Andy Beshear Calls for Abolishing the Electoral College and Term Limits for SCOTUS

The Wish List No One Expected From a Kentucky Governor

Appearing on CBS News' Face the Nation, Beshear laid out what he called a "fix the darn government" constitutional amendment that would, if you're keeping score, do more structural damage to the current rigged political setup than anything a Democrat has proposed in decades. We're talking about enshrining part of the Voting Rights Act into the constitution, ending Citizens United, creating term limits for Congress and Supreme Court justices, banning partisan redistricting, and scrapping the Electoral College in favor of direct popular vote elections for president.

Host Ed O'Keefe seemed genuinely caught off guard by that last one. "I didn't realize you support abolishing the Electoral College," he said, as if Beshear had just announced he was moving to Mars. Beshear's response was basically: yeah, I've said this before, keep up. His reasoning was blunt and actually pretty hard to argue with. He pointed out that in Kentucky, a state everyone has already decided will go red, no presidential candidate ever bothers to show up. Direct elections would force candidates to earn votes everywhere instead of playing a seven-state shell game every four years.

The Socialism Poll That Broke Breakfast Tables Everywhere

Before Beshear got to his constitutional revolution pitch, O'Keefe opened with a CBS News poll finding that 58% of Democrats now have a positive view of socialism, while only 32% have a positive view of capitalism. To be clear: that is a staggering number, and it is the kind of data point that turns Fox News green rooms into emergency rooms.

Beshear's answer was careful and, honestly, pretty shrewd. He said flatly that he believes socialism is "a failed experiment," then immediately pivoted to why people are feeling that way. The cost of groceries. The cost of gas. The impossibility of seeing a doctor without going broke. The fact that buying a house before you turn 40 now feels like winning a lottery. He wasn't dismissing the poll. He was diagnosing it. People aren't falling in love with socialism, he argued. They're falling out of love with a system that keeps failing them.

Whether that framing holds up under the pressure of a national campaign is another question entirely. Republicans will not be reading the fine print. They will be running that 58% number on billboards from now until the heat death of the universe.

His Record, Which He Will Absolutely Be Talking About Constantly

Beshear made sure to work in his Kentucky credentials, because if you're going to run for president as a Democrat from a deeply red state, the numbers have to do some serious lifting. He told CBS News he's created more jobs than any governor in Kentucky history and that the average wage for a new job in the state this year is over $32 an hour. He also pointed to affordable housing being built in Eastern and Western Kentucky on top of abandoned coal mines, with solar panels on the roofs to keep utility costs down.

That last detail is worth sitting with for a second. Affordable housing on top of reclaimed coal land, powered by solar. In Kentucky. Beshear knows exactly what he's doing when he leads with that, because it's the kind of story that cuts through a lot of the usual left-right noise. You can't really argue with a coal miner's family paying less rent because there are solar panels on the roof.

Is He Running or Isn't He, Come On

Beshear is currently chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, which has him traveling the country helping elect Democratic governors in places like Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, and Nevada. He told CBS News that Democratic primary turnout in Alabama doubled, which he said he's never seen before. He is clearly building something.

When O'Keefe pointed out that Beshear is traveling constantly, appearing on national TV, and previously said his presidential decision comes after his DGA chairmanship ends in December, then asked what exactly is left to decide, Beshear gave the most politician answer possible. He said he hasn't made a final decision. He refused to "leave a broken country" to his kids. He said whatever his role is moving forward, he wants to bring the country back together. That is, for the record, what someone running for president says. Nobody does a national tour and a constitutional amendment platform for fun.

The Democratic Party also officially set its 2028 primary calendar on Saturday, with six states now voting before March 2028. O'Keefe noted Beshear has been particularly active in South Carolina. Beshear called himself a "pragmatist" and a "pro-business Democrat," which is either a genuine governing philosophy or exactly what you say when you're trying to win a primary without scaring moderates off.