After winning re-election in Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear reflected on his campaign Wednesday and outlined some of his goals for the next four years.
Beshear campaigned on a platform of bipartisanship. He said those themes resonated with voters in the race against GOP nominee Daniel Cameron.
“We saw one of the most partisan campaigns at the top of the ticket. It was rejected,” he said. “[The] people of Kentucky wanted a governor that's going to serve everybody.”
The governor also pointed to some of his signature proposals from his first gubernatorial campaign – such as medicinal marijuana and legalized sports betting – that were signed into law earlier this year thanks to bipartisan support from the executive and legislative branches.
In his second term, Beshear hopes to secure 11% raises for teachers and other school personnel, implement universal pre-kindergarten programs and bring more economic development projects to the Commonwealth.
In 2022, Beshear vetoed a bill that implemented abortion restrictions in Kentucky after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Later that year, Kentuckians voted down an amendmentthat would have given lawmakers more power over abortion regulations. The change would also have prevented courts from finding a right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
Beshear called on the state’s legislature Wednesday to add exceptions for rape and incest cases to Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban, which he called the “most extreme law” on abortion in the country.
"I believe that the people of Kentucky have been very clear that they oppose what is the most restrictive law in the country and, in the very least, they want to see exceptions,” he said. “Our role as a government, their role as a legislative body, is to do the will of the people.”
Beshear is the lone Democrat who won statewide office in Tuesday’s election.
He is heading into a biennial legislative budget session, where he will need to work with a conservative supermajority in the state House and Senate.
