Sanders and Beshear: A tale of two governors

Arkansas, Kentucky leaders speak at World Economic Forum

By AUSTIN HORN

Tribune Content Agency

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear spoke at the World Economic Forum on Thursday alongside Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on a panel of American governors.

Beshear opined on the political success of newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump, touched on several hot topics in American politics and touted the state of Kentucky to an international group of leaders at the conference in Davos, Switzerland.

Sanders and Beshear are both legacy governors. Beshear’s father, Steve Beshear, was governor of Kentucky from 2008 to 2015; Sanders’ father, Mike Huckabee, was governor of Arkansas for a decade and is now Trump’s nominee to become the U.S. ambassador to Israel. At 42 and 47, respectively, Sanders and Beshear are both relatively young for American political _gures.

The timing for the appearance is notable, as Beshear’s name has been oated as one of many being considered by party leaders as a potential 2028 presidential candidate. He’s also taken several steps that observers say indicate an interest in vying for that role.

The panel was moderated by New York Times and CNBC journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, who led off with a question about what “America First” as it relates to the Trump presidency meant to Beshear and Sanders.

Unsurprisingly, the Republican and Democrat governors had different takes on Trump.

Beshear expressed a leeriness about Trump’s “America First” attitude on the international stage, particularly when it comes to keeping up the country’s alliances.

“If it’s implemented in a way that ensures that the American people have good jobs, quality, health care, strong infrastructure, strong public safety – those are good things,” Beshear said. “But if it questions our alliances, especially our alliances with Europe, that are critical to global stability, then it could be a concerning thing for the world and the ultimate reliability and consistency that we need to do global business.”

Sanders was all on board with “America First,” and insisted that “America winning” doesn’t necessarily mean other countries are losing.

The Kentucky governor also had a theory on why Trump defeated former vice president Kamala Harris, who was at one point considering Beshear to be her running mate.

“My belief … on why President Trump is president again is that last group of movable voters had a gut check, and they believed that President Trump would make it a little easier to pay the bills at the end of the month,” Beshear said. “So, do these policies raise prices, lower prices? I think that’s a lot of what to watch as we move forward.”

One speci_c item that came up on this front: tariffs. Trump said this week he plans to put 25 percent tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada by Feb. 1. Sanders framed the tariffs as a key part of Trump’s “deal-making” leadership style.

“At the end of the day, he is the ultimate deal-maker, and I think that it is something that he will use as he’s going about trying to make sure America comes out on top,” she said.

Beshear said that the tariffs were clearly about “leverage” over countries like Canada and Mexico. He also predicted that Trump could pay the political piper on his tariff promises, especially given that he ran a campaign centered around lowering prices.

“The impacts could go right to the reasons that he was elected, and could have some signi_cant impact on that very quickly. There’s a threat of a 25 percent tariff on Canada? Well, that’ll raise gas prices. There’s a threat of a 25 percent tariff on Mexico? Well, that’ll raise food prices,” Beshear said.

“When you look at the politics of ination, what are the two things that Americans see? Well, _rst thing on every corner is gas prices, and then at the grocery store, it’s food prices.”

When asked about Trump’s victory, the governor agreed “there’s energy” around him, but disagreed with Sanders’ comment that the president’s sizable electoral college and relatively thin popular vote margins were “historic.”

The governor also hinted at ways the reality of the Trump administration could be different than the political tides he rode into of_ce. He cited the president’s shifting attitude toward big tech _rms like Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram.

“Here’s what I see: I see a campaign run by Donald Trump, probably pretty smartly, attacking big tech… Attacking Facebook or Meta and so many others. And now you see all those executives sitting in those really good seats (at the inauguration), which is really interesting from the company perspective, but it’s also really interesting from the candidate and now the president perspective. I think that it’s just one example of how the day-to-day may change signi_cantly.”

At Home Sorkin asked Beshear about the electric vehicle industry, in particular, given that Trump has said he will pull back government support for the electric vehicle

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manufacturing industry. The two biggest economic development announcements under the Beshear administration have been related to electric vehicle batteries, highlighted by Ford and South Korean firm SK On’s nearly $6 billion investment to build twin plants in Hardin County.

Beshear emphasized that the deal was landed before the federal government’s influx of dollars to the industry through the Inflation Reduction Act, funding for which Trump recently froze. He argued that the green energy, and electric vehicle transition, is inevitable and not dependent on who’s president.

“The federal overlay may be shifting, but the private sector and its direction is not. EVs were picking up steam before the Biden administration, and they’re going to continue after the Biden administration,” Beshear said. “The speed may be different, the government dollars coming in may be different. A lot of people have tried to fight the future. Nobody’s ever won. We know this is a big part of the future.”

Relatedly, the topic of unions came up, though there was no specific discussion of the effort to unionize the workers at the Hardin County battery plants. Kentucky is a “right to work” state thanks to legislation passed soon after Republicans took control of the state legislature. That means that no workplace can require workers to join a union.

“I haven’t had a company bring up ‘right to work’ in locating in Kentucky. Now, it is the law there, and that could be a part of it,” he said.

Sanders, on the other hand, said Arkansas’ “right to work” status was a major boon to its economy and ability to attract private investment.

There were also differing views on policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion and the investing principle environmental, social, and governance. Both have become targets for social conservatives, who say that the political left is hindering the private sector in pushing these concepts.

Beshear framed his response in terms of working with companies in Kentucky. If a company wants to embrace DEI policies in the state, he said they should be allowed to do that. He went even further on sustainability.

“Sustainability is going to be a part of the future. It’s going to be demanded by most companies that are going to locate in different places,” he said. “I want people to know that Kentucky is not going to get caught up in national debates about it, but if it’s a need you have as a business, we’re going to meet it for you.”

In talking about certain private sector commitments to diversity, Beshear made a reference to “organizations that have been created to go after corporations that have ‘woke’ policies.” He disagreed with those groups.

“Your policies are your policies if you’re the private sector,” Beshear said. “Now, we can have different opinions on it, but if you believe that it’s going to help you to have a diverse workforce, if you want to push different equity measures within your business, that’s your business.”

Beshear’s former political opponent Daniel Cameron, the previous GOP attorney general of Kentucky who lost to Beshear in his 2023 reelection bid, runs one such organization. For the last year, Cameron has served as CEO of the 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit that opposes “woke capitalism” and ESG policies.

In his closing statement on stage, Beshear responded to a reference to “red states” and “blue states.” He said the job of governor that he and Sanders carry out is more complicated than that and transcends the binary. In doing so, he also gave something of a pitch for himself as a less outwardly “political” actor.

“I don’t describe myself as liberal or conservative. I describe myself as pragmatic, because as a governor, you have to get results right,” Beshear said.

“We need more and better jobs for our people. We need more accessible and affordable health care for our people. We need good, safe roads for our businesses and for our people. We both want our communities to be … safe for our people. When you look at those day-to-day and, I think, non-political results that we have to secure, even if we go about it differently, it just it doesn’t break down the same way.“

This article originally appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.