Political Career: Kentucky and Beyond
At the end of Abramson’s second term as metro mayor, he decided not to run for a final third term. For many years he had been friendly with Steve Beshear, who was serving his first term as governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Beshear was seeking a candidate to run with him as his lieutenant governor for his second term, and Abramson joined the Beshear ticket. Abramson took office as lieutenant governor in December 2011.
During his tenure, he and Beshear instituted Kynect, a Medicaid program that provided healthcare to over 500,000 uninsured Kentuckians.
In November of 2014 Abramson received an appointment from President Barack Obama to become Deputy Assistant to the president and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Abramson’s focus was to serve as liaison between the White House and state and local governments and indigenous tribes.
The finale of his political career came when he stepped down and accepted President Obama's appointment to serve as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in 2014, where he oversaw the domestic practices and policies of the Obama Administration. He served until the end of Obama's second term, marking the end of his long-spanning political career.