Andrew "Andy" Beshear

Submission 8,375

About

Andrew “Andy” Graham Beshear is the current Governor of Kentucky where he has served since December 2019. Beshear is the son of former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and a member of the Democratic Party. During the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic, he was praised for his leadership and daily news conferences, which sparked a wave of memes.

Career

Beshear attended Vanderbilt University and received a degree in political science and anthropology before receiving his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law. Before his career in politics, he worked as an attorney for the Stites & Harbison law firm. In 2015, Beshear defeated Whitney Westerfield by 0.2 percent to become Kentucky’s Attorney General, where he served for one term before running for governor in 2019. Beshear then won over incumbent Governor Matt Bevin and was inaugurated on December 10th, 2019.

Since the election, Beshear has been commended by many for his work as governor, especially during the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic. During the viral outbreak, Beshear held press conferences each day at 5 p.m. to cover the latest news on COVID-19, receiving admiration for his leadership during the crisis.

Online History

Following Beshear’s daily news conferences covering the coronavirus, several memes began appearing online as users from several sites and platforms began praising the Kentucky Governor for his handling of the situation.

On March 20th, 2020, the Facebook^[1] group Andy Beshear Memes For Social Distancing Teens was created and garnered over 145,000 members in less than a week. Since then, members have generated numerous memes in both photos and videos. One such example was posted by Facebook^[2] user Holly Kaitlyn Lindsey on March 26th, 2020, depicting Beshear wearing blue jeans during one of his press conferences. The meme (seen below) received over 3,100 likes, 386 shares and 49 comments.

Another meme (shown below) from Facebook^[3] user Meagan Raymer on March 26th, 2020, referencing the Governor was liked over 1,200 times and shared 156 times.

On Twitter,^[4] user apatheticicon tweeted a slew of Beshear memes on March 22nd, 2020, under the caption “the best thing to come out of this coronavirus pandemic are the f---ing memes of Kentucky’s governor Andy Beshear.” The tweet (seen below) received 174 likes and 45 retweets.

Imgur^[5] user Lifeisharddeathissoftlol uploaded a gallery of Beshear memes on March 22nd, 2020, with the title “For anyone who doesn't know how lit Kentucky politics is, a Beshear love dump.” The collection of memes (one of which is shown below) has been viewed over 86,000 times and given nearly 1,500 points.

On Reddit, many other users have also posted their meme creations to various subs. Redditor^[6] herecomesthedrums posted an example (seen below) on March 23rd, 2020, to the r/Louisville sub, receiving over 500 upvotes and 41 comments.