Kentucky’s lieutenant governor says she didn’t vote for her boss: Bevin ‘lost my vote’

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton (R) said Tuesday that she didn’t vote for her boss, saying Gov. Matt Bevin (R) lost her vote.

Hampton said in an interview with local television station WDRB that she voted for Libertarian candidate John Hicks instead after “a very difficult decision.” Bevin ended up losing the election to state Attorney General Andy Beshear (D).

“I did not vote for him,” she said referring to Bevin. “I didn’t. It was his to lose, and he lost it. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. He lost my vote. I’m really sad to say that.”

At the beginning of Bevin’s administration, Hampton became the first African American to win statewide office in Kentucky. She said she and Bevin got along well then and that she even turned down a job in President Trump’s administration, she told WDRB.

But a couple of years ago, Bevin started suggesting Hampton would be replaced for his next administration, and he decided to run with state Sen. Ralph Alvarado.

In May, Hampton tweeted that she was battling “dark forces” and later shared the governor’s administration was firing two of her staffers without her consent. The lieutenant governor then took the governor to court in case that she ended up losing. 

Hampton told the TV station that Bevin’s alleged mistreatment of her contributed to his loss, although she is not celebrating the fact that he didn’t win.

“It makes me sad that he won’t have a second term because he got a lot of things done,” she said. “He really did get a lot of things done in these four years, but how you treat people matters.”

The governor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Trump campaigned for Bevin, doing rallies in Kentucky, and expressed disappointed when Bevin lost the 2019 election.