By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Gov. Andy Beshear has weighed in on President Joe Biden’s decision Sunday to drop his re-election bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, saying, “…it is in the best interest of our country and our party.”
Beshear has been in Asia the past week on an economic development trip that included stops in South Korea and Japan, two countries that have numerous business interests in Kentucky.
In the statement, which was released Sunday afternoon by Eric Hyers, who has served as his political consultant, Beshear said:
“President Biden will be remembered as a consequential president. Along with Vice President Harris, he led us through the aftermath of the January 6th attack on our Capitol and steadily steered us out of a global pandemic. He showed up for Kentucky after devastating tornadoes and historic flooding, delivering immediate federal aid that is helping to rebuild our communities.
“His leadership provided infrastructure investments that are bringing clean drinking water and high speed internet to parts of Kentucky that for far too long had been overlooked and underserved.
“President Biden came through on the Brent Spence Companion Bridge Project, getting bipartisan funding for a project that had been stalled for years and is a major thoroughfare for national commerce.
“While his decision today could not have been easy, it is in the best interest of our country, and our party. I want to thank him for his leadership, kindness and for a successful presidency that got big, important things done.
“Now it is time for our nation to come together. We need to dial down the anger, rancor and noise. We have an opportunity to remember that we are taught to treat our neighbor as yourself—and that we are all each other’s neighbor.”
While Beshear has been often mentioned in recent weeks as a possible replacement running mate with current Vice President Kamala Harris, he had repeatedly stated that as long as Biden was the Democratic nominee he would support him. That issue was not addressed in the statement.
Support for Biden to remain in the race had been waning recently, and in Kentucky, Third District Congressman Morgan McGarvey of Louisville became the most prominent Kentucky Democrat to urge the President to step aside.
If Harris is nominated, she could announce her running mate at the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago. Beshear, incidentally, is one of Kentucky’s convention delegates.