Andy Beshear's "nepo baby" hurdle

Zoom in: "When people do the nepo baby thing to me, they say 'How old were you when your dad was elected governor?' And I look at them and say '30,'" Beshear, 48, told Axios.

• Beshear used a similar line in a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview last month, adding "As a lawyer, I did more free legal work for that man than anybody in my lifetime. He has still yet to repay me!"
• That leaves out the fact that the elder Beshear first won a seat in the Kentucky state House in 1973, four years before Andy was born. He then became the state attorney general when Andy was 2.
• Steve Beshear later became lieutenant governor and unsuccessfully ran for governor for the first time in 1987. He also tried to unseat Sen. Mitch McConnell in 1996 but failed.

• The elder Beshear ultimately became a popular governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015.

Andy Beshear has made "electability" part of his early pitch ahead of an expected White House run, a nod to the many Democratic voters and donors who are desperate to take back the White House.

• "I definitely think if I end up in this race, the fact that it's not whether I can win in a purple state — it's that I have won in a red state — is pretty compelling," he told Axios in Philadelphia when we met him backstage at a sold-out stop on his national book tour.
• "What it means is that I can work with everybody, offer a vision of the future where we're Americans first, and Democrats and Republicans third, fourth or fifth."
• He also told Politico last week that he thinks it would be more "challenging" for a governor from a blue state like California to win in 2028, hinting that other potential presidential contenders like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker could struggle to have a broad-enough appeal.

The intrigue: Some Democrats, including those working for Beshear's potential 2028 rivals, believe that his case is weaker than it looks at first blush — especially at a time when voters are turning against political dynasties.

• His family's history "pierces the 'Aw shucks, I did it because I just spoke to the better of us' message," said one Democratic strategist.

Senior Democrats also note that Steve Beshear has hit the phones this year ahead of his son's likely bid.

• It's not the first time that Andy Beshear has leaned on his dad's connections: The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the younger Beshear "was able to tap into Steve Beshear's powerful fundraising network" in winning the race for Kentucky attorney general in 2015.

When Andy Beshear captured the governor's seat in 2019, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found that at least 70 members of his transition team had financially backed his father.

• "I mean, he is a nepo baby, right? His dad was governor!" said CNN's conservative commentator Scott Jennings, who's from Kentucky.
• "How do you deny your own father was governor and all of his donors gave you money and you appointed all of his cronies to everything?"
• Beshear senior adviser Eric Hyers shot back: "Scott Jennings is lying again, like when he claimed he talked to Mitch McConnell for 17 [minutes]."

Beshear has begun testing a defensive strategy against any attacks that he's a product of nepotism.

• He told Axios that "a dad's last name might help you with your first race, might have helped me with the attorney general's race," but it wasn't a definitive factor when he defeated sitting Republican Gov. Matt Bevin in 2019.
• "I had to go up against an incumbent, a Republican incumbent in a Trump +30 state backed by Trump, with Trump coming in on Election Night," Beshear said. "Someone else's last name doesn't get you through that."
• But, he said, "I will never apologize for being Steve Beshear's son."

The fine print: The bond between father and son is clear in Beshear's new book, "Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country," in which he embraces his dad's legacy.

• Beshear wrote that he pitched in on his father's gubernatorial campaigns and that Steve Beshear "did his job with courage, expanding Medicaid with an executive order, because the Republican-led state Senate would not agree."
• "Between my dad's efforts while in office and mine, we turned Kentucky from one of the least- to one of the most-covered states."

What's next: Beshear told us that he hasn't made a "final decision" about running for president. He's indicated that will come after the Nov. 3 midterms.

• "I am laser-focused on these governors' races as we are in the last month and a half of this election," said Beshear, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association.
• But he added that "whoever our Democratic nominee is" in 2028 will run on the map that this year's governors' races are "creating."