Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s book “Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country” went on sale Tuesday as the governor takes his book tour across the country.
Beshear’s potential as a Democratic candidate for president in 2028 is far from a secret at this point — he frequently alludes to a potential run on the national stage and even told Newsweek that the next president should be a Democratic governor.
The new book continues that messaging, as Beshear lays out a strategy for combatting President Donald Trump’s agenda and making a faith-based argument for Democratic leadership.
Beshear leans heavily on his experiences dealing with and defeating former Gov. Matt Bevin in 2019. He repeatedly refers to Bevin as “Trump Lite” and implies the same strategies he used to defeat the unpopular governor — and win reelection four years later in a pro-Trump state — could work on a national stage, too.
While much of the narrative focuses on well documented parts of Beshear’s governorship and his previously articulated views on American politics, it includes new revelations and anecdotes from his time as Kentucky’s governor. Here are five takeaways from these new details:
‘I’ll knock your f***ing head off!’ Beshear recounts Bevin threat
Several of the new revelations in Beshear’s autobiography involve his rough interactions with Bevin shortly after the former Republican governor took office in early 2016. The two publicly traded barbs throughout their first terms and in the 2019 battle for governor, but Beshear shared anecdotes that had not previously been publicized.
Beshear had just taken office as the attorney general in January of 2016 and recounted one threatening encounter with Bevin.
As he walked to his office, Beshear wrote that he said hello to Bevin, who called him over to talk. In the wake of a west Louisville child being killed by a stray bullet in his own home a week after he took office, Bevin allegedly blamed Beshear.
“His face started getting red, and his eyes grew large,” Beshear wrote, adding that Bevin said “I’m serious. Kids are getting shot, and you need to do your job!”
After defending himself, Beshear wrote that Bevin “leaned toward him and snarled.”
“Spare me your talking points,” Bevin said, according to Beshear. “If you want to get political, I’ll knock your f***ing head off!”
Beshear wrote that Bevin then denied threatening him and asked “Is this how you people act?”
“You people?” Beshear recounted replying. “What people are you talking about?”
“You Democrats,” Bevin replied, with Beshear writing that he "spit out the words like he’d just bit into something vile.”
Beshear later recounts submitting an open records request for the security camera video of the aforementioned encounter, writing that he was told the footage “no longer existed” and that Bevin’s people “had destroyed the tape.”
Also from early in his attorney general term, Beshear wrote that he was having a fairly normal and productive meeting with Bevin, when suddenly his “eyes shifted like a switch had been flipped.”
“I could visibly see a significant change of mood, perhaps even of personality,” Beshear wrote. “He turned to me and fired off, ‘You have spies in the state government right now who are conspiring against me!’”
Bevin’s name is only mentioned on three pages early in his book, even though he is referred to many times throughout the book — perhaps more than any other character besides Trump and Jesus.
“In fact, to avoid any confusion, from here on out, let’s call Matt Bevin ‘Trump Lite,’ because doing so makes things clear,” Beshear wrote. “In every way, Trump Lite presented to Kentucky the same threat Trump does to America, beginning with the way in which he viewed everything through the lens of politics.”
Beshear went on to refer to “Trump Lite” more than 100 times, and includes in the book’s index this entry: “Trump Lite. See Bevin, Matt.”
Bevin did not immediately return a voicemail seeking his reaction to the claims in Beshear’s book.
Casting doubt on the severity of the pension crisis?
Beshear recounts the fight against Bevin’s bill to dramatically reform the public pensions of teachers, which was ultimately struck down by a unanimous vote of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
He refers to the teacher protests that filled the Capitol in the wake of the General Assembly’s GOP supermajority turning an 11-page sewer bill into a 291-page bill with sweeping changes to their pensions.
But he also implies Bevin’s concern with the state of Kentucky’s public pension system was overstated — even though it included one of the most dangerously underfunded public plans in the country.
When referring to Bevin’s plan to redirect appropriated funds to the state’s pension fund, Beshear wrote that “according to Trump Lite,” it “was on the brink of financial collapse.”
In another section, Beshear said he supported a bill to legalize sports betting and bring in up to $1 billion of revenue in its first year, writing that “I saw it as the best way to fund the pension system Trump Lite claimed was in distress.”
