FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — If there was any question that Kentucky’s Republican primary winners would ease into the general election season, we got the answer on Friday morning.
Three days after winning their party’s nomination, several winners of the more high-profile races gathered in Frankfort to bring their respective campaigns, taking every opportunity to verbally eviscerate Governor Andy Beshear.
“The governor has these press conferences to take credit for the sun rising, and I’m sure tonight he’ll probably have a press conference to take credit for the sun setting,” said Senate President Robert Stivers.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron was the headliner on Friday morning after securing the nomination to run against Gov. Beshear in November. Cameron wasted no time during his remarks to take his best shot at the incumbent.
“I often tell people it’s a like a person who was born on third base thinking they hit a triple,” he said of Governor Beshear, hinting, perhaps at the fact that Gov. Beshear’s father, Steve, served as governor from 2007-2015.
“We’re going to remind people what his actual record is,” he continued, before claiming the governor hasn’t challenged President Joe Biden on the border crisis, that he has been soft on crime in the state, and that his values don’t reflect those of a majority of Kentuckians across all 120 counties.
Cameron said he is in the early stages of selecting a lieutenant governor with whom to run, and that was about as tame as it got inside GOP Headquarters, a building located within walking distance of the Governor’s Mansion.
“We need a fighter to be the next governor of Kentucky,” Cameron stated. “I will stand up for the constitutional rights of the men, women and children of all 120 counties,” he continued.
Mr. Stivers, who is arguably the most powerful politician in the state given the Republican’s legislative supermajority, said he’s looking forward to having a governor who will work with state lawmakers.
“I saw things. I know what the communications were. There weren’t any. Zero,” he claimed. “Very little, if ever, did we hear from the governor about policy or processes,” he continued.
