Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a popular Democrat serving his second term in the deep-red state, spent Monday on cable news, offering a folksy foil to Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance — a performance that doubled as an audition to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. 

“I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like, because let me just tell you, that J.D. Vance ain’t from here,” Beshear said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “The nerve that he has to call the people of Kentucky, of eastern Kentucky, lazy … Nobody calls us names, especially those that have worked hard for the betterment of this country.” 

Aso reportedly on Harris’ shortlist, alongside Beshear, are Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). In his time in office, Beshear has built close ties with the Kentucky Jewish community in Louisville and Lexington, many of whom are now eager to see the Kentuckian on a presidential ticket.

“While he’s a new face to the nation, Beshear is far from a new face in Kentucky. He’s part of a major political dynasty that has a history with the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, chairman of the Kentucky Jewish Council. Beshear’s father, Steve Beshear, also served as a two-term governor from 2007 to 2015. 

“He’s just a strong supporter of the Israel-U.S. relationship and feels pretty passionately about those issues,” said Jonathan Miller, a former state treasurer. Miller chairs an antisemitism task force that Beshear convened in December, after bomb threats led to the evacuation of a Lexington synagogue. “He’s been a very steadfast supporter of the Jewish community.” 

In 2021, Beshear signed a resolution, passed unanimously by both houses of the Kentucky Assembly, adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, making Kentucky the first state in the nation to do so.

When he announced the antisemitism task force in December, Beshear issued an executive order that stated that “antisemitism threatens not only the Jewish community, but all Americans.” 

The task force “has been, thus far, highly successful. It is the vanguard on combating antisemitism in Kentucky,” said Daniel Grossberg, a state lawmaker who sits on the commission. “Anytime he speaks on issues of Jewish interests, antisemitism or otherwise, it is always in consultation with us.” 

In 2022, Beshear was slated to travel to Israel, which he called “one of our nation’s greatest allies,” but the trip was canceled after major flooding in the state. After the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, he ordered flags in Kentucky to be flown at half-staff “to grieve with Israel and to let them know we stand with them,” he said at the time.

Ralph Green, an oral surgeon and the past chair of the Jewish federation in Louisville, praised Beshear as a “successful and actually popular governor as a Democrat in a very heavily red state,” calling him “center left” compared to the more progressive Harris. 

“He’s definitely not part of the Squad, those folks on the far left who are hypercritical of Israel,” Miller agreed. 

Al Cross, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s journalism school, said Beshear “remains popular” in the state, despite serving alongside a Republican legislature.

“Even though he is rather powerless against the Republican legislature, he hasn’t engaged in any big fights and hasn’t gotten bloodied up,” said Cross, who noted Beshear’s legislative prospects have been limited but he has been successful in the realm of economic development. 

That’s where he thinks Beshear sees an opening alongside Harris.

“He thinks his path to the White House runs right through JD Vance, and he wants to be the Vance attack dog,” said Cross. “They may think if Beshear can prove adept at exposing Vance as a fraud … then that reflects on Trump, who is a fraud.”