In a political landscape defined by polarization, Jon is joined by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to discuss his success as a Democrat in a deeply conservative state. Together, they explore his approach to revitalizing Kentucky communities, examine his blueprint for winning in Trump country, and consider how he plans to lead his state through a second Trump administration while staying true to his values. Plus, hear from a surprise guest (woof!) --- This podcast is brought to you by: Ground News Go to https://groundnews.com/stewart to see how any news story is being framed by news outlets around the world and across the political spectrum. Use this link to get 40% off unlimited access with the Vantage Subscription. Zbiotics Go to https://zbiotics.com/TWS and use TWS at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics. --- Follow The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart on social media for more: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@weeklyshowpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weeklyshowpodcast TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@weeklyshowpodcast X: https://x.com/weeklyshowpod BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/theweeklyshowpodcast.com Host/Executive Producer – Jon Stewart Executive Producer – James Dixon Executive Producer – Chris McShane Executive Producer – Caity Gray Lead Producer – Lauren Walker Producer – Brittany Mehmedovic Video Editor & Engineer – Rob Vitolo Audio Editor & Engineer – Nicole Boyce Researcher & Associate Producer – Gillian Spear Music by Hansdle Hsu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Governor Andy Beshear and what is his political background?
So let's just, we're gonna get to our guests now, very excited. All right. We're delighted today we are joined by the governor of the great state of Kentucky. Governor Andy Beshear is joined. Governor, how are you, sir?
I'm great. Thrilled to be on. It's Derby Week in the Commonwealth, so an exciting time.
That is an exciting time in the Commonwealth. I love the idea of the Commonwealth. You know, I'm from New Jersey. Do you have any idea what we would give to label ourselves a Commonwealth? We never get that kind of respect.
You know, I'd like to think there's some good ones, you know, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. But I like to think Kentucky is the premier commonwealth.
Well, you're the governor of Kentucky. I think you pretty much have to say that. Only governors would know how many commonwealths there are. And I don't know what Jersey is classified as. Well, I was going to curse, but you're a governor, so I'm going to lay off of that. Governor, I want to ask you, you know, I don't, to be perfectly frank, know that much about Kentucky.
I played a couple of gigs in Lexington a few years back, had a great time. It was beautiful down there. But I am confused. So Trump-Vance, they win Kentucky by 30 points, 35 points, something along those lines. 30 points. You win Kentucky, Democrat, by five points. This is a 35-point swing. Both your senators are Republicans, but very different kinds of Republicans. Rand Paul, obviously-
a more iconoclastic, libertarian-style politician. Mitch McConnell couldn't be a more insider, horse-trading kind of a... Do you have a sense of what is it about Kentucky that allows for this giant ideological swings in statewide offices?
Well, I think what the people of Kentucky want is what the people of America want. They want a better life. And if you can convince them that you are working your hardest to create that better life, then they'll give you that opportunity. I won in 2019 by 0.1%. It was a close election against a sitting incumbent.
But I got to spend the next four years earning the faith and the trust of the people of Kentucky. We had two of the best years of economic development in our history. We brought in more private sector investment. We're building the two biggest battery plants on planet Earth. We created jobs that have some of the highest wages. in our history.
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Chapter 2: How did Governor Beshear win as a Democrat in a conservative state like Kentucky?
So let's dig into that because that's very interesting to me. So you build these plants. Why in your mind do you think you were credited with that? Which I don't mean that in a way of like, why did you get the credit for that? I mean it in the way of Biden administration, Kamala Harris. What was it about their investment in Kentucky or lack thereof?
or maybe the CHIPS Act or any of those other things that did not break through in any way with Kentuckians. Would Kentuckians be the correct? Kentuckians. Kentuckians, okay. I don't want to say like Kentucky Landers or whatever. I don't want to make the wrong.
But why is it that they responded to those positive things economically that you had done, definitely had gotten accomplished, but the Democratic administration in Washington got absolutely no grace on that?
And what you have to do is get dirt on your boots, meaning you got to get out there and show your work.
Well, they didn't even have boots, Governor. I'm pretty sure they were wearing hush puppies. They're not even wearing boots. We could have found them some boots.
