FRANKFORT, Ky ( LEX 18) — Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman officially joined the Democratic ticket as she and Gov. Andy Beshear seek a second term.
Coleman's election paperwork did not come as a surprise on Tuesday. Beshear made it clear that he wanted Coleman as his running mate.
The filing happened right around the same time that Daniel Cameron, the Republican nominee for governor, revealed that he would soon announce who his running mate will be. That announcement is coming on Wednesday morning, according to a press release from the Cameron campaign.
Coleman, who was a teacher and school administrator, used her paperwork filing as an opportunity to mobilize educators. She credited support from teachers as an important factor in Beshear’s narrow victory over Republican incumbent Matt Bevin in the 2019 governor’s race. She also emphasized that the fight for public education is not done.
"We're up against a candidate for governor who would take public funds away from schools that are already strapped and struggling and put them in private schools," said Coleman.
“I believe that now that teachers are reminded what it feels like to have a governor that’s got their back, they’re going to show up even more for Gov. Beshear and myself in 2023,” Coleman said. “Because we’ve, time and again, proven that we’re committed to being an education-first administration.”
Kentucky’s GOP-led legislature has generally followed its own course in setting education policies. Lawmakers funded full-day kindergarten and poured money into teacher pensions and infrastructure. They increased the state’s main funding formula, but the amount was considerably less than what Beshear proposed.
Lawmakers rejected the governor’s proposal to fund pre-K for every 4-year-old in Kentucky. And they left it up to local school districts to decide whether to use additional state funding to provide higher pay to teachers and other school staff.
The governor says considerably more needs to be done. Beshear has vowed to renew his push for another pay raise for teachers, saying Kentucky lags behind most states in teacher salaries. And he’s said he would include funding for universal pre-K in his next budget plan if he wins a second term.
In 2019, Bevin had a running feud with teachers who opposed his efforts to revamp the state’s underfunded public pension systems. Now, Democrats are trying to tie Cameron to Bevin, but Cameron is openly courting teachers. The Republican nominee has said he would push to raise starting pay for teachers and reduce their administrative paperwork if he’s elected governor.
Coleman linked Cameron to GOP-supported school choice proposals. In late 2022, Kentucky’s Supreme Court struck down a Republican initiative to award tax credits for donations supporting private school tuition — a program that opponents said would have diverted money from public schools. Lawmakers overrode Beshear’s veto of the measure.
“Kentucky shouldn’t have politicians who support putting our tax dollars in private schools that are unaccountable to the public,” Coleman said.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
