A self-described moderate Kentucky Republican wants to help Democratic challenger Andy Beshear overthrow incumbent Matt Bevin in the 2019 governor's race.

Former congressional candidate Chuck Eddy, of Lexington, said he is among the frustrated 48% of GOP voters who cast their ballots against the governor in May.

"There's a number of us Republicans who are quite disappointed, which is a mild word, in how Matt Bevin has ruled, I mean governed," he said.

The Facebook group called "Republicans for Andy Beshear and Jacqueline Coleman" launched June 3. It has about 320 followers and has reached more than 1,500 people. Eddy said the group gives moderates and other disaffected Republicans a refuge.

The Bevin campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but the Kentucky Republican Party blistered Eddy as a political amateur with a pipe dream.

"This is nothing but a token Facebook page run by a gadfly candidate who sounds like he needs to find another party," GOP spokesman Mike Lonergan said.

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But Eddy, a former call-center employee who said he didn't vote for President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, thinks Bevin's comments about teachers and his stance on health care are among the reasons that some Republicans might give Beshear a glance.

"We don’t care who you voted for in 2016," the group's first post said. "We don’t care who you voted for in 2018. We have no opinion on the other statewide races in Kentucky. We don’t care who you plan to vote for in 2020."

That comment drew the ire of several Republican Facebook users, who blasted Eddy as a "RINO," or Republican In Name Only, and his group for trying to be a November spoiler.

"For all his warts Bevin is fully funding the pensions and actually running the state OK," Dennis Nickell, of Flemingsburg, said in the comments section. "We can’t afford to go backwards and revert back to the 'kick the can down the road' way of the Beshears and Democrats."

Retired Toyota worker Doug Pugh, of Winchester, chimed in, saying the Facebook group represented "a bunch of traitors to Christ himself" who are supporting Beshear's anti-gun and abortion rights views.

"Doesn't sound like any Republican that I know," Pugh wrote. "You all go ahead and stand against babies lives, then answer the question why as you cross over. Shameless is what you are."

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Bevin did struggle to gain the majority in the Republican primary after gathering 52% of the vote against three opponents, including state Rep. Robert Goforth, of East Bernhardt, who surprised many political observers by carrying 39% of the vote.

Goforth told the Courier Journal that despite their differences, he doesn't think a significant amount of Republicans will switch over to support Beshear in November.

"I'd be very surprised," he said. "And there will be no situation that I would ever vote for Andy. He stands on the wrong side of many issues. Although the governor and I have differences of opinion on several things, Andy and I are way too far off."

The Bevin campaign's early general election strategy is a mix of boasting about Kentucky's economy, tagging Beshear as too liberal and touting the governor's relationship with Trump, who holds a 55% approval rating in Kentucky, according to the polling firm Morning Consult.

That popularity outpaces Bevin by about 30 percentage points.

Goforth, who won more than 30 counties, including many Trump carried in 2016, said Bevin has a lot of work to do to fortify the GOP base.

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The freshman legislator noted a feud between Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton, a former tea party activist, and the Bevin administration, over the firing of her deputy chief of staff, as an example. Some conservative activists involved in the tea party movement have said they will stay home in November as a result of how Hampton, who was dropped from the ticket in 2019, has been treated.

Goforth said the lack of communication between Hampton, Bevin and his administration is troubling.

"The governor definitely should address that," he said. "It currently is a problem, but there's a long time between now and November for the governor to do what's right about that situation."

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/philb.