Matt Bevin pulls prank, doesn't file for governor after rambling talk at Kentucky Capitol

After summoning media to the Kentucky Capitol through a series of cryptic tweets, former Gov. Matt Bevin delivered a free-wheeling lecture Friday before walking out of the building and not filing to run for the office again.

In his roughly 22-minute talk to a rotunda filled with journalists and elected officials who had been waiting for hours to see if he would file before Friday's 4 p.m. deadline, Bevin said he simply wanted Kentucky to be "the greatest version of itself that it can possibly be."

He repeatedly called out legislators and journalists to look into a bevy of issues, harping on pensions; the "failings" of the public school system, singling out Jefferson County Public Schools; income taxes; and attracting business to the state, among other things.

The appearance came three years after he came up 5,189 votes shy in his reelection bid for governor, losing to Democrat Andy Beshear.

Calling for unity among Kentuckians, he said his old opponent, the current governor, is "not the boogeyman."

Bevin had long been rumored to be considering a comeback bid.

Shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, he tweeted that he would speak to the press later that day in the Capitol rotunda, a short walk from the Secretary of State's Office.

"At 2:45pm in the Capitol rotunda (primarily for space reasons and because some of you are probably tired of sitting on the floor outside the SOS office 🙂), I will share a few thoughts before proceeding down the hall," Bevin tweeted.

Bevin piqued the interest of Kentucky political observers earlier that morning, breaking his Twitter hibernation by tweeting a photo of his view driving east into the sunrise, saying: "A beautiful day dawning in Kentucky... Make it a great day!"

After wrapping up his speech, Bevin said, "Now I'm going to head down the hall," adding: "As it relates to reading the tea leaves: Ben Goldey gets first place and Victor Puentes gets honorable mention."

The former governor was likely referring to two tweets by the named people (Goldey being a former staffer), which both suggested Bevin would just walk out the door after his speech without filing for governor.

There is already a large field of prominent Republican candidates seeking the nomination in a bid to knock off Beshear, who beat Bevin by less than half a percentage point in 2019.

Who's in, who's a maybe, who's out: Our way-too-early look at 2023 Kentucky governor candidates

Among the Republican candidates are Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, state Auditor Mike Harmon and former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft.

Bevin became governor in 2015 after upset victories in both the primary and general elections that year. He won the GOP primary with less than a third of the vote — just 83 votes more than now-U.S. Rep. James Comer — and then beat Democrat Jack Conway in convincing fashion, by 9 percentage points.

His victory over the establishment of both parties in 2015 came just a year after his unsuccessful challenge against Sen. Mitch McConnell in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, where he was crushed by 25 percentage points.

Initially refusing to concede his 2019 loss to Beshear, Bevin then made and promoted unfounded allegations about voting "irregularities" and fraud. He eventually conceded after a recanvass of the votes nine days later.

Shortly before leaving office, Bevin issued hundreds of pardons and commutations, including dozens of particularly controversial ones that drew outrage, including from prominent elected officials in his own party.

More:Will Kelly Craft (and Matt Bevin) run for governor? Speculation sizzles at ham breakfast

Among the most controversial pardons he issued was for Patrick Baker, who was convicted of killing Donald Mills in a drug theft — and whose brother had hosted a campaign fundraiser for Bevin. Federal prosecutors later charged and convicted Baker for the same killing, sentencing him to 40 years.

Federal prosecutors also retried and convicted Dayton Jones, who was convicted of sodomizing and seriously injuring an unconscious teenager with a sex toy before having his sentence commuted by Bevin.

Bevin maintained the innocence of those who received his most controversial clemency orders in an interview with The Courier Journal later that week — while misstating the facts of several of those cases — then defended his pardon of a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old by saying of the victim and another girl that their "hymens were intact."

A former state chief medical examiner said that is not how rape is proved.

After 2 1/2 years of a near total absence from Kentucky's political scene, Bevin made waves this past summer by appearing at two major political events in Louisville within the span of 12 hours, declining to answer if he was considering a run for governor in 2023.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Matt Bevin hints at run for Kentucky governor, then doesn't file