Gov. Andy Beshear talks to reporters after a Wednesday night rally in Lexington. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
LEXINGTON — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is joining other Democrats in calling for the U.S. president to be elected by popular vote, saying the country needs to “move to a place where seven states don’t decide the presidency.”
“We’ll have better government. We’ll have better politics. We’ll have better elections when we get to that point,” Beshear said Wednesday at a gathering of Democrats in Lexington.
When asked to further clarify in a Thursday press conference, Beshear said that candidates would be encouraged to campaign for votes in all states rather than just in swing states if the popular vote decided the president. He added that such a system would get “us closer to a place where we can govern in a way that lifts all Americans up, that we’re not pushed towards any extreme, that we don’t write off crazy things that some candidates may or may not say, but that we would truly get an election for all Ameriicans.”