Crises forge Beshear’s role as Kentucky’s consoler in chief

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — Derrek McIntosh was left homeless twice within weeks — first by floodwaters that destroyed his eastern Kentucky home, then when a fire burned down the house he stayed in with relatives. “Every time that we can put aside red or blue, D or R, and just focus on things that are good for our families, are the times that we jump in front of every other state that can’t do that,” the governor said recently at the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s annual ham breakfast. “I think his personal image is right side up, but his party’s image is decidedly upside-down,” said Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based Republican political commentator and former adviser to President George W. Bush. Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, among the Republicans running for governor, led a legal fight against Beshear’s pandemic restrictions on businesses and gatherings, winning before the Kentucky Supreme Court. “I can’t believe he’s doing as much as he’s doing here,” McIntosh said, “trying to help all us eastern Kentuckians.” ___ Associated Press writer Mike Catalini in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.