Emotional Kentucky Governor Draws Determination From His Child's School Notes

Kentucky Gov Andy Beshear grew emotional while speaking to the press on December 13, before drawing determination to “push through this” from an unlikely place – his kid’s schoolwork.

“I’m not doing so well today,” Beshear says in the video here, “and I’m not sure how many of us are.”

He describes how he was gathering information on confirmed deaths when he realized he “was writing on the back of notes that one of my kids took from school.”

The notes were related to Newton’s first law, or the law of interia.

“It means,” Beshear continued, “that an object that’s in motion will stay in motion. So we’re going to keep putting one foot in front of the other, push through this. Everybody out there get the help you need. Take care of yourself.”

At a second press conference later in the day, First Lady Britainy Beshear, who announced a Western Kentucky Christmas Toy Drive, was overcome with emotion and asked her husband to step in to read some of her speech.

“Now many of our families don’t have a home to go to or, even worse, they’ve lost someone they love who made their family whole,” she said, before stopping to ask her husband to help with her speech. “I need you to do it,” she said.

As of Monday, 74 people were confirmed to have died and at least 109 people were missing. Beshear said he expected the death toll would continue to rise. Credit: Governor Andy Beshear via Storyful