Matt Bevin, running mate, make first campaign visit to Nelson County

Matt Bevin, the Republican nominee for governor, shakes hands with Shonna Sheckles Wednesday afternoon at the Bardstown Farmers Market.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Wednesday, June 10, 2015, 5 p.m. — Republican nominee for governor Matt Bevin and running mate Jenean Hampton made their first post-primary election visit Wednesday to Bardstown and Nelson County.

Bevin and Hampton’s first stop was radio station WBRT for an interview on the “Bradford & Brooks” radio show with hosts Margie Bradford and Jim Brooks. From there, the pair traveled to Handy Food Mart for lunch and an opportunity to meet and greet area residents. Bevin and Hampton then met with a group of Republican and Democratic voters at the Bardstown Farmer’s Market pavilion.

Jenean Hampton, left, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, shakes hands with Brenda Alexander Wednesday afternoon at the Bardstown Farmer’s Market pavilion.

Bevin acknowledged that as the Republican nominee, he will need the support of Democrat voters to be successful in the November general election, and if elected, the support of Democratic legislators to enact provisions in his seven-point “Blueprint for a Better Kentucky.”

“I’m mindful of the fact that we have to be smart and think of how we build coalitions and how we can reach across the aisle and figure out how to make Kentucky better,” he said. “Talk is cheap, and I can sit here and say anything I want to say, and its just noise unless we back it up.”

Bevin said he wants to challenge voters to look at his and Hampton’s experience and backgrounds. “Look at where we’ve come from and the things we have done,” he said. “We truly represent Kentucky.”

Bevin introduced Hampton to the audience as his running mate as “the best and smartest part of our ticket.”

Bardstown Councilwoman Kecia Copeland asks a question about veterans’ issues the Matt Bevin meet and greet event Wednesday afternoon at the Bardstown Farmer’s Market.

Hampton is a native of Detroit who credits her mother for instilling in her important values while raising three children as a poor single-parent. “I learned by watching her that the right answers aren’t always easy, and the easy answers aren’t always right.”

Hampton said she and her sisters were the first in their family to go to college. “We should have ended up as statistics — inner-city black females — but we didn’t, we all are doing very well in our own way.”

She worked for General Motors to pay her through college, graduating with an industrial engineering degree, then spent seven years in the U.S. Air Force, including a tour during Desert Storm.

Hampton met Bevin several years ago when she was part of a group who vetted Bevin when he first began to consider running for the U.S. Senate. He chose her as his running mate because he wanted someone who was as independent as he was.

Bevin said he and Hampton are unique as a ticket, and was critical of politicians who don’t follow-through with action.

“We talk a big game in the political world, especially the Republican side,” he said. “We talk about being “the open party” and “the open door” and being “the big tent,” but in all due respect, to most people who say it, its just noise. Maybe they mean it, but the delivery is different.”

Bevin told the gathering he believes growing up in a rural family with modest income helped instill the value of money and a Christian work ethic. As a veteran, Bevin said he understand the issues veterans face. In business, he said he’s created hundreds of jobs in his investments in a number of different businesses.

“That’s the difference between me and Jack Conway,” Bevin said. “He’s done very little work in the private sector.”

Bevin noted that the Democratic Party had a “spy” in the audience who was there specifically to record what he says as he travels the state in the run-up to the November election.

“Here’s the reality of it — that’s what they’ve got. They’re hoping we’ll say something crazy to you that they can use against us,” Bevin said. “If the solution is to somehow make us look somehow bad because they have nothing to offer, that’s unfortunate.”

Bevin was critical of Conway’s lack of experience in the private sector and actually creating jobs. “He’s never created a job in his entire life,” he said. “He can read talking points, but talk is cheap. Actions matter.”

In responding to audience questions, Bevin agreed with comments that Kentucky needs to do more for veterans who live here. He promised — if elected — to put a veteran in charge of veteran affairs in Kentucky. He said the state may not be able to afford to do everything it should, but that shouldn’t prevent state government from doing everything it can to improve services to veterans in need.

He also said he would work to help encourage improvement in education, particularly in areas with schools that have been failing academically, and he supports competition in education in those areas.

In response to a question about restoring voting rights for felons, Bevin said he agreed that certain felony offender should have their voting rights automatically restored.

“We have overcriminalized this nation and this state,” he said. “We have 10 times more people incarcerated in Kentucky than we did when I was a kid. There’s a need for incarceration for some people but we just have to be smarter about how we do it.”

Bevin promised that he will run a clean campaign that will focus on issues important to Kentuckians. As governor, he said he will be bold and challenge the status quo. Bevin said he’s willing to use his position as governor as a bully pulpit to try to get things accomplished in the legislature.

Bevin was critical of the General Assembly’s inability to pass important legislation, citing the legislation regarding high school bathroom use the type of “nonsense that’s hurting our state.”

With a politically divided General Assembly — Democrats control the state House and Republicans control the state Senate — Bevin said he understood the importance of putting forth ideas that benefit the most people which can bring together bipartisan support.

Bevin said if he is elected governor he has no plans to make politics a career.

“When someone spends decades and decades somewhere, you become part of the problem,” Bevin said, “You become stale and stagnant.”

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