The Rise of a Red State Democrat
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic governor, maintained a Biden-like moderate image and rode it to victory in this year’s election. His state knows him best as the “infrastructure governor”—but his support for abortion rights might be the biggest takeaway for other Democrats staring down challenging 2024 races.
Guest: John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right. We just got some big news out of Kentucky. Steve Kornaki is still at the |
| 0:10.3 | big board. Steve, what's the latest? |
| 0:12.0 | Yeah, our decision desk has now made it official and they are comfortable declaring |
| 0:16.0 | last week as I was watching election returns there was this one result that seemed to |
| 0:20.5 | captivate certain observers the governor's race in Kentucky. |
| 0:25.0 | This was a re-election for Democrat Andy Bashir, which is a big deal in a state that went for |
| 0:30.4 | Donald Trump by 26 points. |
| 0:32.4 | It is a wake-up call I think for the Republican... that went for Donald Trump by 26 points. |
| 0:33.0 | It is a wake-up call, I think, for the Republican Party, |
| 0:35.6 | but it needs to be a wake-up call for the Democratic Party. |
| 0:38.4 | Everybody needs to quit getting all panicky about next year. |
| 0:42.1 | The fundamentals. The race was over way before bedtime too. |
| 0:45.9 | It was called by 930. The governor took the stage to the sound of supporters chanting his name. |
| 0:55.0 | Thank you, Kentucky! |
| 0:58.0 | Listening, it struck me that everyone in the state seems to be on a first name |
| 1:04.7 | basis with this guy. It's not bad if you can be a one name political figure or |
| 1:10.5 | one name celebrity. It worked for share. Yeah. John Nichols wrote about |
| 1:15.6 | Andy Bashir over at the nation. He says the first thing to know about him is that he's a |
| 1:19.9 | politician's politician. He loves connecting with constituents. Seems to be all over |
| 1:25.1 | the state, all the time. Most times in a campaign somebody will do a bus trip |
| 1:30.7 | across a state or something like that one time. |
| 1:33.0 | Andy Bashir, during just this recent campaign, did it repeatedly. |
... |
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