Poll: Amid Harris VP speculation, Beshear most popular Democratic governor in America

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Gov. Andy Beshear is still among the most popular governors in the country, according to a recent survey result from Morning Consult.

The pollster found that Beshear had an approval rating of 67% in Kentucky, showing his approval growing among registered voters in Kentucky over the last year.

Founded in 2014, Morning Consult specializes in online survey research technology.

Its findings come at a time when Beshear’s record in Kentucky is being scrutinized nationally.

According to multiple media reports, the 46-year-old governor is on the list of those being vetted to run alongside Vice President Kamala Harris against former Republican President Donald Trump. Harris has now all but clinched the Democratic nomination for president in the wake of President Joe Biden announcing Sunday he’d step aside from his reelection campaign.

Beshear fared better in the Morning Consult survey than many of the other Democratic governors being considered, such as Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

Here’s what the poll found:

• Of Kentucky voters surveyed, 67% approved of his job performance while 28% disapproved. The only Democrat in the same ballpark was Maryland’s Wes Moore, who had a 65% approval rating and 22% disapproval.
• Beshear was the most popular among Democrats at 93% and Republicans at 54% of any Democratic governor. Among Republican voters, he led the second-closest, Laura Kelly of Kansas, by 11 percentage points.
• His popularity among voters of color was closer to average. He was the third-best performer among Black voters at 76% but ranked 14th among in-state Hispanic voters 54%.
• His appeal among Independents, 59%, was second-highest of all Democratic governors, trailing only Connecticut’s Ned Lamont.
• Among self-described moderate voters, Beshear fared particularly well against his Democratic peers. He garnered 78% approval with that group compared to second-best Moore’s 67%.

This isn’t the first time Beshear has stood out in a Morning Consult survey.

He ranked among the most-liked governors in the country in two previous iterations of the group’s work

The elections analysis website fivethirtyeight.com gives Morning Consult a “pollster rating” of 1.8 out of 3 in their rankings of pollsters by reliability and transparency.

When it comes to sizing up a potential running mate for Harris, some of the country’s biggest news outlets have put Beshear near the top of the list.

The Associated Press put him in the “top four” of contenders for the spot. A Washington Post reporter ranked him as fourth-best for his energy, message discipline and political winning streak. The New York Times mentioned him in their top four as well.

“A deacon at his church, Beshear won praise for his handling of Covid and natural disasters. He says that American politics have become too angry. And he has criticized other Democrats for suggesting that working-class people are dumb for voting Republican,” reporters at the Times wrote.

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