It is tough to be a Democrat governor in a state considered to be “red,” and it just got tougher for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
The governor has been popular enough in his state that he is considered one of the top picks for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination for 2028, having defeated his Republican opponent, incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, in 2019 with a total of 709,890 votes, which was 49.20 percent of the vote.
In 2023, he defeated his GOP challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, by around 67,174 votes, which was approximately five percentage points.
However, President Donald Trump won the state in the 2016 presidential election with 1,202,971 votes, accounting for 62.52% of the total.
And his support has grown, garnering 1,326,646 Kentucky votes in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden, and 1,337,494 votes in the 2024 presidential election, accounting for 64.47 percent of the state’s votes.
That may be one of the reasons that State Sen. Robin Webb has switched her party from Democrat to Republican, Fox News reported.
“First and foremost, I’m a mother, a rancher and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentucky’s coal country,” the former Democrat said. “As the Democratic Party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values.
“It has become untenable and counterproductive to the best interests of my constituents for me to remain a Democrat,” she said.
“While it’s cliché, it’s true: I didn’t leave the party — the party left me,” she said.
It is a tough hit for the Democratic Party in the state as Webb is from a rural area of Kentucky, which has been a stronghold for the blue party because of its union ties and coal mining industry.
The news was celebrated by Robert Benvenuti, Chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky.
“Like countless other Kentuckians, [Webb] has recognized that the policies and objectives of today’s Democratic Party are simply not what they once were, and do not align with the vast majority of Kentuckians,” he said.
“I always respected that [Webb] approached issues in a very thoughtful and commonsense manner, and that she never failed to keenly focus on what was best for her constituents,” he said. “It is my pleasure to welcome Sen. Robin Webb to the Republican Party.”
But the state’s Democrat Party lashed out at Webb, saying that she is “not a Democrat,” which may not be the burn they think it is.
“Senator Webb has chosen to join a political party that is currently working around the clock to take health care away from over a million Kentuckians, wipe out our rural hospitals, take food off the table of Kentucky families and take resources away from our public schools,” Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge said to Fox News Digital. “If those are her priorities, then we agree: she isn’t a Democrat.”
As for Beshear, he said that he would consider a campaign to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in the next election, The Daily Beast reported.
“If you’d asked me a couple years ago if this is something I’d consider, I probably wouldn’t have. But I don’t want to leave a broken country to my kids. And so, if I’m somebody that can bring this nation together, hopefully find some common ground, it’s something I’ll consider,” he said.
The governor started his own podcast this year in which he is taking a moderate stance.
“Far too much of what we see out there tries to put us in a box,” he said in the first episode. “It tries to make everything D or R, red or blue, left or right, and we know the world’s so much more complicated than that.”