52 Facts About Andy Beshear

Andrew Graham Beshear was born on November 29,1977 and is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since December 2019.

Andy Beshear was born in Louisville, the son of Steve and Jane Andy Beshear.

Andy Beshear graduated from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky.

Andy Beshear attended Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and graduated in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology.

Andy Beshear then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received a Juris Doctor in 2003.

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Andy Beshear represented the developers of the Bluegrass Pipeline, which would have transported natural gas liquid through Kentucky.

Andy Beshear represented the Indian company UFLEX, which sought $20 million in tax breaks from his father's administration, drawing criticism from ethics watchdogs over a potential conflict of interest.

In November 2013, Andy Beshear announced his candidacy in the 2015 election for Attorney General of Kentucky, to succeed Democrat Jack Conway, who could not run for reelection, due to term limits.

Andy Beshear sued Governor Matt Bevin several times over what he argued was Bevin's abuse of executive powers during Andy Beshear's tenure as attorney general and while he was campaigning against Bevin for governor.

Also in 2016, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously sided with Bevin when Andy Beshear sued him on the grounds that Bevin lacked the authority to overhaul the University of Louisville's board of trustees.

In 2017, the Kentucky Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit Andy Beshear brought against Bevin, holding that Bevin had the power to temporarily reshape boards while the legislature is out of session; Bevin called Andy Beshear's lawsuit a "shameful waste of taxpayer resources".

Andy Beshear resigned from the attorney general's office on December 10,2019, to be sworn in as governor.

On July 9,2018, Andy Beshear declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor of Kentucky in the 2019 election.

Andy Beshear's running mate was Jacqueline Coleman, a nonprofit president, assistant principal, and former state house candidate.

Andy Beshear narrowly carried the historically heavily Republican suburban counties of Campbell and Kenton in Northern Kentucky, as well as several historically Democratic rural counties in Eastern Kentucky that had swung heavily Republican in recent elections.

On October 1,2021, Andy Beshear declared his candidacy for reelection as governor in the 2023 election.

Andy Beshear's critics suggested that the appointments undermined the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, which sought to insulate the board from political influence; the Board had increasingly been the focus of political battles in the years preceding 2019.

On December 12,2019, Andy Beshear signed an executive order restoring voting rights to 180,315 Kentuckians, who he said were disproportionately African-American, who had been convicted of nonviolent felonies.

In June 2020, Andy Beshear promised to provide free health care to all African-American residents of Kentucky who need it, in an attempt to resolve health care inequities that came to light during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 18,2020, as the state's COVID-19 cases continued to increase, Andy Beshear ordered Kentucky's public and private schools to halt in-person learning on November 23, with in-person classes to resume in January 2021.

Danville Christian Academy, joined by Attorney General Daniel Cameron, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, claiming that Andy Beshear's order violated the First Amendment by prohibiting religious organizations to educate children in accordance with their faith.

In March 2021, Andy Beshear vetoed all or part of 27 bills that the Kentucky legislature had passed.

In December 2021, Andy Beshear led the emergency response to a tornado outbreak in western Kentucky, which devastated the town of Mayfield and killed more than 70 people, making it the deadliest in the state's history.

In July 2022, torrential rain caused severe flooding across Kentucky's Appalachia region and led to the deaths of over 25 people; Andy Beshear worked with the federal government to coordinate search and rescue missions as President Biden declared a federal disaster to direct relief money to the state.

Andy Beshear has said that "women should be able make their own reproductive healthcare decisions", including abortion.

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Andy Beshear was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, and applauded by Planned Parenthood.

In 2021, Andy Beshear allowed a bill called a "born-alive bill", which abortion rights advocates consider intended to "shame and ostracize patients", to become law without his signature.

On March 25,2020, Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Andy Beshear encouraged business owners to require customers to wear face coverings while indoors.

Andy Beshear banned "mass gatherings" including protests but not normal gatherings at shopping malls and libraries; constitutional law professor Floyd Abrams and lawyer John Langford opined that Beshear's order was inappropriate as it violated public protests' special protected status under the First Amendment.

Andy Beshear was criticized for not calling the Kentucky General Assembly into a special session in order to work with state representatives to better address the needs of their constituents during the pandemic.

In late November 2020, Andy Beshear imposed new restrictions to further slow the spread of COVID-19, including closing all indoor service for restaurants and bars, restricting in-person learning at schools, limiting occupancy at gyms, and limiting social gatherings.

House Speaker David Osborne and Senate President Robert Stivers criticized Andy Beshear for failing to consult the legislature before making his decisions.

Andy Beshear's targeted closures were criticized after it was discovered that state and local authorities were unable to establish contact tracing as it relates to certain types of businesses listed in his restrictions.

Andy Beshear signed an executive order completely restoring the voting rights, and right to hold public office, of 180,315 Kentuckians who had been convicted of nonviolent felonies.

Andy Beshear has restored rights to more felons than any other governor in American history.

In 2020, Andy Beshear signed an executive order releasing 1,704 inmates from prisons and jails in an effort to slow COVID-19's spread.

In March 2021, Andy Beshear signed a law that allows judges to decide whether to transfer minors 14 and older to adult court if they are charged with a crime involving a firearm.

Andy Beshear is of the view that possession of marijuana should never result in incarceration.

In 2019, Andy Beshear pledged to bring more advanced manufacturing jobs and health care jobs to Kentucky, to offset job losses due to the decline of coal.

In June 2021, Andy Beshear signed an executive order to allow name, image, and likeness compensation to be received by college athletes.

In 2019, Andy Beshear pledged to include a $2,000 pay raise for all Kentucky teachers in his budgets.

Andy Beshear has proposed such a pay raise in his budgets, but the Kentucky legislature has not included such raises in the budgets it passed.

Andy Beshear acknowledges that climate change is real and caused by humans.

Andy Beshear proclaimed March 2020 Responsible Gambling Awareness Month in Kentucky.

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Andy Beshear was the first sitting governor of Kentucky to attend an LGBTQ-rights rally, and posed for a picture with drag queens.

Andy Beshear criticized Bevin for trying to roll back the state's Medicaid expansion.

In December 2019, Andy Beshear told President Donald Trump's administration that he planned to have Kentucky continue to accept refugees under the US immigration program.

Andy Beshear hoped to fund the bridge by conventional means, not tolling, but was unsure whether the state in fact had the funds to do that.

Andy Beshear said he believed the project would provide economic benefits to Western Kentucky.

Andy Beshear wants to fund the state's pension system, which has accumulated $24 billion in debt since 2000, the most of any state in the country.

Andy Beshear opposed pension cuts made by Bevin, and said he wants to guarantee all workers pensions when they retire.