Time now to check in with some major political news over the course of the week with our favorites, Trey Grayson and Bob Babich to kind of break it all down for us.

Good to see you, gentlemen.

Thank you.

So we were once again Kentucky on the national stage in terms of Governor Andy Beshear, who gave the opening night address, dealing with mostly reproductive rights.

Haley Duvall, who was a sexual abuse survivor, who's become a reproductive rights advocate and who was in the ad on his behalf in his reelection last year, introduced the governor.

And what do you make I'm going to ask Bob first about the governor being on stage and really kind of taking ownership of this abortion rights position, really digging in on it.

It may be kind of a turn from his state election days to a bigger picture for him in the future.

In the most recent campaign.

It was an issue, but not always the top issue for discussion or for emphasis.

So it was a change of course.

He delivered it on time and there are other people taking other topics.

So I don't want to read too much into it, but it certainly put the focus right there.

And that's that's a big question in Kentucky as well as all across the country.

It's on the ballot in a couple of states and essentially on the ballot everywhere with a presidential campaign.

And with the Democratic National Convention now over Republican convention was last month in July.

Which is like a million years ago.

Sounds like a million years ago.

And now we're coming up in a little bit on the Labor Day weekend.

Things are really going to take off, right?

Yeah, You know, we're going to have some debate.

It's buzzing this.

Morning.

Yes.

And as we learned earlier this summer, debates matter sometimes.

And I think in this, again, I think this coming one will matter.

Democrats had a good convention.

They were on message.

They showed a lot of energy, enthusiasm, unity.

They had a lot of good surrogate But the vice president hasn't done an interview.

You know, she's got to sit down with somebody like you.

She's got a good speech.

She's got a good message.

But the debate is totally unscripted.

So I think there's still some questions about her.

But she it's been a great I can't imagine if you were a Democrat.

I can't imagine you could have anticipated it would be this successful of a transition from that debate night with that performance and whether Biden would stay in or not to the conclusion of the convention.

Yeah, and a lot of people about as.

Good as you could.

Get.

That's right.

Very well said.

Yes.

And I think even Scott Jennings kind of said similarly during the convention coverage, because he's been a staple on CNN in the last few weeks and.

He's looks like he's having.

It looks like he's having fun once.

And that's that's a good group together.

And you can tell that they respect each other, even though they may have differences of opinion.

In Kentucky, University of Kentucky, and shuttering the Office of Institutional Diversity, which is essentially the diversity office without really losing jobs, I think they're just reshuffling folks.

This is in reaction to some of that push in the last session to deal with these programs in anticipation of it happening again.

And 2025.

What do you make of this and other universities, public universities, follow suit?

Well, the last UK, I think it's probably a smart move given the likelihood of legislation because what it does, it allows them to set up an office the way they want to do that.

How do you how do you address inclusion?

How do you address socioeconomic differences in a way that maybe doesn't have as much of the negative connotations that has developed and do it your own way without the legislature writing a law?

So now they've got this and the legislature still wants to pass a law.

They have to contend with.

You did this.

You kind of asked them to do this.

Don't write a law that makes them change anything.

So getting ahead, there were some advantages.

It will also be interesting to see u K is often what is the leader when it comes.

To the flagship university.

Flagship.

Right.

And so my suspicion is we'll see other universities now do this since UK has gotten has done it.

They've shown a way to do it.

And it wouldn't shock me if over the next couple of months we see more of these universities, reallocate offices, reallocate personnel to try to I mean, ultimately we need to get more people into universities and help those who are first gens and underrepresented to succeed.

And there's probably ways to structure those offices without some of those.

Words and renaming those industries.

Renaming them.

And a cynic would say that's all they're doing, you know, and they'll probably some legislators who will say that.

Well, that's that's the question I asked Bob Babbage.

Does that quell any kind of activism by the lawmakers in next session since perhaps universities follow what UK is doing?

Well, this kind of nipped that in the bud.

Or do you think they're going to say, well, they're trying to get around us and we've got an answer to that?

Right.

Well, what's in a name?

A new name is definitely a changeover, but the purpose is still the same for the university as trains.

So very well said.

How do you welcome first generation students?

How do you welcome students who have other challenges or are wanting to succeed in that great big environment?

That's what universities are supposed to try to do to retain and graduate at the same time to a very powerful business group in Louisville.

The chamber, essentially where members are active members, is putting a big emphasis on DEA.

They're not renaming their conference, they're not renaming their efforts.

And what does that tell you?

Big business.

All kinds of businesses are members of the chamber.

We're a little business, but big business wants to keep the focus on attracting talent.

There is an ongoing war for talent to bring people in to attract younger people has a lot of advantages for that.

That's been proven lately.

So does northern Kentucky for sure, and Cincinnati, the region and Lexington is on fire in that way.

So this is more than just a simple conversation you can maybe analyze further by the legislature and a lot of questions to ask about what are you doing?

But the fundamental goals of the are to welcome all help all be successful.

And those are laudable goals we could all embrace.

I think and essentially you case President Eli CAPELOUTO said the very same thing.

Right.

And his video message, right.

He got roasted by our friend Mark Murphy at the Courier-Journal, cartoonists of Note and some others will pile on in the same way.

Yeah, let's talk about School Choice Amendment number two, which has been in the news a lot.

And the attorney general's office this week when they appeared at the state fair for interim joint committee hearing, they said, okay, we're drawing the line here between, you know, teaching and preaching.

Yeah, right.

Essentially, I think one of the lawmakers actually posed the question.

I was I was actually there and saw the exchange.

And it wasn't because it was at the state fair.

Y'all didn't have the ability to broadcast.

But we did have a camera crew there.

But yes, but not to broadcast the meeting.

Yeah.

So it's an interesting conversation because they released a statement saying you can't use taxpayer resources for a ballot question.

That in itself is actually not all that controversial.

But then they further added that every school district in the state has actually adopted a policy similar to this, including Pulaski County, which is the district that very clearly put on their website.

But no.

One to Senator Chambers, Armstrong asked a question about, you know, try to clarify about could they offer data and information in a neutral manner.

And they seemed to say yes.

But then the question becomes, how do you frame that?

So you have to be very careful with that.

But Christopher Thacker has been in the office for a while, referenced the 1974 AG opinion that they based on a lot of this off of.

And so it's unusual for us to have we don't have a lot of ballot amendments anyway.

Right.

And something like this.

And it's the hottest race the hottest thing on the ballot, I guess, is the best way to describe it for this for this year.

And Pulaski County create a little controversy for us, right?

Well, and it's not just it goes to show us just a Democrat issue or a Republican issue.

This is sometimes rural, urban.

It's very different when we talk about school choice.

It is when we look across the state for sure, it's going to seem like a US Senate race by the time we get to November.

Yard signs in the works about this.

But both of us having chaired the State Board of Elections and thought about the elections a lot, Trey continues to do that work very well across the country.

Be careful as you're using resources.

Be careful.

There are plenty of ways to get your message out.

Teaching people different methodologies or better ways to do things will avoid that controversy.

So the issue should be about the issue, not about how people are going about the issue.

To the governor, who's I think been a pretty articulate spokes woman in opposition in some respects, maybe stepping into the void that the governor's left by doing more national work.

She's used her official account on a couple of occasions for some tweets.

And I think that that probably violates the same rules as she needs.

I don't know if she has an unofficial account or a personal account, but she ought to be doing it there to avoid that kind of controversy or complaints.

Yeah.

Yeah, A lot to follow.

We thank our favorites for always doing such a good job of that.

Thank you.

You're our favorite.

You say that every week.

I'm kidding.