Barbs, personal attacks steal the show as top GOP candidates for KY governor debate
Personal attacks and havoc stole the show Monday night, as five leading Republican candidates for Kentucky governor faced off for a live, televised 90-minute debate hosted by KET in Lexington.
The candidates, Daniel Cameron, Kelly Craft, Ryan Quarles, Eric Deters and Alan Keck, had their feet held to the fire by moderator Renee Shaw — and each other — in one of the final debates before the May 16 primary.
The two front-runners according to recent polling — Craft, the former ambassador to Canada and the United Nations, Cameron, Kentucky’s attorney general — in particular traded barbs with one another on support from law enforcement, alleged ethics violations and more.
There’s just two weeks until the primary, when GOP voters across Kentucky decide who among a dozen candidates is their best bet to defeat presumptive Democratic nominee and incumbent governor, Andy Beshear. Despite Kentucky’s increasingly Republican leanings, Beshear is likely to be a formidable opponent, as recent surveys have shown he is consistently one of the most popular governors in America.
Deters, a suspended Northern Kentucky attorney and arguably the most far-right candidate on the stage Monday night, also jumped into the fray, lobbing insults at Craft for “playing the woman card” and the wealth of her and her husband, Alliance Resource Partners CEO Joe Craft.
The chaotic exchange prompted frustration from another candidate on stage as the issues were forced to the back burner.
“Quite honestly, the last 10 minutes are why people are sick of politics in America,” Keck, mayor of Somerset, said. “It’s, ‘He said, she said, we’re gonna spend a pile of money to tear each other down.’ I want a Kentucky where we lift each other up and get stuff done.”
From the ensuing crosstalk, Deters piped in: “Kumbaya doesn’t work.”
The Kentucky Democratic Party said the candidates used their time “shredding” each other.
“With the primary just over two weeks away, the KY GOP is coming apart at the seams,” the KDP tweeted, referencing an attack ad from a pro-Craft PAC that has likened Cameron to a soft teddy bear.
Speaking after the debate, Quarles, current commissioner of agriculture, said the forum allowed him to show voters he has “a temperament that Kentucky needs to see” in its next governor. It’s a part of his approach this entire campaign season, focusing on “issues not insults.”
“It’s important that Republicans nominate a candidate who can unite the party,” he said. “There’s no problem with having disagreements on issues and policies and voting records, etc., but it’s important that if we’re going to defeat Andy Beshear, we need to nominate somebody who wants to help lift other people up and unite the party after May 16.”
Craft and Cameron — and PACs backing them — have waged an expensive ad war against one another. Many of those same lines of attack spilled over to Monday’s debate.
Craft went after Cameron and the unauthorized campaign committee Bluegrass Freedom Action, which supports Cameron’s election effort, for taking more than $100,000 in donations from “gray machine” manufacturer Pace-o-Matic, even as it sues the state in an attempt to overturn a ban passed by the 2023 General Assembly. Cameron’s office is defending the ban in court, and Cameron has said he has recused himself from the case, but a Craft supporter has filed an ethics complaint over the matter.
“Well, the first explanation is that Kelly has not done her homework,” Cameron said. “Kelly was desperate, and again, this has all come about because Kelly spent, as you know, Kelly, you spent six months telling folks that you were going to get the Donald Trump endorsement. You had him at the Derby last year. And then I got the endorsement, and your team has been scrambling ever since.”
Cameron went on to say the attorney behind the ethics complaint lacks credibility and the allegations are “bogus.”
Craft, too, called Cameron desperate.
“I was hoping that it would be civil discourse because we owe the state of Kentucky,” she said after the debate. “We owe it to them to be their voice.”
The pair also sparred over support for and from law enforcement.
Craft slammed Cameron for “allowing” the “woke” federal Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to come into Louisville. The DOJ conducted a patterns and practices investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department following the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in March 2020. The results of that investigation were released earlier this year.
“What does that say about backing the blue?” Craft asked. “We need to have complete confidence in our law enforcement. I have been sitting with law enforcement. ... I can tell you what they need. They need resources. They need resources on the street with them and they need resources within their office.”
“Kelly has been sitting with law enforcement and has got one to openly and publicly support her,” Cameron said. “I’ve gotten over 100 law enforcement officials that have supported me, endorsed this campaign for governor. I’m going to continue to fight for them whether Kelly Craft spends $10 million attacking me or not.”
Cameron believes he defended himself well from Craft’s allegations.
“We might have had a disagreement or two, but in a big primary with a lot of different folks in it,” Cameron said. “But I felt like we presented our case very strongly and didn’t back down there, certainly won’t back down if I have the opportunity, which I firmly believe, to be the Republican nominee for governor.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2023 at 9:40 PM.
