‘Don’t give up any state’: Beshear embarks on battleground delegation breakfast tour at DNC
The mood inside the Palmer House hotel fourth floor ballroom was decidedly groggy.
After a late opening night of the Democratic National Convention, delegates from Florida picked over eggs and fruit early Tuesday morning. Clanking silverware on plates overwhelmed quiet conversations.
In came Andy Beshear, who didn’t wait for formalities.
He galloped onto the dais and introduced himself as the proud Democratic governor of Kentucky — with an intentional emphasis on the word “Democratic.”
It was only minutes after 7:30 a.m. in Chicago, and Beshear served as a needed double shot of morning espresso.
Beshear repeated this routine before the Pennsylvania and Georgia delegations, completing a kind of breakfast battleground state tour that is expected and required of an ambitious politician. His morning rounds followed a prime time address about reproductive rights Monday.
Leaning heavily into his success as an unapologetic Democrat in a reliably red state, Beshear emphasized the need to compete everywhere and strongly suggested he was just the guy who could do it.
“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t give up any state, that we don’t give up any county, that we fight in every single place across this country,” Beshear told Florida Democrats. “Because I, like you, want to make sure we eventually have a future where seven states don’t decide the presidency, where we all matter in these election years.”
Florida, which used to be the perennial battleground state, has fallen into the Republican column over the last decade.
A half hour later before Pennsylvania Democrats, Beshear adjusted his message slightly, nodding to its pivotal 19 electoral votes.
“Pennsylvania, I’m excited: You’re going to deliver the presidency to Kamala Harris,” Beshear told this audience.
But he didn’t abandon his directive that Democrats needed to push into places that haven’t rewarded them with victories.
“For us as Democrats, we’ve got to go into every county, every area,” Beshear said. “I know Pennsylvania loves being this important … we all long for every state to matter, we all want every single vote in every single presidential election and every other election to matter and that means we fight in every part of this country for our values and to elect the very best candidates.”
He announced his political action committee — In This Together — was endorsing Sen. Bob Casey.
Jason Salus, a party chairman in Montgomery County, Pa., was one of many who snagged selfies with Beshear during his delegation tours.
“I’m really impressed with what he’s done, being able to deliver a Democratic message in a state like Kentucky and do it convincingly,” said Salus. “I think it shows our Democratic message has national appeal. He’s a fresh face on that national scene.”
And he took note that along with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Beshear was a fellow former attorney general.
“That’s quite a turn of events for Democrats, to put up all these progressive law enforcement folks,” Salus said.
There’s some talk in Democratic circles that Beshear could be a candidate for attorney general in a Harris administration.
Sally Garcia, a DNC delegate from outside of Orlando, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was her favorite Monday speaker. She recognized Beshear for fighting for abortion rights, a core theme of his speech inside the United Center.
“I know he’s from a long family of Democratic politicians and it’s always amazing that Kentucky can produce a Democratic governor and supposedly it’s so Republican,” Garcia said.
Phil Giorno, another Florida delegate, knew of Beshear from his prevalent media presence in the aftermath of catastrophic weather events.
“Anything that happens with disasters, he’s right in the middle of it,” Giorno said.
