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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order Thursday to restore voting rights to nearly 140,000 convicted felons, making good on an inaugural promise he made just days ago after being sworn in. The order applies to Kentuckians who have committed non-violent offenses and have completed their sentences and does not include sex offenders, rapists or murderers, Beshear, a Democrat, said to a group of voting rights supporters. "My faith teaches me forgiveness," Beshear said. "We all make mistakes."

In his inaugural address, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he will file an executive order this week restoring the voting rights of many convicted felons who are currently disenfranchised under state law. “My faith teaches me to treat others with dignity and respect,” the new Democratic governor told his audience outside the state Capitol. “My faith also teachers forgiveness.” “That’s why on Thursday I will sign an executive order restoring voting rights to over a hundred thousand men and women who have done wrong in the past but are doing right now. They deserve to participate in our great democracy,”...

The election of Beshear has been eating at me. It shouldn't have happened, and now that it has a lot of voters, teachers, and teachers unions in the commonwealth are feeling pretty smug with themselves. But they shouldn't because this is one of those, "be careful what you wish for" lessons. Here is what I'm talking about: Gov Bevin was a great advocate for individual liberty in the commonwealth. Bevin fought for the 2nd Amendment rights to protect yourselves and got constitutional carry passed, over the objections of Beshear. Gov. Bevin fought for your 1st Amendment rights and was able...

There is a silver lining to the Kentucky Governer's election results that should scare the hell out of dimocrats and give new hope to Bluegrass Republicans. 1. Bevin had a bad case of foot in mouth disease. However, he wasn't any worse than any other non-politician. What made it so bad was the fact that ALL major TV and news papers in the Commonwealth are virulently liberal. When Bevin did good things the media would turn it around and trash him. When he slipped up they made seem like he was the second coming of Hitler, and then they plain...

Kentucky voters had a clear choice in the gubernatorial race when it comes to abortion politics today. And in the end the pro-life governor who served women and unborn children so proudly went home in defeat to a Democrat who fundraised with an abortionist. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has a strong pro-life record by defending unborn babies and cracking down on abortion businesses for not following the law. His opponent, Democrat Andy Beshear, has a radical pro-abortion stance. As state attorney general, he refused to defend a Kentucky law that protects unborn babies from abortions after 20 weeks. Voters unfortunately...

Andy Beshear Democrat 615,653 50.2% Matt Bevin* Republican 586,845 47.8 John Hicks Libertarian 24,070 2.0 1,226,568 votes, 84% reporting

Live Coverage and drop down list for each race with county by county results: https://www.ket.org/election/election-results or click link below:

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) - A new poll shows Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear are in a dead heat just weeks ahead of November's gubernatorial election. A Mason-Dixon Kentucky Poll shows both Bevin and Beshear have 46 percent of the vote. Libertarian John Hicks has one percent while seven percent of voters remain undecided. There is a margin of error of no more than four percentage points. The polling lines up with a Politico report which said Bevin is gaining ground in the governor's race. He was down eight percent against Beshear in Mason-Dixon's December 2018 poll. The...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear picked up a key endorsement the day before voters head to the polls. NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed Beshear on Monday, saying he's "always been there to defend Kentuckians' rights and freedoms." “Now more than ever, as women’s fundamental freedoms are under attack, Kentuckians need their leaders to fight to protect reproductive rights," Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a news release. "Kentucky is one of several states that passed an extreme ban on abortion this year, criminalizing abortion before many women even know they’re pregnant, in large part...

LOUISVILLE — Attorney General Andy Beshear made his first campaign stop for the 2019 race for the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Louisville on Monday morning, with a message focused on teachers and the future of Kentucky. The Louisville announcement on Monday morning was the first for Beshear, and his running mate, Jacqueline Coleman, an educator and founder of non-profit LEAD Kentucky — a program that recruits and trains college women in an effort to build the next generation of leaders. The slate planned seven stops across the Commonwealth on Monday and Tuesday to announce their campaign.

