Chuck Schumer has one goal in mind.
That’s winning back power in the 2026 Midterm election.
But now Chuck Schumer got a bad answer that hit him like a ton of bricks.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear won’t run for Senate
83-year-RINO Mitch McConnell announced he wouldn’t seek an eighth term in 2026.
McConnell waited until after he stabbed President Trump in the back by voting against the confirmations to the cabinet of Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to make this announcement.
This announcement opens up a Senate seat in a red state where Democrats theoretically have a strong candidate in two-term Governor Andy Beshear.
But Beshear has no interest in the race.
In 2024, he publicly stated he wouldn’t run for Senate in 2026.
“I’m completely and totally ruling out a run for any open Senate seat in 2026 . . . I’m going to keep doing this job every day for this four-year term I was elected to,” Beshear declared.
In the wake of McConnell’s retirement announcement, Beshear’s top strategist Eric Hyers put the nail in the coffin of the idea that Beshear would be a candidate for Senate.
“To spare my inbox, texts, and voicemail today, just putting this here and on the record: He is not running for Senate,” Hyers posted on social media.
Schumer and the Democrats can cross Kentucky off the list of red states to contest to try and win back the four seats they need to reclaim the majority.
Because of his status as a popular red state Governor, Beshear was on the shortlist to be Kamala Harris’ running mate.
But Beshear’s awkward TV person was even more troubling than Tim Walz’s spastic manner.
Beshear didn’t get the call.
That doesn’t mean Beshear lost the itch for a national campaign.
Quite the opposite.
Beshear doesn’t want to run for Senate because he knows he would lose and that would be the end of his career.
In the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, Democrats recruited popular two-term Governors of Tennessee and Montana – Phil Bredesen and Steve Bullock – to run for Senate.
The reasoning was simple: voters elected these men twice and Democrat strategists believed they could run separately from the national party whose brand was toxic in red states.
The plan failed miserably.
Marsha Blackburn crushed Bredesen by 11 points and Steve Daines routed Bullock by 10 points.
A Democrat can win a Governor’s race in a red state if they are personally popular or can dump unlimited money into the contest because voters know the Republican legislature is a check on any Democrat.
But for national races, there isn’t that net.
Voters understand they are sending a Democrat to the Senate who will rubberstamp a Democrat President or obstruct a Republican.
Party affiliation and ideology matter more in Senate races whereas statewide elections can be won on personal appeal.
Beshear understood he would be walking into a meat grinder and took a pass hoping to keep his options open for 2028.
