10 MOTHER JONES |^ SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019
OUTFRONTALVARODOMINGUEZgov. matt bevin was praising Kentuckians as
“the most hospitable people on the earth,” but
you could barely make out his remarks over
the chorus of boos. He was speaking in May
at the Kentucky Derby’s trophy presentation,
and observers would later debate whether the
jeers were intended for Bevin, who polls show
is the nation’s most unpopular governor, or
for race officials, who had disqualified the
favorite and Triple Crown contender,
Maximum Security. The answer, it seemed,
was a little of each.
Bevin had revved up his reelection cam-
paign earlier that day, airing his first ad
during the Derby coverage, a prime way to
reach a wide swath of his state. As Churchill Downs, the
site of the famous horse race, faded to commercial, viewers
received one clear message: If you’re for President Donald
Trump, you should back Matt Bevin. “President Trump is
taking America to new heights, but it hasn’t been easy. People
are afraid of change, but I’m not. Neither is the president,
and together our changes are working,” Bevin said in the ad,
as images of the two flashed across the screen, culminating
with Bevin flashing a thumbs-up next to a smiling Trump.
For Bevin, winning a second term should be a breeze. He’s
running in a state Trump won by 30 percent. Trump still gets
high marks in polls there, and Republicans fully control the
state government. But as Election Day nears, Bevin is flail-
ing. In May’s Republican primary, he won just 52 percent of
the vote in a race against three nominal challengers, a paltry
showing for a sitting governor.
Bevin’s unpopularity appears to be less about Kentuckians
rejecting his conservative agenda than voters growing tired of
their governor’s unfiltered, Trumpian persona and penchant
for generating headlines with ill-advised remarks. “Many
Kentuckians see their governor as the personification of
the state,” says Al Cross, the longtime dean of the state’s
political press at the Louisville Courier-Journal and now a
journalism professor at the University of Kentucky. “And
this is a state that often comes in for ridicule. Socioeco-
nomically and demographically, culturally, we get looked
down on by people on the coasts. And often get made fun
of. And Kentuckians are sensitive to that. They don’t want
their governor to be a jerk.”Bevin often takes to social media to spout off and pick
fights with his many critics. “Boy, it takes so little to trigger
a whiny liberal,” he stated in a video posted to Facebook
last October. “Let the whiners whine. I love the fact that
you’re this easily upset.”
There has been plenty to whine about—and it’s not just lib-
erals who have been up in arms. When Bevin visited a chess
club at a majority-black and -Latino school in West Louisville,
he said this activity was “not something you necessarily would
have thought of when you think of this section of town.” After
the Parkland mass shooting in Florida, Bevin posted a video
calling for an “honest conversation”—about violent video
games, films, and music. Bevin angered public health offi-
cials when, in the course of decrying government-mandated
vaccines—“this is America, and the federal government should
not be forcing this upon people”—he described exposing his
children at a chickenpox party. Last winter, Bevin even man-
aged to piss off Today show co-anchor Al Roker by complaining
that “we’re getting soft” when a record cold snap forced school
closures in Kentucky. “This nitwit governor in Kentucky, saying,
‘Oh, we’re weak,’” Roker said. “These are kids, who are going to
be in subzero windchill. No, cancel school. Stop it!”
No one really foresaw Bevin’s rise. He grew up in rural New
Hampshire and joined the Army before moving to Louisville
in 1999 and founding an investment firm that notched him
a net worth of at least $15 million, according to a disclosure
he filed in 2014, when he first ran for political office. That
first campaign ended in stinging defeat, as Bevin tried to ride
the tea party wave and unseat then–Senate Minority LeaderTEACHABLE MOMENTCIVICS
LESSON
Gov. Matt Bevin should be a
shoo-in for reelection. But
Kentucky’s educators could give
him a failing grade in November.