Steve Beshear, the former governor of Kentucky, has been tapped to deliver the Democratic party's response to President Donald Trump's address to both house of Congress for one big reason. The move may seem odd. Beshear currently holds no elected office after his second term expired in 2015 (Kentucky has a two-term limit for governors) and is not the traditional idea of a "rising star" in the party that typically uses the spot to launch themselves into the national spotlight.

Democrats did President Donald Trump a favor by picking former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear to give the Party’s rebuttal to the president’s joint sessions speech. The former governor, who was defeated by Republican Matt Bevin, provided a stark contrast to an energetic, charismatic president. And, apparently, he forgot which party he belongs to.

The Democrat giving the response to President Trump’s congressional address Tuesday seemed to have forgotten what party he was representing — when he inexplicably called himself a Republican during his address. “I’m a proud Democrat, but first and foremost, I’m a proud Republican, and Democrat, and mostly, American,” former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said via telecast from a diner in his home state. It was not clear why Beshear called himself a “proud Republican,” but the small group of supporters surrounding him did not seem to balk as he flip-flopped affiliations.

State Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer responds to Steve Beshear's Democratic Response to President Trump's address.

...Bensenhaver, 58, decided to retire Wednesday, telling Beshear in her letter of resignation that she was leaving “under considerable duress” and was concerned about his office’s commitment to Open Records and Open Meetings law enforcement. She had received a stern reprimand in July from a Beshear lieutenant, who cited her “lack of good conduct and a poor performance of work duties.” Bensenhaver was criticized for refusing to sign her name to an open records decision with which she disagreed, and twice editing opinions after they had been approved by supervisors. Bensenhaver said she simply removed a footnote that was factually...

A longtime champion of Kentucky’s government transparency laws retired Wednesday from Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office after she was reprimanded for speaking with a journalist. “I came to this decision under considerable duress,” Assistant Attorney General Amye L. Bensenhaver, 58, wrote last month to Beshear. “It is clear to me I cannot survive, much less thrive, in the current office climate, and I have similar concerns about the open records/meetings laws.” Bensenhaver was rebuked in a formal letter July 11 for giving an interview to retired editor John Nelson for a story he wrote in June on the 40th anniversary...

Despite a lower bid, Democrats couldn’t stop Monday’s approval of the $500,000 contract to carry out Gov. Matt Bevin’s investigation of the former Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration. The Democrats also criticized awarding the contract to a firm they said employs multiple Kentucky Republican Party operatives. The Government Contract Review Committee, made up of three Republicans and three Democrats, listened to testimony from Finance and Administration Cabinet Sec. William Landrum concerning the contract given to Indianapolis based law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister. Bevin announced in April that Landrum would undertake the investigation after former Personnel Secretary Tim Longmeyer was charged...

Kentucky’s Republican governor on Tuesday ordered an investigation into what he described as wrongdoing under his Democratic predecessor, charging that state employees were coerced into contributing to political campaigns and that a contract was improperly steered to a politically connected company. Gov. Matt Bevin’s allegation of “greed and oftentimes corruption” escalates the feud between the new governor, who took office in December, and the Beshear family: former Gov. Steven L. Beshear and his son Andy, the state attorney general. On April 11, Andy Beshear sued Mr. Bevin, saying the governor acted illegally in cutting higher education spending without approval by...

After two terms in office, former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has a fight on his hands to convince first-year Republican Gov. Matt Bevin to halt a rollback of the state’s health insurance exchange and transition expanded Medicaid recipients to the federal government. If Bevin is successful in transitioning services, Kentucky would be the first state in the nation to shut down a working state exchange. Beshear has created a non-profit group, Save Kentucky Healthcare, to oppose changes to the healthcare system he put in place during his tenure. Kentucky’s exchange was heralded as a national success under the Affordable Care...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Records have revealed that on its last day in office, Kentucky's Steve Beshear administration awarded a no-bid contract of about $3 million to a technology company that retains the husband of one of Beshear's top officials as a consultant and employs one of Beshear's former officials as a lobbyist. Citing records it obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act, The Courier-Journal reports that on Dec. 7 the administration awarded a contract to SAS Institute of Cary, North Carolina to extend work that SAS was doing in analyzing data to detect fraud in billings made to Medicaid...