Dems expanded the map across the nation and in Kentucky for future elections, Beshear says

Tuesday was a good night for Democrats and an extremely good night for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. 

Leading up to midterm elections, Beshear had a spotlight trained on him as the Democratic Governors Association chair, campaigning across the country in races that ultimately led to Democrats flipping five seats, and so now controlling at least 28 governorships. He also supported some candidates back in Kentucky, like Zach Dembo, the congressman-elect in the 6th Congressional District who flipped the seat after Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr held the seat for 14 years. 

Beshear, a two-term governor thinking about a possible run for president in 2028, told the Kentucky Lantern Wednesday afternoon that the results expanded the national map for Democrats in ways “some people thought was impossible” in states like Iowa, Ohio, Alaska and Texas. He also called it a “team effort” as Democrats had strong candidates this cycle and good leadership at DGA giving support. 

“Whether it’s me or not, the Democratic nominee will be able to run on the best map in decades because of my work and the work of the DGA,” Beshear said when asked what Tuesday’s wins mean for 2028. “We now have a Democratic governor in every current battleground state, and we have shown that the right candidate can win in places like Ohio and Iowa.”

Beshear added that he was proud that the “map has fundamentally changed,” because “Democrats have to win in 2028.” 

“(Vice President) JD Vance could be a worse president than even Donald Trump, and now being able to run in a much more favorable map just gives Democrats that (much) bigger of an opportunity,” the governor added.  

As for the Kentucky inroads, Beshear praised those candidates and said he thinks people could see a difference between Democratic candidates and the policies of Trump, which he said led to higher costs. 

“I think one of the things that people said very loud and clear last night is they want to like their neighbor, and they’ve had Donald Trump trying to turn them against their neighbor,” the governor said. “We’ve had a Republican supermajority often saying the same things here in Kentucky, and we’re taught to love our neighbor as ourselves, and we can disagree with them politically, but governing from a place of cruelty or division is wrong, and the American people sent a strong message about that.” 

Beshear predicts a good future for Kentucky Democrats once he leaves office at the end of 2027. He said both high-profile Democrats running to succeed him, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and former adviser and state Rep. Rocky Adkins, “are great candidates.” He also highlighted Democratic leaders in the General Assembly and its new members. Beshear also anticipated “more energy” for recruiting Democrats to contest legislative races next cycle. 

“I think now that we have won in some of these places that we can expand our map. I am proud of how the party has operated in that it focused,” Beshear said. “We had not netted a legislative seat in 10 years, and so being very focused on a couple of races, making sure that would happen, meant we did pick up those seats, and we won a few more too.”

‘Running as Mr. Nice’

However, not everyone agrees on how much credit Beshear should get. Tres Watson, the former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky said a handful of seat flips in the Kentucky General Assembly was “all national” as a reflection of Trump and the GOP brand, not because of Beshear. 

“He’ll try to take a victory lap on it,” Watson said, calling Beshear “a complete failure” when it came to moving seats in past election cycles. In 2024, Kentucky Democrats did not change their overall numbers in the Kentucky House and Senate and Republicans’ supermajorities remained strong. 

Beshear did have one falter in Kentucky’s Court of Appeals race. Fayette Circuit Court Judge Lucy VanMeter defeated Court of Appeals Judge Will Moynahan in the 5th Appellate District. Beshear had appointed Moynahan to the bench in 2025 and was involved in fundraising for him. 

Meanwhile, state Rep. Adam Moore, a Lexington Democrat who was endorsed by Beshear for reelection, said Beshear “has been a great standard bearer of what a Kentucky Democrat is.” Moore said he faced “running against the label of being a Democrat” in Kentucky while being tied to national figures like Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Beshear being shown as someone who “puts those kitchen table issues forward,” like healthcare access and affordable housing, counteracts that, Moore continued. 

“That is the message, and that is what Kentuckians need to see from us, and I think him leading the way on that helps us make those inroads. And it’s not overnight, but I mean, seven flips last night in the House is a big step forward,” Moore said. 

Al Cross, a longtime political columnist and reporter, said he didn’t see that Democrats in Kentucky had a clear, “real effort to recruit candidates” for 2026 races. More than half of the legislative races on the ballot had uncontested elections. 

“The gains it made last night were gains that would have eventually been made anyway, and thanks to the national tsunami, they were probably greater than expected,” Cross said. “It’s almost a mirror image of what happened 10 years ago when the Republicans got five or six more seats than they expected because of the Trump tsunami in Kentucky.”

Yet, Cross said the national results for Democrats are to Beshear’s advantage should he run for president. Beshear-like Senate candidates such as James Talarico in Texas and Adam Hamilton in Kansas showed themselves to be candidates that “want to end the drama, to end the hate and the cruelty and the division.” 

“They want a conciliatory president. They want a president who stands up for things, but they don’t want a nasty president,” Cross said. “They want a nice president, and Andy Beshear is running as Mr. Nice.”