Andy Beshear responds to VP speculation, slams JD Vance's Appalachian controversy

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is open to joining Vice President Kamala Harris ' ticket.

One day after President Joe Biden announced he is stepping down from the 2024 presidential race, and proceeded to endorse Harris as the Democratic Party's new nominee, Beshear appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to discuss the path forward for him and his fellow Democrats.

"I think if somebody calls you on that, what you do is at least listen," Beshear said on whether he would consider becoming Harris' running mate.

The 46-year-old went on to criticize his potential counterpart on the Republican ticket: JD Vance .

"I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like," he said. "Because let me just tell you that JD Vance ain't from here."

Vance's Appalachian roots have been a point of contention , as the Ohio senator offered a critical view of the region in his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy." Vance spent time with extended family in Jackson, Kentucky, over the years but spent much of his childhood in Middletown, Ohio.

"The nerve that he has to call the people of Kentucky, of Eastern Kentucky, 'lazy,'" Beshear continued. "Listen, these are the hardworking coal miners that powered the Industrial Revolution, that created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, that powered us through two world wars. We should be thanking them. Not calling them lazy."

In an interview with The New York Times in June, Vance expressed his support for American workers, recalling a story of when a hotel chain CEO mistakenly thought Vance understood his issue with having to pay employees higher wages than immigrant workers.

"The fact that this guy saw me as sympathetic to his problem, and not the problem of the workers, made me realize that I’m on a train that has its own momentum and I have to get off this train, or I’m going to wake up in 10 years and really hate everything that I’ve become," Vance said.

Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, also added comments on Beshear in a statement sent to The Enquirer on Monday.

“Senator Vance has always said that he was raised in Middletown, Ohio, but his family’s ancestral home is Jackson, Kentucky. JD grew up spending his summers in Appalachia and came from a poor family, something Andy Beshear could never relate to because he grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth thanks to his politician/lawyer daddy," Van Kirk said. "Unlike Beshear, who rode his father’s coat tails into the governor’s mansion, Senator Vance has had to earn everything he’s accomplished in this life.”

Beshear had not previously expressed public interest in higher office.

In addition to Beshear, USA TODAY reported that other prominent Democrats being eyed for the vice presidential nomination include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Andy Beshear responds to VP speculation, slams JD Vance's Appalachian controversy