By
Ahead of Election Day 2023, Donald Trump focused most of his electoral energies on one specific statewide candidate: Daniel Cameron, the Republican attorney general in Kentucky, and the GOP’s highly touted gubernatorial candidate.
For months, Cameron was trailing, but as polls showed a narrowing race at the finish line, the former president published an item to his social-media platform over the weekend, eagerly taking credit for the candidate’s position. Cameron “has made a huge surge, now that [voters] see my strong Endorsement,” Trump wrote, adding that the candidate has a “great future.”
In hindsight, “great” might not have been the best choice of words. NBC News reported:
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky has won re-election, defying the usual political leanings of the red state, NBC News projects. Beshear defeated GOP state Attorney General Daniel Cameron in an expensive and hard-fought race.
Though there was some 11th-hour polling that showed the race tied, with nearly all of the votes counted, the incumbent appears to have prevailed by about five points.
It might be tempting to think Beshear’s success was inevitable. Headed into Election Day, Beshear was seen as a popular incumbent, from a popular Kentucky family, with a strong record.
But it’s not nearly that simple. As Teri Carter, a political columnist in central Kentucky, wrote for MSNBC overnight, “Kentucky is a deep-red state. Republicans have a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature. In addition to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, we send hard-line firebrands like Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. James Comer to represent us in Washington, D.C.”
We are, after all, talking about a state Donald Trump won in 2020 by roughly 26 points. When Beshear was elected four years ago, he barely eked out a narrow victory against a troubled Republican incumbent — and at the time, the Democrat failed to reach 50% of the vote.
Success, in other words, was hardly assured.
But Beshear prevailed anyway, in part thanks to steady and effective leadership over four years, and in part by running on abortion rights. This ad, which the governor’s campaign began airing in late-September, remains one of the most memorable spots of 2023.
Two days after the ad began airing, Politico reported, “It was once unthinkable for a Democrat running statewide in a red state like Kentucky to win on abortion. Now, in the final stretch of a campaign to defend the governor’s mansion, Democrats are betting hard that they can ride it to victory.”
That bet paid off.
“Just look at what we were up against,” Beshear told supporters after the race was called. “Five super PACs. My opponent’s super PAC, Mitch McConnell’s super PAC. Rand Paul’s super PAC, the Club for Growth, the Republican Governors Association, all running ads full of hate and division. And you know what? We beat them all at the same time.”