{"id":159254,"date":"2026-02-01T16:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/159254\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:31:11","slug":"comparing-andy-beshear-gavin-newsom-as-they-eye-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/159254\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparing Andy Beshear, Gavin Newsom as they eye White House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FRANKFORT, Ky.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Gavin Newsom was in his element, moving and shaking amid the rich and powerful <\/a>in Davos.<\/p>\n

He scolded European leaders<\/a> for supposedly cowering before President Trump.<\/p>\n

He drew disparaging notice during a presidential rant and captured headlines after being blocked from delivering a high-profile speech, allegedly at the behest of the White House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All the while, another governor and Democratic presidential prospect was mixing and mingling in the rarefied Swiss air \u2014 though you probably wouldn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n

Flying far below the heat-seeking radar, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear leaned into the role of economic ambassador, focusing on job creation and other nutsy, boltsy stuff that doesn\u2019t grab much notice in today\u2019s performative political environment.<\/p>\n

Like Newsom<\/a>, Beshear is running-but-not-exactly-running for president. He didn\u2019t set out to offer a stark contrast to California\u2019s governor, the putative 2028 Democratic front-runner<\/a>. But he\u2019s doing so just the same.<\/p>\n

Want someone who\u2019ll match Trump insult for insult<\/a>, over-the-top meme for over-the-top meme<\/a> and howl whenever the president commits some new outrage<\/a>? Look to Sacramento, not Frankfort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think by the time we reach 2028, our Democratic voters are gonna be worn out,\u201d Beshear said during a conversation in his state\u2019s snowy capital. \u201cThey\u2019re gonna be worn out by Trump, and they\u2019re gonna be worn out by Democrats who respond to Trump like Trump. And they\u2019re gonna want some stability in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every candidate enters a contest with a backstory and a record, which is condensed to a summary that serves as calling card, strategic foundation and a rationale for their run.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Andy Beshear\u2019s: He\u2019s the popular two-term governor of a red state that three times voted overwhelmingly for Trump.<\/p>\n

He is fluent in the language of faith, well-liked by the kind of rural voters who have abandoned Democrats in droves and, at age 48, offers a fresh face and relative youth in a party that many voters have come to see as old and ossified.<\/p>\n

The fact he\u2019s from the South, where Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton emerged<\/a> the last time Democrats experienced this kind of existential freak-out<\/a>, also doesn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

Beshear\u2019s not-yet-candidacy, still in the fledgling phase, offers a mix of aspiration and admonition.<\/p>\n

Democrats, he said, need to talk more like regular people. Addiction, not substance use disorder. Hunger, not food assistance.<\/p>\n

And, he suggested, they need to focus more on things regular people care about: jobs, healthcare, public safety, public education. Things that aren\u2019t theoretical or abstract but materially affect their daily lives, like the costs of electricity, car insurance and groceries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most important thing we should have learned from 2024 <\/a>is [Democratic voters are] gonna be looking for somebody that can help them pay that next bill,\u201d Beshear said.<\/p>\n

He was seated in the Old Governor\u2019s Mansion, now a historic site and Beshear\u2019s temporary office while the nearby Capitol undergoes a years-long renovation.<\/p>\n

The red-brick residence, built in the Federal style and completed in 1798, was Beshear\u2019s home from age 6 to 10 when his father, Steve, lived there while serving as lieutenant governor. (Steve Beshear went on to serve two terms as the state\u2019s chief executive, building a brand and a brand name<\/a> that helped Andy win his first public office, attorney general, in 2015.)<\/p>\n

It was 9 degrees outside. Icicles hung from the eaves and snowplows navigated Frankfort\u2019s narrow, winding streets after an unusually cold winter blast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Inside, Beshear was seated before an unlit fireplace, legs crossed, shirt collar unbuttoned, looking like the pleasantly unassuming Dad in a store-bought picture frame.<\/p>\n

