Long before we knew about Matt Gaetz’s “adopted son” Nestor or Preacher Mike Johnson’s adopted son/smut monitor Michael or Harlon Crow’s ward Clarence Thomas, one of the earliest Republicans to tout adopting a child of a different race was former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, who brought home four children aged 2 to 10 from Ethiopia in 2012 to join his five other kids.
Reportedly, Bevin adopted from overseas because local adoption agencies wouldn’t place children with a family that already had so many kids; Bevin made overhauling the state adoption agency a priority of his term in office. His reelection bid failed, and he lost the 2019 race to Democrat and VP short-lister Andy Beshear.
Now, one of the Ethiopian kids Bevin adopted alleges Bevin abandoned him in Jamaica, according to the Independent. The child, referred to pseudonymously in the story to protect his identity, claimed Bevin shipped him to a boarding school in Florida after the child had trouble in school, and then moved him to an academy in Jamaica that shuttered this past spring after a court found evidence of abuse.
The families of most of the other students arranged for their departures, but nobody came for the Bevin boy, so he and two others were made wards of the Jamaican court when no parent claimed them. Bevin, whose wife filed divorce papers in March, did not return a call from the outlet for comment.