Incumbent Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear won a second term Tuesday, fending off a spirited challenge from Republican Commonwealth Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who would have been the first Black governor in the Bluegrass State’s history.
With 87% of the vote, Beshear led Cameron by five percentage points, or more than 62,000 votes out of more than 1.2 million cast.
The race had been closely watched to see if a popular Democratic governor could win despite running in a deeply red state and with a deeply unpopular president in the White House.
Beshear, the son of former Gov. Steve Beshear, who led Kentucky from 2007 to 2015, is one of three Democratic governors in the South or Southeast, a number that will be reduced to two when Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards leaves office early of time. next year.
The 45-year-old narrowly won the governor’s mansion in 2019, when he unseated Republican incumbent Matt Bevin by just over 5,000 votes out of more than 1.4 million cast.
Unlike 2019, Andy Beshear found himself facing a well-liked Republican challenger.
Bevin, who had alienated voters with inflammatory rhetoric and heavy-handed executive actions, was ranked as one of the nation’s least popular governors at the time.
“The previous Republican governor, honestly, was an asshole. I mean, he literally talked his way out of office,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of Bevin earlier this summer, according to Politico.
However, a year after electing Beshear, Kentuckians went to the polls and voted for former President Donald Trump over then-candidate Joe Biden by nearly 26 percentage points.
Daniel Cameron gained national attention for his handling of the murder of Breonna Taylor in 2020. AP
Throughout the campaign, Beshear largely avoided national political skirmishes and focused on state issues.
Cameron criticized Beshear for his COVID-19 policies, accusing him of closing schools and harming children’s education.
Cameron, a rising star on the Republican side, had the state’s considerable Republican machine behind him, along with the backing of Trump himself, who urged his Truth Social followers on Tuesday to “VOTE for Daniel Cameron for governor.”
“It is a vote they will be very proud of. “He will never let you down!!!” added the 77-year-old.
However, Cameron was still spending more on advertising due to a combination of the Beshear campaign and the Democratic group Defending Bluegrass Values, aligned with the Democratic Governors Association.
The incumbent governor is a rare Democratic governor in the South. fake images
On the issue of abortion, Cameron tried to proceed cautiously, backing the addition of a rape and incest exception to the state’s near-total ban on the procedure, which he had defended in court as attorney general.
Beshear focused heavily on his economic record, boasting that Kentucky achieved its lowest unemployment rate in history last year.
Meanwhile, Cameron criticized Beshear for his more liberal moves as governor, such as vetoing legislation banning transgender women from playing on biological female sports teams between sixth grade and college.
Daniel Cameron was generally considered the slight underdog in the race for Kentucky governor. fake images
Beshear also vetoed a bill to ban so-called “gender-affirming care” for children.
The GOP-led state legislature overturned it in both cases.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn