Brown Jr. As attorney general, Beshear issued an opinion that copies of the Ten Commandments must be removed from the walls of the state's classrooms in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Stone v. Graham.

He also clashed with first lady Phyllis George Brown when he opposed the practice of charging an admission fee for visitors to view the renovated governor's mansion.

In 2007, Beshear was drawn back into politics by the vulnerability of incumbent Republican governor Ernie Fletcher, whose administration was under extended investigation by then-Attorney General Greg Stumbo, over violations of the state's merit system.

[2] While in college, he attended Lexington Primitive Baptist Church and often had lunch at the home of Harold and Marie Fletcher, whose son Ernie he would eventually challenge for the governorship of Kentucky.

[10][11] As a legislator, Beshear gained a reputation as a consumer advocate, and sponsored bills to increase environmental protections and end the practice of commercial bail bonding.

[15] As attorney general, Beshear created the state's first Medicaid fraud division and his office took a leading role in the Leviticus Project, an eight-state coalition committed to prosecuting organized crime in the country's coal fields.

In a seven-candidate Democratic primary in May, Beshear captured 183,662 of the 575,022 votes cast to defeat a field that included former state Auditor George L. Atkins, Jefferson County judge executive Todd Hollenbach, Agriculture Commissioner Alben Barkley II, and former Kentucky Wildcats basketball star Bill Spivey.

[23] Beshear denied advocating for gun control and charged that Stuart, a state senator from Jefferson County, had not shown any leadership worthy of election to the lieutenant governor's office.

During his service as lieutenant governor, Beshear formed and chaired the Kentucky Tomorrow Commission, a privately financed group assembled to make recommendations for the state's future growth and development.

[31][32] In 1987, Beshear entered a crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary that included former governor Julian Carroll, millionaire bookstore magnate Wallace Wilkinson, and Eastern Kentucky physician Grady Stumbo.

[33] Beshear had the backing of the Collins administration and the endorsement of several labor leaders and the state teachers' association; he appeared to be the front-runner in the race until former governor John Y.

[37] Beshear entered the primary as a heavy favorite against Tom Barlow, a former one-term Congressman from Kentucky's First District, and Shelby Lanier, a retired Louisville police officer.

[39] The campaign turned personal during the second of two debates between the two candidates when McConnell charged that the Iroquois Hunt Club, to which Beshear belonged, had no African-American members and was racially discriminatory.

[48] By the filing deadline, the list of Democratic challengers had grown to include Louisville millionaire businessman Bruce Lunsford, former lieutenant governor Steve Henry, Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives Jody Richards, and perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith.

[49] Early polls showed that Beshear and Henry led the Democratic field in name recognition, but both trailed Fletcher and his Republican primary rival Anne Northup in that area.

[50] Early in the campaign, Beshear attempted to set himself apart from the other candidates by supporting a constitutional amendment that would allow expanded casino gambling in the state, which he claimed could generate $500 million in new revenue without the need to raise taxes.

[48] Observers noted that this strategy was remarkably similar to the one used by Wallace Wilkinson who, in his 1987 primary victory over Beshear and others, trumpeted the revenue a state lottery would generate.

[53] Buoyed by these endorsements, Beshear surged ahead and won the primary; he garnered 40.9 percent of the vote, just enough to avoid a costly runoff election with Lunsford, the second-place finisher.

[55] In June 2007, Fletcher backed off an earlier commitment to let Kentuckians vote on casino gambling amendment; a campaign staffer told reporters that "The voters will have their chance to decide this issue in [the] November [election].

[59] On January 26, 2009, Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent senator Jim Bunning (who later chose to retire instead) in the 2010 senatorial election.

[62] Perennial candidate Gatewood Galbraith sought the governorship as an independent after collecting the requisite 5,000 signatures from registered voters requesting that his name be added to the ballot.

[64] Beshear was dealt the first political setback of his term in the special election to fill the state Senate seat of his lieutenant governor, Daniel Mongiardo.

[67] Beshear expressed surprise that the budget issues consumed so much of the Assembly's time during the session, but admitted that the legislature had become much more independent of the governor than it was when he was a legislator two decades earlier.

[70] A competing measure, drafted by House Majority Whip Rob Wilkey and Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, would have allowed all nine licenses to be awarded competitively, with none specifically reserved for racetracks.

On July 31, 2008, a Lexington judge sided with Beshear, invalidating the law and declaring that the General Assembly would no longer be allowed to use the practice of stopping the clocks; he did not rule on the validity of the other bills passed after the session expired.

[77] The plan called for expansion of solar, wind, and biomass energy generation, as well as more speculative ventures such as coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration.

Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway issued a non-binding opinion that the hiring was illegal under state law, and Cowgill resigned rather than wage a legal battle with Beshear.

Beshear hoped that the House would suspend the rules, as they had in previous years, in order to consider bills to increase funding to public defenders, create a transportation authority to oversee bridge-building projects in Louisville and Henderson, and provide various economic incentives, including a package intended to lure a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race to Kentucky Speedway.

[92] Later, Beshear amended the call to include the economic incentives package that was not approved during the regular session and, in light of Attorney General Conway's opinion on video lottery terminals, a measure to expand gambling in the state by statute.

[108][109] Beshear was chosen due to his successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Kentucky and to bring back the white, rural voters that Democrats felt they had lost in the 2016 presidential election.