LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's name was thrown around by many people last week as a potential Joe Biden replacement in the presidential election, and on Monday Beshear responded.
Reports surfaced almost immediately after last week's debate between Biden and Donald Trump that high-ranking Democrats, advisers and fundraisers were wondering if Biden should step aside following his subpar performance. Beshear, a Democrat, is one of the most popular governors in the United States, making him one of the biggest names on the party's bench.
Beshear said as long as Biden remains the candidate, he will support the President. He went into great detail Monday about why he thinks his name is being mentioned.
"It's flattering when people mention your name in something like that, but I think it's a reflection of all the good things going on in Kentucky," Beshear said. "Compared to the rest of the country, the temperature has been turned down here. Democrats and Republicans are all excited about the jobs we're creating, the investment we're seeing, record-low unemployment, record-low recidivism, decreases in our overdose deaths. Those are all really good things.
"So I think the rest of the country turns to us and says, 'How can a Democratic governor and a Republican general assembly create really good results?' I think the answer to that is everything is not partisan. People are tired of the clashes day in and day out. When they look at what we have done in Kentucky, they see a better future that's beyond the back and forth we see on the federal level."
A Biden campaign official said Friday he has no plans to drop out of the race.
Beshear said he was with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer prior to last Thursday’s debate in Atlanta but left before the debate started. He acknowledged Biden’s performance was “rough.”
"Only the President can determine his future as a candidate," Beshear said. "As long as President Biden is our candidate, I'm positive our delegates will support him."
Beshear said he is a delegate at this year's Democratic National Convention, which takes place Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
Every state has already held its presidential primary. Democratic rules mandate that the delegates Biden won remain bound to support him at the party's upcoming national convention unless he tells them he’s leaving the race.
The conventions and their rules are controlled by the political parties. The Democratic National Committee could convene before the convention opens on Aug. 19 and change how things will work, but that isn't likely as long as Biden wants to continue seeking reelection.
The current rules read: “Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”
If Biden opts to abandon his reelection campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris would likely join other top Democratic candidates looking to replace him. But that would probably create a scenario where she and others end up lobbying individual state delegations at the convention for their support.
That hasn't happened for Democrats since 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson jockeyed for votes during that year’s Democratic convention in Los Angeles.
If Biden were to abruptly leave the race, conservative groups have suggested they will file lawsuits around the country, potentially questioning the legality of the Democratic candidate's name on the ballot.
But Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who wrote a book about the presidential nominating process and is also a member of the Democratic National Committee’s rulemaking arm, said that courts have consistently stayed out of political primaries as long as parties running them weren’t doing anything that would contradict other constitutional rights, such as voter suppression based on race.
“This is very clear constitutionally that this is in the party’s purview,” Kamarck said in an interview before the debate. “The business of nominating someone to represent a political party is the business of the political party.”