He bragged a bit, touting Kentucky\u2019s economic success under his watch. He spoke of his religiosity \u2014 his grandfather and great-grandfather were Baptist preachers \u2014 and talked at length about the optimism, a political rarity these days, that undergirds his vision for the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the American people feel like the pendulum swung too far in the Biden administration. Now they feel it\u2019s swung way too far during the Trump administration,\u201d Beshear said. \u201cWhat they want is for it to stop swinging.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on. \u201cMost people when they wake up aren\u2019t thinking about politics. They\u2019re thinking about their job, their next doctor\u2019s appointment, the roads and bridges they drive, the school they drop their kids off at, and whether they feel safe in their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think they desperately want someone that can move the country, not right or left ideologically, but actually forward in those areas. And that\u2019s how I think we heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beshear doesn\u2019t shy from his Democratic pedigree, or stray from much of the party\u2019s orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

Seeking reelection in 2023<\/a>, he seized on the abortion issue and the Supreme Court\u2019s overturning of Roe vs. Wade<\/a> to batter and best his Republican opponent.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s walked the picket line with striking auto workers<\/a>, signed an executive order making Juneteenth a state holiday and routinely vetoed anti-gay legislation<\/a>, becoming the first Kentucky governor to attend an LGBTQ+ celebration in the Capitol Rotunda.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscrimination against our LGBTQ+ community is unacceptable,\u201d he told an audience. \u201cIt holds us back and, in my Kentucky accent, it ain\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all of that, Beshear doesn\u2019t shrink from taking on Trump, which, essentially, has become a job requirement for any Democratic officeholder wishing to remain a Democratic officeholder.<\/p>\n

After the president\u2019s rambling Davos address<\/a>, Beshear called Trump\u2019s remarks \u201cdangerous, disrespectful and unhinged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom insulting our allies to telling struggling Americans that he\u2019s fixed inflation and the economy is amazing, the President is hurting both our families\u2019 financial security and our national security,\u201d Beshear posted on social media. \u201cOh, and Greenland is so important he\u2019s calling it Iceland.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Beshear hasn\u2019t turned Trump-bashing into a 24\/7 vocation, or a weight-lifting contest where the winner is the critic wielding the heaviest bludgeon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand up to him in the way that I think a Democratic governor of Kentucky should. When he\u2019s doing things that hurt my state, I speak out,\u201d Beshear said. \u201cI filed 20 lawsuits, I think, and we\u2019ve won almost all of them, bringing dollars they were trying to stop from flowing into Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d he added, \u201cwhen he does something positive for Kentucky, I also say that too, because that\u2019s what our people expect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the towel-snapping Newsom and his dedicated staff of Trump trollers<\/a>, Beshear defended California\u2019s governor \u2014 or, at least, passed on the chance to get in a dig.<\/p>\n

\u201cGavin\u2019s in a very different situation than I\u2019m in. I mean, he has the president attacking him and his state just about every day,\u201d Beshear said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t want to be critical of an approach from somebody that\u2019s in a very different spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the approach also has to be unique to you. For me, I bring people together. We\u2019ve been able to do that in this state. That\u2019s my approach. And in the end, I\u2019ve gotta stay true to who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when \u2014 or make that if \u2014 both Newsom and Beshear launch a formal bid for president, they\u2019ll present Democratic voters a clear choice.<\/p>\n

Not just between two differing personalities. Also two considerably different approaches to politics and winning back the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRANKFORT, Ky.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Gavin Newsom was in his element, moving and shaking amid the rich and powerful in Davos. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[77544,21236,77543,2000,76423,1751,457,943,7393,544,48,52,51,47,50,49,3290,3020,225,4610,2805],"class_list":["post-159254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-andy-beshear","tag-approach","tag-beshear","tag-contest","tag-democratic-voter","tag-democrats","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-governor","tag-job-creation","tag-kentucky","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-newsom","tag-president-trump","tag-state","tag-thing","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}