Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in the Bluegrass State and will face Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) in the general election.
The Associated Press called the race for Cameron shortly after 7:00 p.m. With an estimated 29 percent reporting at around 7:20 p.m., Cameron garnered 45 percent of the vote in a crowded field, according to the New York Times election results. Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft, who Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) endorsed on Monday, were his closest competitors at the time, with 21 percent and 17.6 percent of the vote, respectively.
The 37-year-old Cameron secured former President Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement nearly a year ago, in June of 2022.
“At every level, Daniel has stood out, he will be a great governor of Kentucky and has my complete and total endorsement,” Trump said, as the Associated Press noted.
An Emerson/Fox 57 Lexington poll taken days before the primary found that nearly half of the Republican primary voters in the state are “More likely” to vote for a candidate if he or she is backed by Trump.
Beshear, the son of former Gov. Steven Beshear (D-KY) staved off two challengers to easily win the Democrat primary in his bid for a second term.
Cameron, who previously served as legal counsel to Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), was elected as attorney general in 2019. He became the first black elected official to hold standalone office in the state’s history and marked its first Republican attorney general in 71 years, according to his website.
He heads into the general election as Kentucky has become increasingly red in recent years, as the amount of registered Republicans eclipsed the registered Democrats last summer after decades of work. For reference, in 1984, registered Democrats more than doubled the number of registered Republicans at 1.3 million to 525,000, as the Republican Party of Kentucky noted.