Daniel Cameron goes solo on KET debate, Democrats dish on Trump, Iran & more
It started out more one-on-one than debate Monday night in the Kentucky Educational Television studios.
Former Attorney General Daniel Cameron was the only one of three Republican candidates who attended what was scheduled as a debate on KET Monday night. Neither Rep. Andy Barr nor Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris showed up.
Cameron might have had the most to gain by getting his face on TV, as he’s raised only a fraction of what Barr, who’s well-connected in Kentucky and Washington, and the largely self-funding Morris have. He also hasn’t seen significant outside spending come in to support him like the others.
Still, Cameron has polled relatively well, either in first or second place, in every publicly released poll of the race. That’s something the candidate addressed right out of the starting gate Monday night with moderator and host Renee Shaw.
“Look, I’m not a millionaire, and I don’t have billionaire friends or lobbyists or interest groups that are supporting this campaign. But, what we do have is the faith and trust of Kentuckians all across this commonwealth,” Cameron said.
When asked why Barr didn’t attend the debate, Barr spokesperson Alex Bellizzi called the station a “left-wing outlet.”
“Why would any Republican appear on PBS, a left-wing outlet that Andy Barr and President Trump defunded? PBS peddled the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX and is completely discredited as a news outlet. We hope the three people watching enjoy the program,” Bellizzi wrote.
Barr has appeared on the network many times, as recently as early 2025, talking about his political future months before he launched his run. He also attended KET’s Summer Celebration later that year.
A spokesperson for Morris did not respond to a question on why he did not attend Monday night’s planned debate.
In many of his answers, Cameron was asked to defend various controversial actions of the Trump administration — tariffs, the war in Iran, pardons of January 6th, 2021, rioters, to name a few.
His answer was the same in nearly all cases: “I support President Trump.”
“Joe Biden was weak on border security, but now we have a president that is taking decisive action, and so I support President Trump’s efforts,” Cameron said when asked about law enforcement tactics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that drew scrutiny this winter.
Shaw kicked off her discussion with Cameron asking him about some of his previous comments, including when, as part of a bipartisan criminal justice reform group, and before he was a political candidate, he advocated for a “no money bail” system. The remarks were recently the subject of an attack ad produced by a political action committee.
Cameron didn’t respond directly to the question, but said that “everyone who knows my relationship with the law enforcement community knows that I stand firm for them,” harkening back to his support for police during the year 2020, when mass protests erupted in Louisville in the wake of the police killing of Breonna Taylor. As AG, Cameron’s office was in charge of the special investigation into the shooting, which resulted in no criminal charges for Taylor’s death.
On the war in Iran, which was in its early stages when GOP U.S. Senate candidates first hit the debate stage in mid-March, Cameron stood by the president despite some growing rifts between Trump and popular conservative influencers like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.
Cameron lauded Trump’s “decisive action” in entering the conflict, as the U.S. and longtime ally Israel have demolished much of Iran’s military capabilities, in addition to killing reportedly more than 3,000 people there. He also offered a soft criticism of critics who say Trump is abandoning his “no new wars” campaign promise.
“This is not going to be a ‘forever war.’ The large premise of President Trump, particularly on the issues that we’d seen in previous confrontations, is that they lingered forever, and there were sometimes blank checks attached to those military confrontations. The president has said very firmly that this will not be a forever war, that the national security interests of the American people is at stake because we cannot have a regime in Iran that has a nuclear weapon,” Cameron said.
When asked about a rough year for Kentucky’s signature bourbon industry, in part a result of Trump-backed tariffs on imports, Cameron shifted the focus to other economic areas where he believes Trump has succeeded, like the recent announcement of increased production of iPhone glass material at Corning in Harrodsburg,. He also offered support for the overall attitude of Trump’s tariff regime, which has been focused on reversing trade imbalances with partner countries.
“He ran on the idea that we would no longer, as American citizens, be taken advantage of by foreign adversaries or allies. We have to stand firm for the interest of the American people, and so I support the Trump economic agenda,” Cameron said.
Cameron was measured in how he addressed his relationship with the senator he’s seeking to replace, and whom he once counted as a mentor: Mitch McConnell.
Shaw asked Cameron if he would support the Kentucky legislature’s successful push to reserve a spot in the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda for artwork, possibly a statue, honoring McConnell. Cameron didn’t say directly.
He added that the deterioration of his relationship with McConnell has been well-documented, but offered one strong compliment when he referenced his old boss’s efforts blocking former Democratic President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“That was a very strong decision that he made, and it changed, in many ways, the path of the United States Supreme Court. I don’t think anyone can doubt the strength of conviction that he laid forward as it relates to that case and how it’s ultimately changed our Supreme Court,” Cameron said.
Democratic candidates
Three Democratic candidates — former U.S. Senate candidates Amy McGrath and Charles Booker as well as Louisville horse trainer Dale Romans — also debated Monday night on KET.
Their responses to questions largely tracked what they’ve said in three previous debate appearances.
The debate started with just McGrath and Romans. Booker arrived a little more than 15 minutes late.
“Thank you all for understanding that it takes a lot to criss-cross the Commonwealth, building a movement from the hood to the holler. And I’ve yet to figure out how to clone myself, but I’m fired up to be here,” Booker said.
Booker’s campaign manager told the Herald-Leader he had a “prior event.”
Candidates Logan Forsythe, a Lexington attorney and former U.S. Secret Service agent, and House Minority Floor Leader Pam Stevenson, D-Louisville, did not meet KET’s thresholds for the debate.
Much of the debate was a further reflection of how each candidate has previously pitched themselves.
On one end was Booker, who said that his concrete, progressive plans like greatly increasing the minimum wage, a general strike and universal basic income were attainable and the best way to fire up voters. On the other was Romans, who poked at Booker’s plans as unrealistic, saying Medicare for All would not work in the U.S. McGrath was somewhere between those two.
All three offered harsh criticisms of the Trump administration’s handling of immigration enforcement, the war in Iran and more. Their proposed fixes differed.
Booker said Trump “needs to be impeached, needs to be removed, and needs to be arrested.” McGrath said Trump’s conduct “absolutely rises to the level” of impeachment. Romans said Trump was unfit for office, but emphasized that conviction on an impeachment wasn’t realistic.
“I mean, we impeached him twice. It’ll be on his record forever. But, you’ll never get 60 senators to vote to remove him from office. So, the best thing to do is take back the House and Senate, put him in a box for a couple of years until he’s out of there. We also don’t want to put JD Vance in,” Romans said. “I mean, how much better is he going to be if he becomes the president and that maybe gives him a chance to rehabilitate himself, and we have to run against an incumbent as a Democrat?”
The dynamic was similar when they were asked if they would support Chuck Schumer to lead the Senate Democratic Caucus, as Schumer has taken heat from progressives.
“Chuck Schumer needs to step aside. Is his time to go,” Booker said.
McGrath said “we do need change” in regards to Schumer.
Romans said he couldn’t say who he’d vote because he doesn’t know who’d vie for leader.
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 7:57 AM.
