Kentucky Primary Day has come and gone. No surprises as Daniel Cameron beat 11 other GOP candidates, including nemesis Kelly “I’m BFFs With Jack Harlow” Craft and Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, who seemed to have outperformed Craft when the race was called for Cameron. The final vote tally will take more time. 

As expected, Cameron will face Gov. Andy Beshear in the fall election. Beshear won his primary over former Green Party 2012 candidate for Kentucky House, District 45, Geoffrey Young, and Republican defector Peppy Martin, earning over 90% of the vote.

Cameron will soon have to turn his endorsements from Trump into real policy and face Beshear’s proven record. As governor of Kentucky, Beshear has faced several big crises, the biggest of all the COVID-19 pandemic, and handled them well, according to the majority of Kentuckians. 60% of Kentuckians approved of Beshear’s record while about 38% disapprove.

Going into the fall election, Kentuckians can expect the negative attacks to ramp up on both sides from both candidates and their cohorts nationally. Certainly, some of this politicking has already started with Representative James Comer of Kentucky, and chair of the GOP House Oversight Committee, painting the Biden family as a crime syndicate, though it seems he’s lost his top witness — somewhere. That mystery continues. 

How Comer’s foolery will affect Cameron’s gubernatorial race remains to be seen. He is making it easier for the Beshear team to draw the lines between one ridiculous Republican shenanigan to the next.

Upon the races being called, Planned Parenthood released a statement opposing Cameron’s official candidacy.
In their statement, Planned Parenthood Spokesperson Nicole Erwin said, “Daniel Cameron should bask in this Republican primary victory because it will be his last in 2023.” 
She continued, “Kentuckians are already suffering under abortion bans and won’t stand for politicians continuing to interfere in their personal health care decisions. Anti-abortion politicians have gone too far. Tonight’s candidates can either get on board with abortion access, or Kentuckians will be voting them out.”

Kentucky’s Republican Majority set trigger laws to overturn state abortion access when the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson case which held that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. 

In other election news, Secretary of State Michael Adams won the Republican primary for his and will face Democratic primary winner Charles “Buddy” Wheatley in November.