Can Trump ensure a Republican governor in Kentucky?

We are heading into the final stretch of the 2023 elections.  The only big race hanging in the balance is for Kentucky governor.

With a huge campaign war chest built over four years, the Democrat, Andy Beshear sprinted out to an early lead.  His own campaign raised over $25 million so far, five times that of his challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron.  He also has millions more in Democrat dark money.

Cameron, though, has closed the gap in the latest polling.  Cameron is the better speaker and showed it in recent debates.  Beshear, by contrast, has a sad-sack personality and uses an early Jimmy Carter speaking cadence, to show he is some sort of good old boy, which he is not.  He is the scion of a very wealthy and corrupt political family.

Establishment media has largely protected him from his poor performance in office.  He did little more than raise money and play golf the last four years.

Meanwhile, the state government had several serious administrative meltdowns as he did nothing.  In 2020, the unemployment insurance system was shut down in the middle of COVID.  Thousands laid off had to wait months to collect anything.  Then the transfer of the state’s driver’s license offices from local to state control created another mess that is only now being remedied.

Beshear and the Democrats concentrated their fire on Cameron for the current state abortion law, which does not have a rape/incest exception.  Left unsaid: That will be decided by the Republican Legislature and the courts.  Kentucky governors don’t have much say in this matter.

They also attacked Cameron for wanting to reform Medicaid.  Again, that may not be a real issue.  Previous governor Matt Bevin lost in federal courts over the same thing, and the Biden administration would stop such an effort anyway.

Cameron has found traction on the crime issue, over a Beshear veto (easily overridden) of a transgender exclusion law for girls’ sports, and generally with Beshear’s connections to the Biden administration, deeply unpopular in Kentucky.

The question now is, where is Donald Trump?  It was Trump who propelled Cameron to his primary victory , and his massive popularity in the state makes him a likely game-winner in any close election.

Trump has been holding rallies across America these last weeks, just not in Kentucky.  State GOP leaders are clamoring for Trump to show up and push Cameron across the finish line.  The state’s most respected political commentator also thinks a Trump appearance would be critical.  So far, though, no public appearance announced, or even a new TV ad from The Donald.

Time is running out.

Frank Friday is an attorney in Louisville, Ky.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.