According to pollster Morning Consult – which currently has a B- rating on election site FiveThirtyEight – Beshear is tied with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green as the most popular Democratic governor among voters who also supported former president Donald Trump in 2020.
The ranking, which put Beshear at 41% approval among that group, bolsters the notion that Kentucky’s Democratic incumbent possesses crossover appeal in a state where Republicans dominate.
Earlier this month, UK political analyst Stephen Voss said he believes that has a lot to do with Beshear’s stronger-than-usual support in areas affected by major flooding and tornadoes. Voss told WUKY the GOP needs to keep the focus off the administration’s disaster relief efforts.
"Most signs are they have not effectively stopped Beshear from being the face of relief efforts in those affected areas," he said.
Voss has noted there is a portion of the Republican electorate that has been more resistant to polling in the past, resulting in bigger-than-expected turnout for the GOP, though pollsters have improved on that front.
Going by the new Morning Consult numbers, Beshear has the highest net approval rating of any Democratic governor in a red state, with overall approval at 60% and 35% disapproval.
But the report also noted that Republican Daniel Cameron’s gubernatorial campaign appears to have “dented the incumbent’s popularity” among GOP voters ahead of the Nov. 7 election.
