DES MOINES, Iowa — Hours before headlining a campaign event on behalf of Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, Kentucky’s Governor was in Des Moines, Iowa, pushing to energize voters.
In what felt like his most clear audition yet to be her VP choice, Andy Beshear, a Democrat, took jabs at former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio on Saturday night.
After watching Beshear’s keynote address at an annual Democratic fundraiser, some Iowa Democrats told WHAS 11 they saw a man on stage who could make a run for the White House.
“I like him, I think he would make a good VP pick to be very honest,” said Iowa State Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad.
Abdul-Samad is the longest serving Black state representative in Iowa’s history, holding his seat for the last 18 years.
“He gave substance in our private conversation today, which touched my heart,” he said. “You take that, and you take it to the voters because that’s what they want. They’re tired of all the craziness. They want something with substance.”
Iowans have seen some big-time politicians try to woo them before – future presidents and vice presidents. They know when they see a star, and they’re not convinced easily.
When Beshear, a still relatively unknown name on the national scale, took the stage in front of a sold-out crowd in Des Moines, he was tasked to be on his A-game to resonate with them.
The very first line of the 46-year-old Kentuckian’s 24-minute speech: “If you don’t know me, I’m the guy who beat Mitch McConnell’s handpicked candidate last November in Kentucky.”
Beshear was in full campaign form in Iowa, drawing similar cadence to the days leading up to the 2023 gubernatorial election – in which he defeated the Trump-endorsed Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron to win a second term in the deeply red state.
On Saturday, Beshear touted that very win that put him on the national radar.
How would he connect with folks outside the Bluegrass state?
“I told my friends – I actually have a group chat with some friends of mine – and we’ve been talking about it, and earlier I penciled him in as the person I’d like to see, but I didn’t think was going to happen,” said Maggie Hibbs, a financial services attorney who was one of 450 Iowa Democrats in attendance. “I told them tonight; he’s moved up on my power list. He’s at the top of my power rankings.”
At the podium, the Governor doubled down on his decision to veto several Republican-led bills in Kentucky’s legislature, including a law that banned gender affirming care for minors.
It’s one of the moments that brought Iowa Democrats to their feet.
“As governor, I have vetoed every single piece of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that our legislature has tried to pass,” Beshear said.
Because the state GOP holds a supermajority in both chambers, lawmakers have easily overridden these vetoes - allowing these bills to go into law.
“He was giving us a message that we’ve tried giving to our children, but he was putting it with more power behind it to stimulate young people – the generation that was here,” said life-long Iowan Mary Campos Domingues, who has been attending these fundraising dinners since she was 18.
Mary Campos Domingues, 94, got some one-on-one time with Beshear after his address. She’s met big-name politicians like President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
“He was being very honest and sincere and being very forward with what he was thinking,” Campos Domingues told WHAS11. “He was not pretentious. He was not pretending to be somebody that he wasn’t. Just a normal human being.”
Iowans saw a man aggressively campaigning on behalf of VP Harris, who’s vetting potential candidates to be her running mate, including Beshear.
“To me, he has the qualifications to be a vice president. And if Kamala was elected and something happened to her and he had to step up, I’d feel comfortable that he could step up and do the job,” Hibbs told WHAS11.
In his address, Beshear talked about his kids and the conversation he had with the Vice President – soon after President Biden bowed out of the race on July 21.
“I was sitting at my son’s baseball game. It was just me and a couple hundred parents when that news broke that day. And the first thing she asked – and listen she was just thrust into likely being our candidate for president – and the first thing she asked was how my kids were doing,” Beshear said on stage.
After his speech, WHAS11 asked the Governor how he describes his relationship with Harris.
“Well, it’s special. She’s taken the time since the moment that she met them to talk to them, to ask about them when she calls me to see if they can get on the phone. The fastest way to a person’s heart is caring about their kids,” Beshear told us.
When asked if he sees his remarks in Iowa and Atlanta as potential tryouts to be selected as Harris’ running mate, Beshear reiterated to WHAS11, “I’m honored to be considered. And regardless of what happens, I’ll work every day to make sure we elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.”
As we hear Beshear’s messaging target more national themes, WHAS 11 is bringing on political experts on both sides of the aisle to analyze where the path goes from here.
This will be included in our on-air report at 6 p.m. on Monday, July 29.
►Contact senior reporter Isaiah Kim-Martinez at IKimMartin@whas11.com or on Facebook or X
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