face and a relative youth to a party that many voters see as old and full of anger.
The fact that he’s from the South, where Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was the last time Democrats encountered this kind of confusion, doesn’t hurt either.
Beshear’s candidacy, which is still in its infancy, offers a mix of ambition and discipline.
Democrats, he said, need to speak more like ordinary people. Addiction, not substance use disorder. Famine, not food aid.
And, he suggested, they need to focus more on the things ordinary people care about: jobs, health care, public safety, public education. Things that are not theoretical or abstract but affect their daily lives, such as the cost of electricity, car insurance and groceries.
“I think that is the most important thing that we should have learned in 2024 [Democratic voters are] I will look for someone to help them pay the next bill,” said Beshear.
He lived in the Old Governor’s Mansion, now a historic site and Beshear’s temporary office while the nearby Capitol underwent years of renovation.
The red brick residence, built in the Federal style and completed in 1798, was Beshear’s home from ages 6 to 10 when her father, Steve, lived there while serving as lieutenant governor. (Steve Beshear went on to serve two terms as the state’s top executive, building a reputation that helped Andy win his first federal office, attorney general, in 2015.)
It was 9 degrees outside. Icicles hung from curbs and icicles roamed the narrow, winding streets of Frankfort after an unusually cold winter blast.
Inside, Beshear sat in front of the unlit fireplace, legs crossed, shirt collar open, looking like the unassuming Dad in a store-bought picture frame.
He bragged a little, touting Kentucky’s economic success under his watch. He spoke about his religion – his grandfather and great-grandfather were Baptist preachers – and spoke extensively about optimism, which is rare in politics these days, underlining his view of the world.
“I think the American people feel like the pendulum has swung too far in the Biden administration. Now they feel it has swung too far during the Trump administration,” Beshear said. “What they want is for it to stop swinging.”
He continued. “When most people wake up, they don’t think about politics, they think about their job, the next doctor’s appointment, the roads and bridges they drive, the school they drop their children off at, and whether they feel safe in their community.
“And I think they want someone who can move the country, not to the right or to the left in theory, but actually forward in those areas. And that’s why I think we’re healing.”
Beshear doesn’t disparage his Democratic lineage, or deviate from the party’s many ideals.
Seeking re-election in 2023, he became involved in the abortion issue and the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade ran to defeat and outperform his Republican opponent.
He marched with striking auto workers, signed an executive order making June 10 a state holiday and often overturned anti-gay legislation, and became the first Kentucky governor to attend an LGBTQ+ celebration in the Capitol Rotunda.
“Discrimination against our LGBTQ+ community is unacceptable,” he told the audience. “It’s setting us back and, in my Kentucky way, it’s not fair.”
Through it all, Beshear is not holding back on taking on Trump, which has become a requirement of the job for any Democratic office holder who wishes to remain a Democratic official.
After the president’s shocking Davos speech, Beshear called Trump’s remarks “dangerous, disrespectful and out of touch.”
“From insulting our allies to telling struggling Americans to fix inflation and the economy is freaking out, the President is undermining the financial security of our families and the security of the nation,” Beshear said on social media. “Oh, and Greenland is too important to call Iceland.”
But Beshear hasn’t turned Trump-bashing into a 24/7 vocation, or a weightlifting competition where the winner is the critic who wields the heaviest bludgeon.
“I stand up to him the way I think a Democratic governor should. If he does things that hurt my situation, I speak up,” Beshear said. “I’ve filed 20 cases, I think, and we’ve won almost all of them, brought the dollars that they were trying to keep out of Kentucky.
“But,” he added, “if he does something good in Kentucky, I’ll say that too, because that’s what our people expect.”
Asked about Newsom snubbing and his dedicated Trump campaign staff, Beshear defended the California governor — or, at the very least, offered a dig.
“Gavin is in a very different situation than I am. I mean, he has a president attacking him and his state almost every day,” Beshear said. “So I don’t want to criticize the way a person works in a very different environment.
“But the way it should work must be different for you. For me, I bring people together. We were able to do that in this situation. That’s my way. And in the end, I have to stay true to who I am.”
And when – or to do that if – both Newsom and Beshear are launching a formal bid for president, they will present Democratic voters with a clear choice.
Not just between two different people. And two very different approaches to politics and restoring the White House.
