Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) has secured a second term after beating Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R-KY) in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Kentucky, according to reports.
NBC News called the race at 8:39 p.m. E.T. Moments after the call, Beshear had 52.3 percent of the vote to Cameron’s 47.6 percent, with 74 percent of the vote reported, according to the outlet. It follows calls for Beshear from earlier in the night from the Decision Desk and the Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman.
Decision Desk HQ projects Gov. Andy Beshear (D) re-elected governor in Kentucky.#DecisionMade: 7:45pm EST
Follow more results here: https://t.co/8sug2Xq9ic pic.twitter.com/6bCNcph7Ao
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 8, 2023
I’ve seen enough: Andy Beshear (D) wins reelection in #KYGOV, defeating Daniel Cameron (R).
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 8, 2023
Beshear came into Tuesday’s election with a significant polling advantage since January, according to an aggregation on FiveThirtyEight. Cameron bested Beshear in just one poll out of eighteen over the last ten months, while they tied in just one other, and Beshear led the way in the rest.
However, the one poll showing Cameron, who had former President Donald Trump’s backing, ahead was published by Emerson College last week, while another poll from Data for Progress showed him within the margin of error, likely raising hopes of Republicans in the home stretch of the race.
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, appears alongside Daniel Cameron, Republican candidate for Kentucky attorney general, during a rally in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S., on Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. President Trump encouraged his supporters in Kentucky to vote Tuesday to re-elect the states Republican governor, declaring it would send a message to congressional Democrats conducting an impeachment inquiry. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The New York Times has called the Secretary of State race for incumbent Michael Adams (R), while CNN has declared Republican Russell Coleman winner of the attorney general race over Democrat Pamela Stevenson.
Beshear, the son of former Gov. Steve Beshear (D-KY), who served from 2007-2015, easily beat out two Democrat primary challengers in July.
Cameron and allies hit Beshear hard on crime. Last weekend, Cameron joined Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday and told host Matthew Boyle that he was “the law and order candidate, and Andy Beshear is the catch and release candidate.”
“And the evidence for that is the fact that he let out 2,000 criminals out of jail, and over 50 percent of them have recommitted felony offenses, making our communities less safe and law enforcement’s job more difficult. It’s the number one reason that the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police decided to endorse my campaign for governor,” he said, adding they endorsed Beshear in 2019.
A group called School Freedom Fund, aligned with Club for Growth, slammed Beshear with an ad for signing an order at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 authorizing the release of a “monster” from prison who sodomized a young child.
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In 2019, Beshear narrowly won his first term with 49.2 percent of the vote to former Gov. Matt Bevin’s (R-KY) 48.8 percent.
Cameron was one of two Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidates running in elections on Tuesday night, with the other being Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) in his reelection bid against Brandon Presley. Reeves held an early lead as of this writing.
