(LEX 18) — Gov. Andy Beshear will attend a meeting between the president and democratic governors at the White House on Wednesday night.
According to President Joe Biden’s public schedule, the meeting is scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Beshear is reportedly attending in-person.
The meeting was scheduled after democratic governors said they wanted to hear more from the White House after the president’s perceived poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
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On Monday, Beshear called the president's performance "rough," but he said he would still support Biden as long as he stayed in the race. On Tuesday, in a high profile interview on CNN, Beshear said democratic governors want to know more about how the president is doing.
"When you see somebody, one of the first things you ask is - how are you doing? And oftentimes we get way too much information in that response. It’s something that we are used to talking about. Now, that’s part of our culture," Beshear said on CNN. "So, I don’t think it’s an attack on the White House or an attack on the president - who is a good man and a nice man - to just say, ‘tell us a little bit more about how you’re doing.’”
However, since the debate, there have been talks about replacing Biden with another candidate. And over the weekend, Beshear made some shortlists of possible replacements. Others named are Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll had Beshear polling at 36% to Trump's 40% in a possible match-up against the former president. However, about 70% of the democrats polled said they had never heard of Beshear.
But national name recognition may not necessarily be a problem, according to political science professor Dr. Stephen Voss.
"If we do end up needing to find a replacement for Joe Biden, the nominee will not be picked by the voters. And therefore, name recognition won't be a top priority," said Voss. "Instead, the democratic nominee who would replace Biden would be picked at the convention among party elites, party insiders. A maybe more mild-mannered, less famous person often emerges as the nominee in a convention."
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Voss explains that if Biden removes himself from the race, there are going to be several people vying for the nomination. However, some of those bigger names also have people who will not support them and would rather pick someone with less political baggage.
"The advantage Andy Beshear has is that - with the role he's played in democratic politics - he hasn't offended a lot of people," said Voss. "If we end up in a point where the democrats are looking for the person who they all can accept - rather than somebody really ornery and well-known but that brings baggage - you can get a surprise. It's not impossible. Why would Andy Beshear take the steps he's taken in order to position himself as having the option of running for president? Because it's not impossible, just unlikely."
Voss points out that Beshear's success as a democrat in a red-state is also appealing to national democrats.
"If Andy Beshear is the sort of democrat who can pick off some of those normally red-leaning states because of a broader appeal, a more comforting message - he would seem to be the Democrats' great hope for turning an election they might lose into one they could win more easily."
