Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear made a great effort to position itself to be Kamala Harris’ running mate in a truncated campaign for the second position in the country. But on Tuesday morning, the presumptive Democratic nominee selected Tim Walzthe governor of Minnesota, CNN reported at 8:49 a.m.
No official word has come from Harris’ camp yet.
The result was less a reflection on Kentucky’s governor and more a cold calculation about the precise competitive terrain that will determine the 2024 elections, most likely by just tens of thousands of votes in a handful of swing states.
Although Beshear was considered a brilliant and polished political talent by Harris’ team and easily fit the moderate white male profile they were looking for, he was always going to come from Kentucky, which hasn’t voted on a Democratic presidential ticket in 28 years. years.
Almost all of the candidates he faced came from swing states: Arizona, North Carolina, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. It was Harris’s first major decision in a modern national political era, where a purple geography marked by a division between Republicans and Democrats reigns.
And Kentucky is very red, clearly Donald Trump country.
Walz’s selection means that, barring any last-minute changes, the battle for the White House is set: The Harris-Beshear Democratic ticket will face former Republican President Donald Trump and JD Vance, the Ohio senator Trump chose to be his vice president.
It’s already shaping up to be one of the most unpleasant, expensive and important presidential races in American history.
Numerous crucial issues are at stake, including the economy, the future of NATO, relations with European allies, the right to abortion, climate change, future Supreme Court justices, race relations and the incendiary divisions between Republicans and Democrats , conservatives and progressives who defined America’s political landscape. the last decade.
Harris and Walz will make their first public appearance together Tuesday night during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
But even when his audition failed, the exercise solidified Beshear’s prospects for a political career beyond the Kentucky governorship, raised his profile among national Democrats and donors, and positioned the 46-year-old to potentially become part of a future administration. Harris if she beats Trump in November.
Long before the president Joe Biden nullified the 2024 election with his July 21 decision to withdraw from the race, Beshear’s name was being considered almost like a next-generation Democrat who could appear on a national ticket.
Few expected the opportunity to arrive so quickly, appearing on a summer Sunday afternoon at the end of July.
Although Beshear said he received one of the first phone calls from Harris after Biden made his announcement, neither he nor his team chose to officially confirm her verification as vice president.
Instead, Beshear took his public case to television, a medium in which he deepened his bond with Kentucky families during the coronavirus pandemic, distributing developments through daily broadcasts.
He conspicuously withheld his formal endorsement of Harris until Monday morning, after Biden gave his blessing to his No. 2, reserving it for MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” which draws an audience of Democratic elites in the downtowns. of power in the country and grassroots progressives everywhere in between.
When he was asked about the possibility of joining Harris’ ticket, Beshear sharpened his daggers at Vance, proving himself a reliable strike agent against Trump’s vice presidential pick.
“I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they are like. Because let me tell you that JD Vance is not from here,” Beshear said.
It was the beginning of Beshear’s seemingly gleeful attempt to bare his bare knuckles — and how he might put them on Vance, Trump’s running mate who quickly sought to claim working-class Kentucky roots.
A day later, Beshear appeared on CNN in prime time to deliver more jabs at the Republican ticket that were clearly premeditated.
“He’s fake,” Beshear said of Vance. “The problem with JD Vance is he lacks conviction, but I think his running mate has 34.”
The message was anything but subtle: This red-state governor knows exactly how to take down Trump’s running mate.
During a press conference in Kentucky, Beshear issued an apology to Diet Mountain Dew as a way of reminding people of Vance’s affinity for the soda, as stated during a recent rally.
Her sharp outbursts lit up social media, generated excitement among Democrats and forced the newly entrenched Harris hierarchy to take a closer look at Beshear. This would earn him an interview with Harris’ vetting team as the process drew to a close.
But Beshear’s rivals were out there, too, throwing spears and falling with comparable panache.
Tim Walz, the second-term governor of Minnesota, achieved virality simply by labeling Republicans “weirdos.” And Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was widely praised for his rhetorical talent while campaigning in his home state alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
While polls on the presidential race churned and Harris faced a small bump during launch week, the reality of the electoral map remained stark. The states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where Democrats were expected to win, were tied, with Arizona and Georgia tantalizingly within reach.
Beshear continued taking his case on the road, making a previously scheduled stop in Iowa on July 27 before landing in a deep red county in Georgia the next morning. The president of the Georgia Young Democrats handed over Beshear a makeshift “Harris-Beshear” button.
In the back of a pickup truck in Forsyth County, Beshear coyly shared his credentials that helped him defeat two Trump-endorsed Republican candidates in 2019 and 2023.
That corner of metro Georgia is one of the most conservative areas in the South, but Beshear energetically shared his support for Harris.
“She’s tough and smart, and that will make her a good president,” the governor told a crowd of about 500 people.
So he headed to Oklahoma City on Aug. 1 to raise thousands of dollars for Democrats in another deep red state like Kentucky.
He was in Chicago on Monday for another fundraiser, part of a campaign that once again raised Beshear’s national profile. His record at Kentucky and his calm demeanor on the trail won him fans.
“Two names really resonate with our union,” Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, told CNN on July 31. “The main name was Andy Beshear.”
But even those who had reason to like Beshear found an electoral reason to bypass him.
“Andy Beshear, I knew his father. His father was governor and I like Andy,” said Roy Barnes, former Democratic governor of Georgia, on the “Politically Georgia” podcast.
But Barnes added that Harris’ choice should be Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
“Pennsylvania has more electoral votes (19) than North Carolina (16) and we’re certainly not bringing Kentucky along,” Barnes said, referring to Democrats’ political outlook.
At the same time, Beshear’s shares were falling among the players that fuel the political prediction markets, like PredictIt, where you can invest money in the big political campaign issues.
Beshear’s stock has fallen by half in the week since Harris announced her campaign, leaving him as a dark horse candidate in recent days and far behind Shapiro.
Even so, he still proved to be a useful attack dog in places that are usually thorny for Democrats, like Forsyth County.
The Harris campaign will almost certainly continue to rely on Beshear to carry its flag as a surrogate in red-state environments that are instinctively hostile to the current administration and its vice-presidential accomplice.
It would make sense to see Beshear return to Georgia, as well as reach out to North Carolina and Virginia before voting ends to help bring regionally familiar working-class voters back into the Democratic column.
A Reuters poll earlier this month found that 70% of Democrats nationwide had never heard of Beshear.
That number will certainly be lower now.
John Yarmuth: Gov. Beshear tops list of potential vice presidents as Biden weighs 2024 bid
