Kentucky is the sparkling crown jewel of America, says Governor Matt Bevin. It’s just gotten a little dusty over the course of the last few decades.
It is his job as Governor, he explains, “to be the chief emissary and salesman” for the state – to not only wipe off that dirt and grime but make sure the world sees all its intricate facets, too.
“When you dust Kentucky off and you hold it up to the sun and the light hits it and it sparkles, people are like ‘Wow!’ They had no idea. We’ve allowed ourselves to become dusty for no good reason. We are this stunning, beautiful, geographically-blessed, topographically-blessed, meteorologically-blessed, seasonally-blessed, incredible gem of a place with an abundance of potable water, that 50 years from now is just going to be more valuable than gold or oil. It just is, and we have a never-ending supply of it,” he explains from his Capitol Building desk in early spring of 2018.
“Will Rodgers said, ‘Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.’ At best, we could argue we have been on the right track but we’re just sitting here. But we’ve gotten run over by everybody around us… Why? We have a better blend in some respects of all the good stuff. We have the perfect blend of everything, including a better geography, better rivers, better highway system, better railroad system because of the coal, and we’re squandering it.”
Governor Bevin wants people to understand that pushing the accelerator on economic development is the only motivation behind his 2017 legislative victory to make Kentucky the 27th Right to Work state and 2018’s pension reform. Both are controversial reforms that could cost him his job. He doesn’t care.
“Public service should be that, service to the public as a detriment to yourself for some short period of time,” he said. “I tell my kids, ‘It is one thing to know the right thing to do, but it is a harder thing to do it sometimes.’ I took this job because it needs to be done by someone who needs nothing from it but is willing to give to it. American greatness is built on this. When our founding fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, they really gave their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors.”
From his view, Right to Work legislation has already paid off in that it was a key factor in Kentucky’s last-minute steal of Braidy Industries from other competing states – a fact confirmed by Braidy CEO Craig Bouchard. In fact, Governor Bevin’s personal “hustle” to sell Kentucky to Braidy was also a large factor, according to accounts from individuals including Bouchard himself.
Not only did Bevin continually reach out to Bouchard for weeks asking him to consider Kentucky, but he also traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend a Braidy Industries’ Board of Directors meeting at Harvard Business School in order to make the deal (then stuck around for dinner, too). He then sealed it by convincing the General Assembly, just before the close of the legislative session in 2017, to invest a record-breaking $15 million of taxpayer money from Kentucky Seed Capital into the then still-unnamed company.
What he did to get Braidy, he says, is what he tries to do every day. “To me, we are just not going to get out-hustled. We’re just not. And it doesn’t mean we will always succeed... But we aren’t going to be out-hustled.”
This is a philosophy summed up by native son President Abraham Lincoln, Bevin points out. “He said, ‘Good things may come to those who wait but only the things left behind by those who hustle.’”
“So, I’m working it in the state. I’m working it out of the state. I’m working it with the President’s administration, I’m working it with the Commerce Cabinet in Washington, D.C., I’m working it with this company that is a non-U.S. based company right now… I’m working it like crazy,” he said.
That company could make a $3 billion investment in the same part of eastern Kentucky as Braidy. “I hope we get it. If we don’t get it, we’re going to keep on hustling and every one of these that we put in the ground is going to attract other players,” he explains. Although he won’t name that company specifically he isn’t shy about who should invest in Kentucky, “I want to see GM build a new product line in the state. I want to see Boeing build airplanes.
“If we want to be the engineering and manufacturing hub of excellence in America – and that is my vision for Kentucky, that we will be the engineering and manufacturing center of excellence for the United States of America – you have to have people who can make the metal that is then going to be rolled and formed and heat-treated, that is then going to be fabricated and stamped and welded; then, that is going to be turned into the products that the world needs and wants, so it is all integrated,” said Bevin.
Braidy Industries is a key ingredient, he explains. “We need people at the front end of that producing that raw material, and then people like Braidy taking that and putting it into a rolling mill and making 5,000-, 6,000-, 7,000-series aluminum that the world literally can’t get enough of... If you have a vision and you don’t take any steps to accomplish it, then it is a pipe dream and you are just kidding yourself. So, we’re being very intentional about putting pieces in place. I’m very delighted; Braidy Industries is an example of a company that is going to transform this region. It really is.
“To me, success will be that people are working. Instead of being unemployed they are employed – gainfully employed. To me that is the measure of success. If people are able to do for themselves,” he said.
Jobs, he says, is all Kentucky needs to break the cycle of poverty, drug addiction, population loss and lack of opportunities that have plagued it and Appalachia for years. “People have been blowing smoke into eastern Kentucky and eastern Ohio and western West Virginia for 50 years. Frankly, blowing all the smoke of government programs. All people want is jobs. Give us jobs; give us the dignity and self-respect associated with doing for ourselves. That is what we are going to do. This is what I am working on.”
