Kentucky Democrat Governor Andy Beshear thought he’d get a good laugh mocking Ron DeSantis on The Daily Show last week.
He called DeSantis the worst governor in America.
But DeSantis walked straight into Beshear’s own state capital, put him on blast in front of Kentucky’s entire legislature, and made him look like exactly the kind of radical leftist he’s been trying to pretend he isn’t.
Beshear Threw the First Punch – and Missed
Jon Stewart asked Beshear to name the worst governor in the country, and the Kentucky Democrat didn’t hesitate.
“Ron DeSantis,” he said.
DeSantis found out about it the way most people find out about things – someone showed him the clip before he flew to Frankfort for a pre-planned trip to push for a balanced budget amendment.
His response was as simple as it was devastating.
“A guy that sends state police to try to block people from worshiping on Easter Sunday . . . a guy that’s obsessed with gender mutilation of minors – if that’s the person criticizing me, I wear that as a badge of honor.”
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That’s not a deflection.
That’s a factual recitation of what Andy Beshear actually did as governor of Kentucky – deployed troopers to record church-goers’ license plates during the pandemic, then vetoed legislation that would have protected Kentucky children from so-called gender transition procedures.
Beshear can call DeSantis the worst governor in America all he wants.
DeSantis just reminded every conservative in Kentucky what kind of governor they’ve actually been stuck with.
The Real Reason DeSantis Was in Kentucky
The trip wasn’t about scoring political points on Beshear – though that was a welcome bonus.
DeSantis was there to push something Washington, D.C. has refused to do for decades: force the federal government to live within its means.
The national debt now sits at roughly $38.65 trillion, and the Congressional Budget Office just projected deficits will average over 6% of GDP for the next decade – with the total debt load hitting 120% of the economy by 2035.
Every family in America knows you can’t spend more than you make forever.
Washington has been doing exactly that for 25 years straight – under both parties.
DeSantis told Kentucky lawmakers the honest truth: “We’ve had Democrats in office spend. We’ve had Republicans in office spend. This century has had debt after debt from the turn of the century on.”
His solution is a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget, passed through an Article V convention of states – the one mechanism that lets states bypass a Congress that refuses to discipline itself.
Twenty-eight states have already called for such a convention.
You only need 34 to trigger it.
Kentucky could be one step closer.
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Why This Matters Beyond the Beshear Theatrics
Here’s what the political class in Washington, D.C. doesn’t want you to understand about this balanced budget push.
This isn’t just fiscal policy.
It’s the last constitutional check on a government that has decided it can borrow its way out of every problem it creates – and stick your grandchildren with the bill.
U.S. Representative James Comer (R-KY) said it plainly in a recent op-ed: reaching 33 states might be enough to pressure Congress into acting on its own, the same way the threat of an Article V convention is what pushed Congress to propose the 17th Amendment more than a century ago.
Ronald Reagan understood this strategy.
He called for a balanced budget amendment for years, knowing that the credible threat of a convention is sometimes more powerful than the convention itself.
DeSantis is doing the legwork Reagan never fully completed – traveling state by state, sitting before legislative committees, making the case in person.
Kentucky could be the next state to move the needle.
And while Democrats on the Kentucky committee fretted about the “risks” of a constitutional convention, they offered nothing – absolutely nothing – as an alternative plan for a debt that is metastasizing by the hour.
DeSantis put it best: “At some point, reality is going to bite.”
The only question is whether the states force Washington to fix this before it bites – or whether they wait until it bites them.
Sources:
- McKenna Horsley, “Florida’s DeSantis jabs back at Beshear while in KY to push balanced budget amendment,” Kentucky Lantern, February 18, 2026.
- A.G. Gancarski, “In Kentucky, Ron DeSantis downplays 2028 plans, disses Andy Beshear, doesn’t stand by Thomas Massie,” Florida Politics, February 18, 2026.
- Congressman James Comer, “It’s Time to Finally Balance America’s Budget,” Lexington Herald-Leader via Comer.house.gov, January 2026.
- Louisville Public Media, “DeSantis visits Kentucky legislature, pitches US balanced budget amendment,” WFPL, February 18, 2026.
- House Budget Committee, “The Consequences of Debt,” Budget.house.gov.
- Bipartisan Policy Center, “Deficit Tracker,” BPC.org, February 2026.
