DENVER – Gov. Steve Beshear (D-Lexington) arrived in Denver yesterday in time to hear U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) speech before the Democratic National Convention in which she advocated for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Although Kentucky went heavily for Clinton during the May 20 primary -- making the constitution of the state’s delegation lean toward Clinton -- Beshear says the state’s Democratic delegates will be ready to support Obama’s candidacy in the general election.

“This delegation is going to be unified for Obama this fall,” Beshear told PolitickerKY.com. “We had a hard-fought contest in Kentucky like we did all across the country and people feel very passionate about their candidates, but everybody I think is ready to come together now and get behind our ticket in the fall and really go after this election and push him across the finish line.”

Aside from rallying the delegation for the party’s nominee, Beshear said the convention gave key Democrats the chance to get excited about other Kentucky races.

“Another benefit of this convention is bringing together leading Democrats from across Kentucky and getting them pulled together and pushing forward on all the other races we have in the state,” said Beshear.

“Our United States Senate race is a very winnable race with Bruce Lunsford,” added Beshear. “We can pick up a congressional seat with David Boswell in 2nd district and I am finding a lot of enthusiasm for both of those races here.”

His first convention since 1984, Beshear said the Denver gathering was memorable because of the candidates involved.

“This is a very exciting one obviously because of the historic juncture we’re at in this country – the fact that tonight we are going to nominate the first African American for president of the United States,” said Beshear.

“It’s also historic because the first time a woman has reached this point in the process to where we had a very close race and she could have been the nominee for president.”