In 2014, credit rating agencies called one of Kentucky’s plans for state workers as the worst-funded in the country, with an unfunded liability ratio of just 12% — meaning it had only 12% of the assets needed to cover future costs.
Following a dramatic increase in state appropriations towards pension plans by the General Assembly — in both the Bevin administration and the Beshear administration that followed — that plan’s funding ratio has improved to 29% as of last year. That marks a large improvement that aided Kentucky’s credit rating, but still remains low nationally.
Spokespersons for Beshear did not immediately respond to emails asking if public pensions were in distress or on the brink of financial collapse during the Bevin administration.
Beshear’s take on the climate crisis
Beshear has frequently been quizzed about his thoughts on climate change and the government’s role in slowing its course — Louisville Public Media has asked many of those questions. His response in the past has generally acknowledged that climate change is real, while saying the state must remain open to an “all-of-the-above energy policy.”
In his book, Beshear took a somewhat more intense approach. While in Hazard surveying damage from the 2022 flood that devastated much of eastern Kentucky, Beshear said a reporter asking if climate change is to blame for the crisis made him irate.
“I basically yelled him out of the room,” Beshear wrote. “Now, I believe global warming is both real and a serious threat, but when family homes have just washed away and communities have lost far too many loved ones, the politics of global warming should wait.”
Beshear’s spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about when this occurred and who asked the question.
The governor also criticized Hillary Clinton for her comment saying she would put coal miners out of work, writing that he understands the “contribution that fossil fuels make to global warming,” but politicians shouldn’t use “coal as a dirty word.”
“What they forget is that we wouldn’t be the most advanced country on the planet without its historic use,” Beshear wrote. “The factories that built the Model T for our people and later tanks for our troops were all powered by coal.”
Beshear followed this defense of coal by writing that states need to balance environmental permitting and worker safety with a desire to get new industries up and running.
“We should be for the right level of regulation and the right level of permitting and the right level of safety inspection,” Beshear wrote. “None of this has to be conflictual because we have very similar goals.”
Lonnie Ali and the Henderson paper mill
Beshear dedicated a full chapter to one of his larger economic development projects in Henderson — a recycled paper mill. He writes that the project first came to him via Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali’s widow and director of the Ali Center, who introduced him to the Australian executives for Pratt Industries.
Interestingly, it is not the largest proposed economic development project of Beshear’s time in office by some distance. The $700 million paper mill, while a major project, did not come close to the multi-billion-dollar electric vehicle battery plant that Beshear initially hailed as the “largest economic investment and jobs announcement in Kentucky’s history.”
That project was relegated to a relatively small section in Beshear’s book, as the project has been significantly downsized as the BlueOval and Ford partnership dissolved and the estimated workforce for the plant significantly reduced, at least in the near term. He did note that the project’s downfall followed Congress’s withdrawal from EV commitments and the end of consumer tax credits.
“That means 1,600 Kentuckians are going to be at least temporarily laid off,” Beshear wrote. “All Donald Trump had to do was play golf. Instead, he made the American dream much harder to reach for 1,600 families.”
‘I’m not trying to bring about some sort of Christian nation.’
As the title suggests — a direct reference to the story of the Good Samaritan — Beshear’s book referrs often to his Christian values and quotes heavily from the Bible. He consistently makes the argument that his political rivals, primarily Bevin and Trump, did not or are not governing with Christian values.
“Sadly, Donald Trump may occasionally talk about Jesus (or ‘Two Corinthians’), but he has missed the point,” Beshear wrote. “Jesus lifted up the very people this Republican administration pushes down.”
He frequently refers to other Kentuckians, especially those who agree with him, in Biblical terms, comparing them to the Good Samaritan or as “Christlike figures.” That includes Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather and later campaigned for Beshear.
“Hadley speaking out on behalf of others was the most Christlike action I have ever seen,” Beshear wrote.
He references his faith as his guiding force in essentially every chapter of the book; each begins with a Biblical quote. However, Beshear stops short of preaching that America was founded as a Christian nation, a common claim made by the Christian right.
“I’m not trying to bring about some sort of Christian nation,” Beshear wrote. “Instead, I’m trying to live like Jesus in this nation, which is made up of people from every corner of the world.”