All right. But you've got to show your work so that people can see, feel, and touch it. Like the signing in the Rose Garden is no longer real to people. Right. You know, one job hasn't been created at the time of the signing. And so what we found is when I was running for reelection in 2023, again, we'd had our two best years ever for our economy.
We were booming, biggest rainy day fund, biggest revenues, upgraded by all the bond rating agencies. But I only started up on my opponent on the economy by about three to five points. And he'd only worked in the private sector one year and actually worked for my law firm during that year.
Wait, your opponent worked at your law firm?
Yes, and actually did assignments.
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Chapter 3: What economic development projects have been successful in Kentucky recently?
Well, sometimes you need some legislation, but most of the time it's your effectiveness. When people are looking at locating a huge investment, you gotta have the site, you gotta have the power, you gotta have the water, you gotta have the infrastructure, but then you've gotta be able to convince them and give them comfort.
When you say them, you mean the- The company. The company, okay.
that you can get it done. On our major projects, every single cabinet that has a part reports to me every two weeks because my job is to get those built as fast as we can. And we sell speed to market to all these companies that if you come to Kentucky, We'll get you up and running faster than anywhere. So we brought everybody in as a team.
The environmental permitters sit down with companies ahead of time because these companies want to do right by the environment. And we work together to see how fast we can do it and where the best placement of this or that would be to meet the goals and to protect the environment. Our building inspectors are ready ahead of time and are there. It's just about making things work.
and understanding that when we make it easier for people to build that facility, then the jobs come to our people that much faster.
Okay, we're going to take a quick break. We shall be back. Guys, I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but getting through the news is, well, what's the word I'm looking for? It sucks. Terrible. It's really hard to figure out.
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Chapter 4: How are federal policies and tariffs impacting Kentucky's economy?
First, they're trying to cancel programs and cancel programs that are enshrined in law that have had Congress appropriate to it, and that we have a contract with them. And we've probably already expended the funds.
Which are the contracts that they're trying to cut? Is this a Doge situation, or was this something else?
It can be from Doge. It can also come down from the cabinets themselves. We saw that with a lot of the FEMA funding that they were trying to pause or to cancel. What they call the COVID funding, which is really about stopping a future pandemic. Right. Money for addiction treatment.
They're taking the money for future planning of disasters away from you.
And look at the cuts. The other part is not just freezing the money or bringing it back and we're going to court and we're winning on that. So I'm able to bring those dollars back in because I've got a contract. The government gave me their word. They even passed a law and I'm gonna stand up for my people.
But then the other thing they're doing is that they're firing so many federal employees that the employees that are there don't know how the programs work. Some of our cabinets are on their fifth contact in a hundred days. And so it might be that the group is even trying in the federal government, but they're brand new or they've never done this part.
And that comes down and hurts the American people. Think about that senior on social security in Eastern Kentucky, and they closed the office where they're at. So now on a fixed income, they've got to drive a couple of hours
Have they closed those regional offices? So the regional offices have started to close?
They've announced the closure and hazard and a couple other areas. And you can tell they just looked at a map and that they don't know how long it takes driving in Appalachia to get somewhere. But then they shut down the call center.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Kentucky face with Medicaid cuts and federal funding?
Chapter 6: How is Kentucky managing infrastructure projects like rural broadband?
Or it's that guy that has walked with you everywhere you've gone, has tried to protect you, and then you turn on him.
Right. Governor, we are discussing now how globalization...
as as much as it may have industrialized us there is a reality china's real they do manufacturing dumps uh targeted tariffs i think most people would agree uh have some utility but this the way that they are being uh sort of deployed on a whim and you know some people are getting exempted you know they're now talking about in the automobile industry they'll exempt steel and aluminum maybe
How do the projects that are happening in Kentucky, how are they affected by that? Are they pulling back from them? Are those able to go forward still?
Well, thankfully, we've got a really good pipeline of projects, and I think our economy will continue to be hot, but we're seeing a slowdown all over the country. In fact, this Derby week, Churchill Downs just canceled a $900 million project, or at least paused it. that would have added hundreds, if not thousands of construction jobs over the next year.
