Jacqueline Coleman was a hit at Lou Nell Busby's hospitality room
By BERRY CRAIG
Alliance for Retired Americans
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman was greeted with smiles and applause when she visited Lou Nell Busby's American Income Life Insurance Co. hospitality room the night before the biennial Kentucky State AFL-CIO convention at Lexington's Embassy Suites hotel.
Coleman, who was a public school teacher, coach and administrator, said she and Gov. Andy Beshear, both Democrats, know "unions built the middle class and the middle class built this commonwealth and this country. We respect and support that."
The state AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed the Beshear-Coleman ticket in 2019 and this year. Beshear spoke to the convention and received a similarly warm welcome.
A member of the Kentucky Education Association, Coleman said she felt a special kinship with organized labor because Republican Matt Bevin attacked both groups, often personally, when he was governor. He and a majority of Republican lawmakers teamed up to pass a "right to work" law and abolish the prevailing wage and they and Bevin went after teachers' pensions. Union members and teachers thronged the Capitol in protest.
Unions and teachers played a big role in Beshear's election over Bevin in 2019 and his reelection last month, when he defeated Attorney Gen. Daniel Cameron, the GOP nominee. Doubtless unions and the KEA will be visible at tomorrow's inauguration ceremonies.
Cameron ran as a hard-right, Trump-endorsed MAGA cultural warrior. He never missed a chance to demonize Beshear and President Joe Biden.
Beshear, a moderate, stressed his leadership in guiding Kentucky through the COVID pandemic and catastrophic tornado and flood emergencies at opposite ends of the state. He also pointed to a booming economy on his watch.
In his campaign kickoff speech at the Fancy Farm picnic in August, Beshear criticized Cameron and the GOP for “trying to pit us against each other, calling everybody names who disagrees with them, telling you it’s okay to yell at, even hate, your fellow Kentuckians.”
The governor said he was “ready to prove that’s a losing strategy in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”
His victory "proved that the culture war game did not work this time," according to Coleman. "We stayed focused on things people care about."
A smiling Coleman worked the hospitality room, collecting handshakes and hugs from convention delegates. "Thank you for what you did to help us get elected," she said. "You all know we have your back."
Busby, an AIL representative, is a member of OPEIU Local 277. A veteran trade unionist, she was elected to the state AFL-CIO Executive Board at the convention.