VERSAILLES, Ky. (LEX 18) — The Kelly Craft campaign blocked a group of protesters, who were mostly grieving mothers, from attending her event in Versailles Thursday night.
They’d hoped to confront Craft about her “empty chair” ad, and ask how she planned to tackle the crisis.
Like many others, they incorrectly assumed while watching the ad that she'd lost a family member to an overdose. Each of the mothers had lost a child to drug overdoses.
They brought signs and a purple chair, representing those they’d lost. Instead of going inside, they were forced to display their signs in the window of the room where Craft was speaking.
When asked about the protesters, Craft said, "I wasn't aware there was a group... I was busy focused on the people who came here to see me today."
Protesters say there's no way Craft could have missed them.
"We were all sitting right there and we watched her walk in. She saw us," said Hildi Singer. She’s still mourning her 24-year-old son Jaden.
"I don't understand why she's telling people that she understand this and she's experienced the same loss when she hasn't," said Singer.
The controversy centers on the following line in Craft’s widely-distributed advertisement.
“As a mother, this is personal to me because I've experienced that empty chair at my table,” Craft, the former U.N. ambassador said in the ad.
In an earlier interview with LEX 18, Craft revealed that the close family member is still alive.
Craft's campaign put out a statement last week saying people who implied based on the ad her family member had died don't understand the pain caused by the drug epidemic.
When asked Thursday if the people at the event, who implied someone had died, don't understand the epidemic, Craft said an empty chair can mean many things.
Whether or not someone is in jail, in recovery, or still missing, “their pain is all the same, they have that empty chair,” Craft said.
She says she'll spend every day as governor making sure fentanyl doesn't come across the border into Kentucky.
"I have lived it. I know it. I know what that empty chair feels like when that child is on drugs because they really are not with you at the table. I know what it feels like when they are in rehab. I know what it feels like when they don't show up at home," said Craft.
But for Singer, that empty chair means one thing only.
"When our children are being poisoned on the street and dying alone, that chair represents the loss that we suffer the rest of our lives," said Singer. "Kentuckians have a right to know she's nothing but a liar."
A campaign staff member told LEX 18 the group was not allowed inside the event to avoid a disruption.
Following the event, a campaign staffer collected the contact information for the group, saying it was in the hope they could speak to Craft at a later time.
