Beshear's Nashville speech revealed his political approach

Before Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ascended to become a finalist for Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate , he delivered a speech in Nashville last month in a demonstration of his rising popularity outside the Bluegrass State.

Why it matters: Beshear had been working to elevate his national profile before the VP buzz . He's a bit of a unicorn: a popular Democratic governor in a solidly conservative state.

Flashback: Beshear's Nashville speech was hosted by the Tennessee Freedom Circle, an advocacy group that formed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision abolishing Roe v. Wade.

What he said: Beshear, a Vanderbilt graduate, received a standing ovation from the Nashville crowd before he took the podium to deliver his speech.

• Beshear told the crowd that he believes he won re-election last year because he focused on meeting people's "basic needs" and by governing "with empathy" and "compassion."
• "I believe when we lead from empathy and we start talking about these issues from a place of empathy, not from a political position, but from a place of human decency, when we talk about why we believe it — it could be your faith, your values, it could be any of that — then we connect with people."

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