And their president talked about it being because of tariffs, the uncertainty of what things will cost. And as you know, John, it's not just the current tariff policy. It's that it changes every day. It's the uncertainty of it. Right. Or two or three times a day. And what it also suggests is they just don't know what they're doing.
How dare you, sir? Look, you're in a state that is a Trump ride or die state. I don't think there's any question about that. Does that news permeate or do they still, is there a cognitive dissonance? Is there a willingness to just say, well, we have to take our medicine because Kentucky was suffering and these tariffs will re-industrialize us? How do they digest all this information?
It permeates. It permeates with that small business owner that was expanding and is now looking at laying people off. Small businesses are the first to hire, the last to fire, because when they fire someone, they know them. They might go to church with them. They'll see them in the grocery store and know the impact on their lives. And so, sadly, people are feeling pain.
pain in paying their bills, pain in running their company, and so that certainly permeates. But I tell you what I hear about just as much, and it's the potential cuts to Medicaid. Really? What it would do, first of all, for healthcare generally, I mean, Medicaid covers the people we love the most, our parents and our kids. 50% of Kentucky's kids have some Medicaid coverage.
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Chapter 7: What role does globalization and foreign investment play in Kentucky's economy?
What about the flood? Kentucky obviously faced some really tough flooding recently. Have you seen a pullback from FEMA on helping to rebuild those areas, helping to make them more resilient to the flooding? Have you seen those effects as well?
This is an area where if you are going to speak out against the Trump administration when they do wrong, you've got to give them credit when they're doing right. FEMA, in response to especially our February flooding, is doing some of the best I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot, 14 federally declared disasters since I became governor.
Well, that's making news, man, because that's not, you know, everything we're hearing is they're trying to cut FEMA funding.
Which is ironic, because again, it's operating well. I think the Biden administration made a lot of these changes, but the current administrator came in, made commitments to us that he kept. Secretary Noem pushed through our request for individual assistance because the president signed off on it. A number of people in Kentucky are getting help.
So I think it's important, even when you're a Democratic governor, that we have the credibility to say good job when administration does well, But then we stand up and speak out and sometimes file suit when they're doing wrong.
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Chapter 8: How is Governor Beshear navigating political polarization to serve his state?
But we talk in terms of what's going on in our state, what's next, and how we can build that better life. And such great leaders that are out there. Everybody you mentioned, you look at Josh Stein and Roy Cooper before him. You look at Jared Polis. You look at Josh Green, Bob Ferguson, now coming in in Washington. Katie Hobbs in Arizona. Just Mara Healy in Massachusetts.
But what's a lesson that you would say to the Democrats in Washington that you all have learned on the state level? What's a piece of advice that you would give to them?
I think it's three things that we as Democratic leaders ought to be doing. Number one, focus. focus on those core areas, spend 80% of your time, not just in what you're talking about, but what you're doing, focused on jobs, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and public safety. Second, talk like a normal human being. I mean, we've got all these sanitized words. John, unfortunately, my state,
Has gotten hit with the opioid crisis more than just about any other, though we have two straight years of decreasing overdose deaths, thank God. Decreasing? Yes. Oh. Yes, and we hope it's a national trend, and I think I'm going to have some really good news next week that I'm really grateful for.
What do you attribute that to, or was it a surprise? What have you done to do that?
A lot of hard work, a lot of great people working in recovery, a lot of great work by law enforcement. Sadly, all of us having lost a lot of people we care about and trying to make sure that it doesn't happen. Changes in prescribing, which has been really important. But let me tell you, everyone I know that has fought addiction has called it addiction. They don't say it's substance use disorder.
Everybody who's, yeah, everybody's experiencing hunger. None of them call it food insecurity, but I'll give you another one. Right. Justice-involved population. Say that again?
Justice-involved population. Now, I don't know that I've heard that one. What is that one? Those are our inmates. Oh, justice-involved population. Do you get those? Does that come in a list from somewhere of here's the new glossary of terms?
Well, you get pressure by people who mean well to use them. But when we talk in terms, in those sanitized terms, it has no emotion and no feeling. And that's not how people talk to each other. And so it makes you seem distance, distracted, maybe even professorial.
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