Beshear on possible 2028 run: ‘I do not want to leave a broken country’ to future generations

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said Sunday that he’s mulling a run for president in 2028 because he’s concerned about future generations living in a “broken country,” but said he needed to decide if he’s the right person to “bring people back together.”

“My family’s been through a lot, but I do not want to leave a broken country to my kids or anyone else’s,” Beshear said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I’m going to make sure we’re putting the country first, because my kids deserve to grow up in a country where they don’t have to turn on the news every morning, even when they’re on vacation, and say, ‘What the heck happened last night?'”

Beshear said he wouldn’t have entertained a presidential run “if you had asked me this question a couple years ago.”

“What I think is most important for 2028 is a candidate that can heal this country, that can bring people back together,” he said. “When I sit down, I’m going to think about whether I’m that candidate or whether someone else is that candidate.”

Beshear has led ruby-red Kentucky since December 2019, winning reelection with more than 53 percent of the vote in 2023. He was considered a top contender to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate last year after former President Biden abruptly ended his 2024 reelection campaign.

Beshear, 47, is slated to chair the influential Democratic Governors Association (DGA) next year, before his gubernatorial term ends in 2027. The former Kentucky attorney general cannot immediately seek another four years because state law limits governors to two consecutive terms.

He predicted Democrats in traditionally GOP-controlled states will have better chances in the upcoming election cycle in the wake of President Trump’s massive tax and spending package that was signed into law Friday.

“I think, especially in these rural states where Republican governors have not spoken up whatsoever to stop this devastating bill, we’re going to have strong candidates,” Beshear said. “We’re going to win a lot of elections.”

“All these Republican governors that aren’t saying a thing, where their rural hospitals are going to close, where they’re going to see massive layoffs and people lose their coverage. That’s pretty sad,” he added.

Trump’s megabill, named the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” narrowly passed the House and Senate. Every Democratic lawmaker voted against it.

The president and his allies have hailed the legislation for boosting defense spending and funding for Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, while extending the 2017 tax cuts from his first term.

But Democrats have blasted the measure for cutting funding for social safety net programs, such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Porgram.

“I know a lot of people on Medicaid — these are our parents with special needs children that could have never covered it otherwise. These are busy people all working two jobs already to support that child,” Beshear told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.

“I mean, you can lie all you want about what’s in this bill, but the numbers are the numbers.”

The bill would cut nearly $800 billion from the health care program that primarily covers poor people, pregnant women and children by setting work requirements for most “able-bodied adults” with no dependents, implementing more frequent eligibility checks and reducing federal aid for states that provide coverage for undocumented migrants.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the new law could threaten health care coverage for millions of people. It raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, forestalling the threat of a federal default, while adding $2 trillion to the deficit.

“It’s going to devastate rural health care, all while adding trillions of dollars to our national debt. And it’s going to upend every state budget across the country,” Beshear said. “Our job is to stand up for and represent our people, and I wish people would get back to that.”