White House rushes to help Kentucky governor as new poll has him down 9 points
Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to visit Kentucky Thursday, following visits from both his dad and Mike Pence.
Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky has received multiple visits from the Trump White House to boost his upcoming reelection campaign, hinting at an unusual level of GOP weakness in an extremely red state.
Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Kentucky three weeks ago and hailed Bevin for supposedly helping to fight against the opioid crisis. (Trump’s administration has attempted to cut funding for treatment.)
Following in Pence’s footsteps, Trump visited Kentucky last Wednesday to tout Bevin, praising him for doing “an incredible job” as a “truly great governor.” Trump also helped Bevin raise money for his campaign at a party fundraiser.
Now Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to visit Bevin’s home state on Thursday to hold a rally for the governor.
The full-press Trump team effort comes as recent polling shows weakness for Bevin. A poll taken from August 12–13 showed Bevin losing by 9 percentage points to Democrat Andy Beshear, who is currently serving as Kentucky’s attorney general. A different poll, taken a week later, showed Beshear leading Bevin by the same margin.
Trump easily won Kentucky in the 2016 presidential election, earning 62.5% of the vote. Bevin won his race by 9 points in 2015.
But since that triumph, Bevin’s standing has plummeted. He is the least popular governor in the entire country, with an approval rating of 32%.
Bevin was widely criticized last April for saying the school closures that occurred when teachers went on strike for critical education funding led to children being “sexually assaulted.”
Earlier this year, Bevin connected the tragic death of a 7-year-old girl who was shot by an older child to the strike, claiming that it happened on a day where people were “pretending to be sick when they weren’t sick.”
In January, Bevin said children were “going soft” because schools closed when the wind chill brought temperatures to 15 below zero (where frostbite can occur).
Bevin has also been under fire for repeated attempts to take health care away from Kentucky residents. He spearheaded a plan to kick 95,000 people off the state’s Medicaid system and threatened to end the state’s Medicaid expansion, which would have affected coverage for 450,000.
Over a year before the election, Bevin now requires a significant investment of time and resources from Trump, the most well-known and powerful Republican leader. It is not a sign of strength.
Published with permission of the American Independent.
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