LEXINGTON, Ky. -House Republicans may be willing to put politics aside and work with Andy Beshear.

House Floor Leader Rep. Bam Carney, R-Campbellsville, says they have extended an invitation to Beshear to come to Lake Barkley next month for their annual retreat assuming he is the governor-elect.

“The speaker wanted that basically again to try and get off on the right foot that we need to come together and work on issues to better Kentucky,” Carney said. “We still have agenda that we are going to continue to push, the same one we have working on the last two or three years and hopefully we can find some common ground on some areas but he has been invited and I hoping that he can accept that opportunity.”

Andy Beshear’s campaign has not told Spectrum News 1 if he will be attending the retreat but did express a message of bipartisanship on his Twitter tweeting out,"Together we can change the tone, restore decency to Frankfort, and do so much for the people of Kentucky."

Carney says while his caucus is willing to work with Beshear he is going to have to meet him in the middle.

“I think a lot of that is going to be determined how he wants to respond early on,” Carney said. “I think we are willing to give him a chance to move to the middle but if he wants to stay on the issue he ran on that we would view as far left then he’s going to have hard time working with us on issues.”

One issue they will not be extending the olive branch to is casino gaming.

“There’s just not a lot of support for casinos,” Carney said. “Casinos at large it’s a very slim chance it could go through the House.”

Sports betting however will get another chance in Kentucky after failing to make it for a floor vote last session. Education is another area Carney believes they can reach an agreement on but not all the platforms especially the $2,000 across the board pay increase for teachers.

“We would love to but where are we going to find the money? I think that was the question that Attorney General Beshear never answered out on the campaign trail, again nobody in the Republican caucus doesn’t want to find a way to help increase pay for teachers,” Carney said. “I’ve had superintendents reach out to me about concerns whether or not that’s going to get pushed down to them as locals and so I think while there’s support for that there is a lot of concern about how it’s going to be done. Unless the attorney general can come forward with a plan on how he’s going to pay for that outside of casino gaming that’s going to be hard to do.” 

Senate President Pro Temp David Givens, R-Greensburg, acknowledged the dynamics of the legislature could change with Andy Beshear in governor’s office but noted—when the state was under one-party control it didn’t mean they were always on the same page as the governor.

“Under the seven years I was there under Steve Beshear we overrode one veto, under the three years I’ve been there under Gov. Bevin we overrode six vetoes in one day,” Givens said. “The dynamic has certainly changed, and it’s going to be changing again.”