Gov. Andy Beshear invokes faith to defend veto of 'anti-trans' bill, slams JD Vance's Christianity

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Kentucky’s Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has suggested that opposition to taxpayer funding of trans procedures for minors that cause irreversible harm, such as infertility and impaired sexual function, is un-Christian. 

In a wide-ranging interview with USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page to promote his new book, Go and Do Likewise, Beshear addressed whether he plans to run for president in 2028, and listed Democratic candidates up for election in November who he says offer an alternative for Christian voters who can’t get on board with Republicans and the Trump administration's agenda. 

Touting his record of governing an overwhelmingly Republican state, Beshear recalled how he vetoed what he described as “the nastiest anti-trans bill that my state had ever seen,” and falsely claimed it would have eliminated “all medical coverage whatsoever to children” and take away parents’ rights in making healthcare decisions. 

“I remember explaining because it’s how I authentically think and believe that if I believe all children are children of God, I shouldn’t want people picking on these kids,” he added.

Beshear made similar comments on “The View” earlier this year as he invoked the parable of the Good Samaritan to justify his position of supporting body mutilation for teens struggling with gender confusion or same-sex attraction. 

Throughout his tenure as governor, Beshear has vetoed legislation banning the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children and teens, which can lead to bodily disfigurement and sterilization. He also opposed bills to block boys from entering girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Beshear also vetoed a bill banning the use of taxpayer funds to cover gender transition procedures. The Republican-dominated legislature overrode his vetoes both times. 

Insisting that “the trans population” is “already so marginalized,” Beshear argued in his interview with USA Today that the Legislature has “acted out of hate” and sought to contrast himself as “a governor acting out of love.”

Beshear added: “I just want them to see a governor acting out of love. I want them to see somebody that sees them and cares about them. And it doesn’t mean I have to understand every issue that somebody is going through. It’s just having enough empathy to see someone as a child of God and that they matter.”

After extolling his bona fides on trans issues, Beshear addressed what he described as President Donald Trump's and the Republican Party’s “gross manipulation of faith.”

“You see people who’ve dedicated their life to faith, to the idea that it’s supposed to pick somebody up and not kick them while they’re down, but to see it used as a weapon to divide, to foster hate.” 

An antidote to this purported hate, Beshear said, can be found in Democratic U.S. Senate candidates James Talarico in Texas and Pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas. These men, he said, are a “response” to Trump and the Republican Party.

Beshear also accused Vice President JD Vance of wielding his Catholic faith as an implement to “judge other people.” 

Vance is “a guy from the suburbs of Cincinnati” who claimed to be from Appalachia “because he spent a couple of weeks every summer there,” Beshear said, likening the vice president's memoir Hillbilly Elegy to “poverty tourism” and accusing him of making his fortune "off the backs of others.”

“I see the way that he talks down to people on a regular basis, plays the holier-than-thou card,” Beshear said. “And remember that’s what got Jesus flipping tables in a temple, one of the only times that you see Jesus mad in the New Testament.

"Again, I see both [Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth and Vance use faith as a weapon. Remember, this is a guy that, according to a recent book, after two American citizens were killed in Minnesota by ICE, wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and occupy those cities with the U.S. military.” 

Beshear called Vance “a person that is using Christianity to benefit himself and not to benefit other people.” He contended that if Vance were a true Christian, he “would’ve pushed back against cutting SNAP benefits and not encouraged it” and pushed back against “a big ugly bill that’s going to shutter rural hospitals.”

After naming the “most important tenets” of his Christian faith as “loving your neighbor as yourself, accepting your neighbor as Christ has accepted you” and “not judging, lest you be judged,” Beshear characterized Trump's politics as a “manipulation of faith to do harm instead of to do good.”

When asked about a prospective 2028 presidential bid, Beshear vowed that he’s “not going to sit down and make any decision until I’m done with my current job of being chair of the Democratic Governors Association,” which works to elect Democratic governors across the U.S. "Sometime after that, I’ll sit down with my family, and we will make a decision."

Beshear was first elected governor of Kentucky, a state that supported Trump by nearly 31 points in the 2024 presidential election, in 2019. He won re-election by 5 percentage points in 2023, an increase from his razor-thin 0.4 percentage point margin of victory four years earlier. He’s not eligible to run for re-election as governor due to term limits. 

The RealClearPolitics average of polls sampling Democratic voters’ opinions on potential presidential candidates finds Beshear receiving 4% support, finishing behind former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

However, he polls ahead of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. 

Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics average of polls for the Republican nomination finds Vance in first place at 39.9%, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 24.5% and all other prospective candidates receiving less than 10% support.