As Andy Beshear weighs 2028, he tells theGrio who’s in his Black ‘Kitchen Cabinet’
TheGrio...
The Kentucky governor says diversity is a “strength” as he continues his nationwide outreach to Black voters.
Andy Beshear is listening to Black voters.
“My goal has been to listen, to try to hear, to be very clear and upfront that I’ll never know what discrimination and racism feels like, but I know it exists,” Beshear told theGrio during a recent interview. “What I’ve been hearing is the pain of what this administration and this Supreme Court have done, especially with the Voting Rights Act, the pain of less future representation, and then the outrage of a president who claims that racism doesn’t exist but shows us what it looks like every single day.”
The Kentucky governor and potential 2028 presidential candidate has been traveling across the country, meeting with Black leaders and discussing the path forward for Democrats before audiences of Black voters. Most recently, Beshear attended the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s Mississippi Policy Conference. In July, he attended the National Urban League Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, and in April, he attended the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Convention in New York City.
While Beshear has not yet made a determination as to whether he will pursue the White House in 2028, his travels and engagement with Black voters continue to fuel speculation. The 48-year-old governor tells theGrio that if he does throw his hat in the ring to be commander-in-chief, he will continue to surround himself with Black voices who will properly advise him for the job.
“If I pursue that office in the future, and I haven’t made any final decisions, it would be to do the job the best it can be done for everyone. And that’s recognizing that you have to surround yourself with people of different backgrounds if you wanna produce good results for people of all backgrounds,” said Beshear.
When asked about who would make up his Black “Kitchen Cabinet,” the Kentucky Democrat pointed to La Tasha Buckner, his chief of staff, and Gerina Whethers, whom he appointed as the first African-American woman to serve as the Commonwealth’s Attorney in Jefferson County. Beshear also named the late J. Michael Brown, who closely advised the governor and was appointed by Beshear as the first African-American Secretary of the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.
“I have to surround myself with people that can speak to [discrimination] and recognize it in the areas that I cannot,” said Beshear. “I’m always going to make sure that I’m surrounded by a diverse group of people because diversity is a strength. It’s never a liability, it’s never a weakness. It always helps you make better decisions.”
The governor acknowledged that, should a Democrat or pro-racial justice president be elected to the White House in 2028, they must act boldly and urgently to address the economic conditions of Black Americans, who are experiencing disproportionately high unemployment and a widening racial wealth gap as a result of President Donald Trump‘s anti-DEI crusade, among other policies.
“We certainly have to turn around the terrible steps done by this administration that have reduced opportunities to make up for what discrimination has caused over time,” Beshear told theGrio. “I remember when requirements for minority contractors wasn’t what was expected, was supported by both parties, and that’s not what we see today.”
The Kentucky governor called for the next president to make intentional “aspirational investments” in Black communities, particularly in housing.
Pointing out the average age of a first-time homebuyer being 40, Beshear said, “We ought to have a significant investment by the federal government tied to the speed of the project so that we can turn this problem around and do it in real time. But we need to be very intentional about where we make those investments. The first new housing should go in the places that haven’t seen enough new housing in far too long.”
Ultimately, whoever runs for president in 2028, Beshear says they must work to earn the support of Black voters and be committed to plans to “build generational wealth” and “address hundreds of years of the vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow and segregation.”
As for his intentional engagements with Black voters, Beshear told theGrio will continue hitting the road, including a tour for his upcoming book, “Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country,” which hits shelves on Sept. 22. He’s tapped Black leaders like U.S. Congressman Jim Clyburn and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, another rumored 2028 presidential candidate, to moderate the South Carolina and DMV stops of the tour.
In the meantime, Beshear said he will continue hitting the pavement to help elect Democratic gubernatorial candidates on the ballot this November.
“Democrats have a chance to win in places that many people might not expect,” he said. “We’ve got great candidates that are out there that I’m going to make sure I do everything I can to get them past the finish line.”