Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton said that she voted for the Libertarian candidate over Gov. Matt Bevin (R) in his unsuccessful reelection bid against state Attorney General Andy Beshear (D).
“I did not vote for him. I didn’t,” Hampton told local radio station WDRB. “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.”
Her vote doesn’t come as much of a surprise after the two had a very public falling out beginning last January.
First, Bevin abruptly dropped Hampton from his reelection ticket in favor of state Sen. Ralph Alvarado.
She said that though Bevin had been “hinting” that she may not be on the ticket for a while, she didn’t know for certain until “30 minutes” before he filed.
Days later, he fired Hampton’s chief of staff without her consent.
In May, Hampton’s deputy chief of staff was fired by “person(s) unknown,” she said.
CALLING PRAYER WARRIORS: Yesterday, person(s) unknown initiated unauthorized personnel action ending employment of my talented, stellar Deputy Chief Adrienne Southworth, against my wishes. Pray for me as I battle dark forces.
— LG Jenean Hampton (@LtGovHampton) May 31, 2019
“That is baffling to me, even now,” she told WDRB. “I don’t understand why there was so much attention on my office at all.”
Hampton took Bevin to court to try to get her staffers reinstated. She lost the case, but attributes Bevin’s election defeat at least partially to public disapproval of his behavior.
“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.”
