GREENVILLE, S.C. — In an early preview of a potential 2028 presidential campaign, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear hit the road across South Carolina this week, testing a message focused on how to grow the Democratic coalition.
Beshear laid out a blueprint for the party to win back rural voters, union voters, independent voters and even Republicans — music to the ears of Democrats still feeling the sting of 2024’s losses and eager to hear about how the party can rise again.
“The actions of the Trump administration are providing a huge opportunity for Democrats to go out and regain the trust of the American people to be the party of common sense, common ground and getting things done,” Beshear, 47, told union members gathered at the South Carolina AFL-CIO convention in Greenville.
“When we deliver and make people’s lives better, they’re willing to vote in different ways. They’re willing to support different people, and that’s where we’ve got to be,” added Beshear.
Red-state credentials: At stop after stop, Beshear noted that he knows how to win voters in traditionally Republican areas. After all, he’s done it twice.
The first time was in 2019, when he won his first gubernatorial election by less than half a percentage point, beating GOP Gov. Matt Bevin. In 2023, Beshear improved his margins, beating then-state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, by 5 points.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump won Kentucky by almost 26 points in 2020 and by over 30 points in 2024.
South Carolina focus: Though he insisted that his travel to South Carolina came about partly because of his son’s baseball tournament near Charleston, Beshear hasn’t been coy about his presidential aspirations before arriving in the state that voted first in last year’s Democratic presidential primaries.
In an interview with “Meet the Press” just days before he arrived in South Carolina, Beshear said he would “take a look” at launching a presidential campaign in 2028. He’s at least the fourth Democratic elected official to publicly visit the state this year, arriving just a week after California Gov. Gavin Newsom and several weeks after Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., also has an event planned in the state later this week.
Read more from Beshear’s swing through South Carolina →
