Gov. Andy Beshear’s big audition didn’t get him a new role, but the continuing tryouts of people who might succeed him or seek other statewide office began a new round.
Republican hopefuls were on stage before and during the political speaking at the annual Fancy Farm Picnic , which Beshear skipped — apparently because he was on call to Vice President Kamala Harris as she chose a running mate for the job she now holds.
Beshear didn’t make the Democratic ticket, but seemed in the hunt until Saturday, when sources told The New York Times that he could be a “compromise candidate” who would please both centrists like himself and progressives who objected to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s comments about pro-Palestinian protesters.
In his auditions — TV interviews and appearances at fundraisers and a Harris event in Georgia — Beshear kept attacking the Appalachian bona fides of Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who has family ties to Breathitt County.
Beshear wasn’t a one-trick pony, also talking about abortion — an issue that helped him get re-elected last year, in a sea change for Democrats following the Supreme Court’s repeal of federal abortion rights. And his unspoken message was that he was a moderate Democrat who could win over rural voters, who have largely abandoned the Democratic Party in the last 40 years.