Kentucky Governor Andy Bashir critiques the president and thinks about trying to succeed him.

To lead with the right example, which I think is humanity, as opposed to the president's cruelty.

A Democratic governor talks of winning in a red state on a special episode of Up First from NPR News.

Andy Bashir is responding to a federal government shutdown and the president's threat to

fire federal workers.

People aren't a negotiating tool.

They are not a problem.

And that's how he's treating these families.

Bashir is also one of several Democratic governors who are thinking of a run for higher office.

His calling card is winning in the kind of states where Democrats usually lose.

How does a Democrat appeal to rural and conservative voters, and how has his party lost so much ground?

Stay with us for a talk with Andy Beshear.

Governor, thanks for hosting us. It's great to be in Kentucky.

Thanks for coming to Frankfurt. We're proud to have you.

Well, that's great. And we are here on the morning that a federal government shutdown has begun.

How is this state affected, if at all?

Well, the state's going to be affected in a number of ways, but the first way it's affected is our families that work for the federal government aren't going to work today

for the most part. There's a federal building, just a couple doors down from where we are.

Unless they're in certain areas. And so that's going to be a hardship for those families.

While typically a deal is eventually reached and they receive that back pay, they're still going to

struggle in the days and possibly the weeks that it takes for Congress to come together and

agree on a plan. But what's happening right now is the Democrats are trying to prevent

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