In order to bring you the best possible user experience, this site uses Javascript. If you are seeing this message, it is likely that the Javascript option in your browser is disabled. For optimal viewing of this site, please ensure that Javascript is enabled for your browser.
 
Current Governors:
Alabama
Alaska
American Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Northern Mariana Islands
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virgin Islands
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Governor's Information
Printprintable version
Kentucky Governor Steven L. Beshear
Born:  September 21, 1944
Birth State:  Kentucky
Party:  Democrat
Spouse:  Jane Beshear
Family:  Married Jane Beshear; two children
Religion:  Baptist
School(s):  University of Kentucky
Address: The Capitol Building
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100
Frankfort, KY
40601
Phone: 502/564-2611
Fax: 502/564-0437

Governor's Web Site
State Web Site

STEVEN L. BESHEAR is a native of Dawson Springs in Hopkins County, Kentucky, where he was one of five children of a Baptist minister and a mother dedicated to her community. Beshear has a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Kentucky, where he was president of the student body. He also served as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he carried out certain judge advocate general duties.

An attorney by profession, Beshear has a long background in public service. During three terms as state representative, Beshear helped modernize the Kentucky Judicial System and proposed legislation that resulted in the modernization and more than doubling of neo-natal capacities at the University of Kentucky Hospital. As attorney general, Beshear saved countless taxpayer dollars by successfully cracking down on statewide food stamp fraud and pursued several controversial investigations involving state government employees. As lieutenant governor, Beshear helped push for reform of the child welfare system. He also created and spearheaded the Kentucky Tomorrow Commission, a strategic planning initiative that identified daunting challenges facing the state then and far into the future. Beshear took nearly two decades off to practice law before entering a crowded field in the governor's race.

Beshear was elected governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in November 2007. As governor, Beshear has helped restore public trust by creating a culture of integrity in state government that has including rooting out cronyism and implementing stronger ethics standards. He has also streamlined spending with a trimming of the state workforce, implemented a more efficient way of designing and building roads and won bipartisan support for a complex reform of the beleaguered public pension system.

Beshear has focused on initiatives to help Kentucky families including expanding efforts to bring health coverage to 35,000 uninsured children, designing a plan to bring prescription drugs to those who can't afford them, securing "bridge" funding to save Kentucky's student loan agency and calling for a new analysis on higher education affordability and access.

He and his wife, Jane, have been married since 1969. They co-own a horse farm in Clark County. They have two sons—Jeff, a veterinarian; and Andy, an attorney—and one grandson. Beshear has long been deeply involved in the community, and his various civic activities include such organizations as CommerceLexington Inc., the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation, God's Pantry Food Bank, Bluegrass Tomorrow, the Kentucky World Trade Center, and the UK College of Law Visiting Committee.

National Governors Association, 444 N. Capitol St., Suite 267, Washington, D.C. 20001-1512 | (202) 624-5300
Copyright © 2004 National Governors Association. All rights reserved.