Pulling no punches: What Gov. Beshear’s campaign manager says about the re-election race
Eric Hyers, who managed Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaigns in 2019 and 2023, did not hold back in his opinions of what his team did right and what Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s team did wrong in Beshear’s reelection win.
Pulling no punches, Hyers shared these nine insights Wednesday with the Herald-Leader. Requests for interviews with Cameron or his campaign officials were not returned.
Here’s what Hyers said:
On Cameron’s campaign: “I think Daniel Cameron should be ashamed and embarrassed by the race he ran and so should his team. It was gross, disgusting, and just very, very craven, and I’m glad they lost and it wasn’t that close. They deserve to be embarrassed. They deserve to be made an example of of how you lose with a Republican in a red state.”
On Cameron’s decision to refocus on transgender kids after the May GOP primary: “I think it was a massive error, they did it poorly and it’s good they overshot in the way they did it.”
On Beshear’s connections with voters: “We learned this: You can’t make someone believe something about someone that is clearly false. I was with him at events, and I could see the crowds and the energy and the one-on-one conversations people were having, like teachers and nurses, people who felt a connection to him because they felt like they knew him.”
On the Beshear campaign’s decision to focus on public education: “That was a very good move. We were able to shift the battleground of this race to be on public education. We were always going to win that debate ... I think we sucked them into a debate on one of our best issues.”
On the emergence of abortion exceptions in the race: “We knew early on that rape and incest exceptions were going to be a powerful message, and we didn’t want to do it too early or too late.”
On Cameron’s reaction to the Hadley ad: “It was so clear that Daniel Cameron was just saying what he was told to say, flailing all around.”
On Cameron making his case to voters: “I think the single biggest mistake the Cameron campaign made was they did not make a single positive case of what Daniel Cameron would do for you. He never made a positive case for why he should be the governor, and their failure to do that was a very, very massive blunder.”
On Cameron’s overall strategy: “I think they ran a campaign designed for the Twitter echo-chamber, the gang of 500, the same Frankfort lobbyists, powerbrokers ... If you look at his debate performances, his one-liners, the audience was GOP leadership in Frankfort and not people in Kentucky watching.”
On Democrats in Republican-leaning states: “Democrats can win tough states when they do a good job in the office and they show people they give a hoot about them. They have to communicate why they’re doing what they’re doing and make it clear they make decisions based on what’s right for the place and not just politically. Hopefully other Democrats will look at this race, and see how it was done, and be able to do that elsewhere.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2023 at 9:39 AM.