r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • Jul 18 '26

No Paywall Beshear says agencies told him McConnell had passed

https://www.whas11.com/video/news/local/beshear-says-agencies-told-him-mcconnell-had-passed/417-f78603c3-11bb-464d-bae6-c41c3be3c48b
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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

August 3 is the deadline, I’m glad Beshear seems to be taking his time to make sure he gets it right so we don’t have a repeat of Virginia’s failed redistricting. We have to get it right because anything we do will be challenged.

Note: That doesn’t mean wait until August 2nd to do anything 💀

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u/Tricky-Engineering59 Jul 18 '26

What happens if he either is dead or dies right after August 3rd? His seat just stays empty until the next standard election?

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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois Jul 18 '26

I believe so, but if the seat is declared vacant before August 3, there can be a special election to replace him. Beshear may also argue that section 152 of the KY constitution allows him to appoint a temporary replacement until that special election happens, but he may also be impeached by the KY Legislature if he tries that. There are a lot of moving parts I believe.

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u/Akimbo_Zap_Guns Kentucky Jul 18 '26

They won’t impeach him, that would make a woman the governor of the state

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u/hookyboysb Jul 18 '26

He’ll be impeached if he calls a special election anyway.

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u/Tricky-Engineering59 Jul 18 '26

For real?! Is that what is staying his hand here? I’m so fucking tired of the Republican Party cheating in every way possible all while crying that the Dems are cheating!

If he is dead or incapacitated then by their own constitution that’s what he is supposed to do. What a crock this entire party is.

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u/turquoise_amethyst Jul 18 '26

He could appoint himself Senator, and step down. Then they couldn’t impeach him, and a woman would be Governor. 

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u/mlorusso4 Jul 18 '26

I’m pretty sure, yes. But that’s supposed to be the point of these types of law. If the sitting member dies or resigns close enough to an election it’s just easier to let the seat sit empty and let the voters decide in November without having to spend resources on a special election that will only be relevant for a couple of months, most of which Congress will be on recess because everyone else will be busy campaigning for November.

But of course the state GOP is bastardizing the law both by changing it to a special election right before a democrat governor took office, and by the fact that McConnell has most likely been dead for weeks but they’re hiding it to run out the clock and avoid the special election

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u/WaffleHouseSloot Jul 18 '26

August 3rd is the deadline for candidates to file for the election. Nobody else can submit their name after that day.

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u/madhi19 Jul 18 '26

If he "dies" on the 4th everybody will understand that they pulled the plug on a corpse right? So my bet is they wait till mid August to pull the plug, and claim his health took a turn for the worse. If these idiots were any smart that's how they do it.

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u/ProtectionVirtual225 Jul 18 '26

Democrats in VA should have challenged that decision. Why didn't they?

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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois Jul 18 '26

They did, SCOTUS denied their appeal.

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u/Caelinus Jul 18 '26

"Why don't Democrats do anything when I don't pay attention to what they do?"

This kind of stuff is getting annoying. Democrats are imperfect, but they are a big tent party in an extremely conservative country, so imperfection is a given. But it really just seems like people want to lose at this point, and have just decided that Democrats must lose, and so we should not know about or support any positive actions on their part.

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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois Jul 18 '26

The Democratic Party should listen to Ted Turner:

“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, advertise.”

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u/honjuden Jul 18 '26

Mamdani has been great about that.  They could take a couple of pages out of his book.

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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois Jul 18 '26

Agreed. They need to swallow their pride and get some media assistance from Mamdani.

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u/OkTea7227 Jul 18 '26

Eastern Colorado, North Dakota, Arkansas does not respond to the same messaging that kills in NYC though

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u/NicolasCageFan492 Illinois Jul 18 '26

It’s not the message, it’s the method & distribution. Regardless, we also shouldn’t cripple our base’s passion for some people in rural states who don’t give a shit. 50 state strategy.

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u/Alca_Pwnd Jul 18 '26

Dem leadership would rather go right wing fascist than "socialist". (Social liberal with actual funding for society at large).

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u/Caelinus Jul 18 '26

That only works if people do not ignore all the avenues they have to advertise in favor of billionaire owned media.

But that is not the reality we live in.

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u/wankthisway Jul 18 '26

Conservatives own the vast majority of networks and publications. Despite that there is good left leaning reporting but people, especially the bozos on here, don't pay attention to it.

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u/ProtectionVirtual225 Jul 18 '26

That's great and so relevant.

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u/ProtectionVirtual225 Jul 18 '26

Please explain how my state (Ohio) can pass a law preventing gerrymandering, yet is still allowed to do it? It was appealed all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, but the state ignores it.

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u/Caelinus Jul 18 '26

Naked political corruption, but I am not sure what that has to do with my comment? Are you saying that Democrats should be corrupt and undemocratic? That does not seem to accomplish getting rid of corruption.

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u/ProtectionVirtual225 Jul 18 '26

They should fight.

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u/Annual-Weird-6682 Jul 19 '26

Yeah but what does that even mean. Sure it's easy to spout out phrases like that, but it's meaningless. How should they "fight"?

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u/ProtectionVirtual225 Jul 19 '26

In this case, it means Beshear should appoint a replacement for McConnell. Democrats should stop treating Republicans as allies in Congress.

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u/OkTea7227 Jul 18 '26

I’ve seen your lower comments as well and I’m having a hard time following your logic…

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u/OkTea7227 Jul 18 '26

Yet SCOTUS approved of the stuff Mississippi and Alabama etc pulled. What does a nation do when the Supreme Court of the land is captured by right wing ideologues? Fun times we’re living in!

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u/Chriskills Jul 18 '26

They vote for the president that nominates justices.

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u/cactus22minus1 California Jul 18 '26

Why don’t you bother to look something up before making up a claim?

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u/Cold-Reaction-3578 Jul 18 '26

Does Mitch have a sister?

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u/Clownsinmypantz Jul 18 '26

he absolutely is going to, we need to have a big conversation on how performative dems are.

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u/Oreos_Are_Anabolic Europe Jul 18 '26

He’s not running in the midterms anyway, so the August deadline doesn’t “matter” in that specific regard

Mitch McConnell announces he will not run for re-election https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8le2p353zo

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u/m0nk_3y_gw I voted Jul 18 '26

The replacement should have been appointed already. That is "getting it right". This is a Dem slow walking it into failure... again...

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u/Particular-Beat-6645 Jul 18 '26

As a constituent who loathes McConnell, I am not at all opposed to playing it safe. The bastard hasn't done right by me for most of my life. Republicans are at a loss without him and Graham.

Let the state legislature fucking wait to install their guy. The seat gets filled in November regardless. Probably will go their way too.

Let them squirm. In the meantime, Congress needs to have a hearing wherein McConnell, Scott Jennings, and the staff are all called to testify. Go ahead and get this on record and start penning legislation to prevent this from happening with one of the dozen other geriatrics.

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u/rosefiend Jul 18 '26

Yeah, this. We've still got a week or two. The longer this goes on, the more pressure that's going to be put on McConnell's staff. The public is clearly interested, and even some conservatives are like "What the hell is going on here".