Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) has won reelection in the Kentucky governor’s race, scoring a huge win for his party and likely launching himself into the national spotlight as a rising Democratic star.
The contest between Beshear and 37-year-old Republican challenger Daniel Cameron was thought to be close in the final days, with Cameron making up lost ground in the polls. In the end, it was Beshear who emerged victorious, validating surveys that showed him holding a consistent lead.
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“Kentucky is on a historic win streak,” Beshear told cheering supporters before listing off a string of infrastructure projects. “We have record-high budget surpluses and record-low unemployment.”
“Tonight, I stand here excited and optimistic about what we’re going to do these next four years together,” he added.
Polls taken in October found Beshear, 45, with a lead ranging from 2 points all the way up to 16 points. But the most recent poll, an Emerson College survey taken between Oct. 20 and Nov. 2, had Cameron leading for the first time by 1 point.
Both Cameron and Beshear are seen as rising stars in their parties, a fact that remains regardless of the outcome. But for Beshear, the national hype will ramp up considerably.
Beshear’s father was himself a two-term Democratic governor of Kentucky, though a campaign spokesman told CNN, “He is his own man, his own brand, his own governor.” As a young politician who has secured a second term in a red state, Beshear could be looked at as a future candidate for president or vice president.
Cameron served as legal counsel to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from 2015 to 2017, then was elected Kentucky attorney general at 33. In September 2020, Cameron was among the final 20 for former President Donald Trump’s list of Supreme Court nominees. He is also Kentucky’s first black attorney general and would have become the state’s first black governor and the nation’s first black Republican governor.
Trump endorsed Cameron in the GOP primary, and the former president won Kentucky by 26 points in 2020. Thus, Cameron’s loss is a setback for The Donald as well.
I’ve seen enough: Andy Beshear (D) wins reelection in #KYGOV, defeating Daniel Cameron (R).
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 8, 2023
The Associated Press called the race for Beshear shortly before 9 p.m. EST.
It wasn’t all bad for Kentucky Republicans. Popular GOP incumbent Secretary of State Michael Adams handily beat his Democratic opponent thanks to tens of thousands of cross-party ballots. Adams rejected Trump’s stolen election claims in 2020 and bested two conspiracy-tinged challengers in the Republican primary.
JUST IN: In Kentucky’s Secretary of State race, @ABC News projects that the Republican Michael Adams will win.
Follow for Election Night updates: https://t.co/V5knc6RwOq
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 8, 2023
Unlike the secretary of state’s race, access to abortion was a central part of the campaign for governor.
Beshear’s campaign hit the topic hard, running ads featuring a woman who was raped by her stepfather at 12 years old and became pregnant. She eventually miscarried but is speaking out against no-exceptions abortion bans.
“Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it’s like to stand in my shoes,” she said in the statewide ad taken out by Beshear’s reelection campaign.
Following this and another similar ad, Cameron announced he would sign rape and incest exceptions into law if sent a bill by Kentucky’s Republican-controlled state legislature. He called the ad “despicable.”
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The GOP worked to nationalize the race to appeal to the state’s Republican base, with the Republican National Committee saying Cameron would “prevent another lockdown,” reduce violent crime, improve schools, and reverse “Beshear-backed Bidenomics.”
Democrats, outside of abortion, aimed to localize the race, focusing on Beshear’s popularity and his role in responding to disasters, such as a pair of tornadoes that hit the state under his watch.
