Four More Years For KY Gov Andy Beshear, An Eternity Of Pointing And Laughing At Daniel Cameron

It's a beautiful morning.

Stephen Robinson

Nov 8, 2023

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It was barely a half hour after all polling places in Kentucky had closed before Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman had seen enough. “Andy Beshear (D) wins reelection in #KYGOV, defeating Daniel Cameron (R).”

This is a tremendous moment for all Kentuckians. Beshear is a great governor and a good man, who ran an impressive, high-minded campaign. I promise I’ll praise him further but right now I want to bury Cameron, who ran a cynical, bigoted campaign that in the end provided him nothing more than the humiliation he so richly deserved.

“Looking at the numbers,” Wasserman wrote, “[it is] pretty evident KY Republicans had a turnout/enthusiasm problem today.”

Beshear expanded on his 2019 performance against Matt Bevin in almost every part of the state. So much for the Sunken Place’s rising Republican star! The Republican establishment had thrown so much support behind him, you’d have thought Mitch McConnell was preparing to switch bodies with him — maybe he’s already in the process of doing so, which would explain why Mitch has had a few public glitches.

Cameron was elected attorney general in 2019 and was invited to speak at the 2020 Republican National Committee, where he joined Tim Scott and Nikki Haley in a tuneless cover of “Democrats Are The Real Racists!”

He’d built his political aspirations on Breonna Taylor’s still-fresh grave. He sabotaged any real attempt at accountability for the Louisville police officers who fatally shot Taylor in her home. He publicly lied about the facts of the case and what evidence had been presented to the grand jury, while more or less serving as the cops’ pro-bono defense. This endeared him to the usual suspects in right-wing media. Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly both raved over his callous refusal to seek justice for Taylor, despite the impassioned pleas from the Black community.

Daniel Cameron is scum, is what I’m saying, and Republicans still couldn’t turn out in force for him. Sure, he helped a few white cops get away with senselessly killing a Black woman, but what has he done for them lately?

Beshear recognized the grief and pain caused by Taylor’s death. He said on MSNBC, “It’s time to post all the information. All the facts, all the interviews, all the evidence, all the ballistics, to truly let people look at the information.” And he called out his future opponent over his handling of the case at that point. “One of the problems we've had over the last six months is a total lack of explanation and information. And the vacuum that's created there — our emotions, frustrations — can truly fill that. It’s time for people ... to be able to come to their own conclusions about justice.”

The governor also signed a partial ban on the no-knock warrants that led to Taylor’s death. His “wokeness” — right-wing code for any demonstrated concern for marginalized groups — did not cost him the election. During October’s gubernatorial debate, he spoke in personal terms about the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that he’d mentioned every single pandemic death in the state at his daily press conferences.

“I showed people during the pandemic I was willing to make the hard decisions, even if it cost me,” Beshear said. “I put politics out the window, and I made the best decisions I could to save as many lives as possible.”

Beshear is an honest and straightforward leader. Cameron offered nothing but misleading smears and petty trolling.

“[Beshear] demands that boys play in girls’ sports. He protects transgender surgeries for kids,” Cameron said, falsely, at the Fancy Farm Event in August. “I’ve been watching Frankfort Andy up close for nearly four years, and I have just one question: Governor, are you auditioning for a job with Bud Light’s marketing team?”

He went on: “I know you guys are obsessed with pronouns these days, but come November, yours are going to be: has and been.”

Yet, even with the endorsement of felony indictment collector Donald Trump, Cameron is now the has been. He’s an empty shell of a man barely worth forgetting.

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