PAWLEYS ISLAND, South Carolina — Retired teacher Barbara O’Brien had to Google Andy Beshear before attending a meet-and-greet with the Kentucky governor Thursday night. But she came anyway because, she concluded, “I need some hope.”

Democrats’ ongoing desperation — seven months after Donald Trump’s victory cast them into the political wilderness — is packing rooms for even a little-known governor from a red state more than two years before any primary votes will be cast.

For Beshear, a popular governor in Kentucky who barely registers in national polling, it’s an opening to introduce himself to the party faithful — even if some used ChatGPT to find out he’s interested in running for president, as Columbia City Council Member Tina Herbert did. State Rep. Jason Luck said he knew Beshear was from Kentucky, is a Democrat, “and that’s about it.”

Throughout his first swing in an early presidential state, Beshear opened with, “If you don’t know me … I’m the guy who beat Donald Trump’s hand-picked candidate by five points in 2023.” During his two-day visit, that line drew cheers every time.

A leadership vacuum at the highest levels of the party has already set up what could be a wildly crowded presidential race, as potential Democratic candidates overtly prepare for national campaigns and frankly acknowledge their interest in what will be a wide-open contest. During the 2020 primary, the lack of name recognition — and the accompanying in-state network of supporters — posed an existential challenge for many of the nearly 30 Democrats who mounted bids to unseat Trump.

Now, Beshear has company in trying to get a head start.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom headlined a multi-day tour through rural counties here earlier this month, with attendees forming long selfie lines for face time after his events. California Rep. Ro Khanna held town halls and visited churches this weekend. Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Tim Walz of Minnesota did their own relationship-building in May, when they both appeared at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s convention.

And in other early voting states, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker railed against “simpering timidity” in his own party before New Hampshire Democrats this spring, while former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg popped up at a veterans-focused forum in Iowa and has appeared on marathon-length podcasts.

The visits come as Democrats, locked out of power in Washington, are looking to the 2026 midterms as their first shot at winning back the voters they hemorrhaged last year. Party leaders are banking on Trump’s tax-and-spend law, particularly its deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs, as core to their midterm messaging strategy. The campaigning from 2028 candidates also previews Democrats’ options for the party’s brand moving forward.

“We have an identity crisis and we don’t have a voice leading the party,” said South Carolina state Rep. Hamilton Grant, who met Beshear in Columbia, S.C., Wednesday afternoon. “For everybody who’s not from South Carolina, visits South Carolina, wants to be president … it’s a jump ball.”

South Carolina gained its first-place perch in the presidential nominating calendar in 2024, but it’s not clear whether that will change ahead of 2028. The Democratic National Committee will review the early state process ahead of the primary.

Beshear is beginning to build his national operation. He’s popping up at major donor conferences and recording a podcast. Former Kamala Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt is consulting for him, and he hired a new set of fundraisers this spring. On Thursday morning, Beshear met privately with state legislative leaders, taking questions one-on-one and soliciting advice, according to two members who attended the South Carolina confab.

But he starts off lesser known than Newsom or Buttigieg, both of whom have built national followings as they consider 2028 runs. Early national polling puts Harris, Buttigieg and Newsom at double-digit support already, while Beshear garners about 2 percent.

Luck, the state legislator, said Beshear “lacks the star power,” of Newsom, “but he’s actually the guy who could do the job” of winning in a red state.

“Nobody knew who the governor of Arkansas was either, but it’s certainly a more challenging media environment now,” Michael Morley, who managed then-Rep. Tim Ryan’s 2020 presidential primary campaign, said in reference to Bill Clinton. “He has time to introduce himself, and my informed assumption is that’s part of what he’s doing here.”

At the state’s AFL-CIO convention and Georgetown County Democrats’ fundraising dinner, Beshear previewed his potential 2028 pitch: He said Democrats need to talk “like normal human beings,” trading “abuse disorder” for “addiction.” He urged them to eschew policy bullet points in favor of relating to voters’ everyday lives. And he argued he won deep-red Kentucky because voters know the “why behind what I do, and because they know about that, even when I do something that they may disagree with, they know I’m coming from the right place.”

“Democrats have a huge opportunity to seize the middle and win back voters who have been increasingly skeptical of our Democratic brand,” Beshear told the county Democrats. “But it’s going to take focus, and it’s going to take discipline. We have to talk to people and not at them.”

He laced his remarks with Scripture to explain why he vetoed “every single piece of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation” pushed by his GOP-controlled legislature. He argued it doesn’t have to be an “either or” for Democrats.

“We can stick up for everything we believe in while still convincing the American people that we are going to spend every single day working on those things that lift everybody up,” Beshear said in Charleston at a reception Thursday morning.

Skeptics of Beshear’s argument, however, argue the GOP-controlled legislature still overrode his veto and enacted bans on gender-affirming care for transgender children.

Even so, South Carolina Democrats said his Christianity may help him in a state where churches, especially African Methodist Episcopal churches, are still a vital part of the Democratic Party primary. Herbert, the Columbia city council member who didn’t know much about Beshear, said she liked how he grounded his pitch in “his faith and his values,” adding that she’ll “probably” donate to his campaign now.

The Southern governor may also gain some home field advantage, said Christale Spain, the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, “being able to communicate the way we do, very plain-spoken,” she said. “I think that’s going to benefit him down the line.”