Breonna Taylor's mom joins campaign to fight Daniel Cameron's bid for governor

On what would have been Breonna Taylor's 30th birthday, national and local activists joined her family Monday to launch a statewide campaign against Daniel Cameron's bid for Kentucky governor.

"When you don't do your job, you get fired. You don't get rewarded," Shameka Parrish-Wright, an activist who is now running for Metro Council, said at a press conference in Louisville. "We cannot reward Daniel Cameron as governor."

A key reason for the campaign against Cameron, who is Kentucky's first Black attorney general, is what organizers called his "incompetence and mishandling" of the investigation into the killing of Taylor, a Black woman who was unarmed when Louisville police shot her during a botched drug raid on her apartment. None of the three officers who fired at Taylor were charged in her death as a result of Cameron's investigation.

Until Freedom, a New York-based national social justice group; members of Louisville 87; and Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, announced the voter engagement campaign against Cameron at Jefferson Square Park. The park was dubbed "Injustice Square Park" during the 2020 racial justice protests that followed her killing at age 26.

All of the work done during the 2020 protests will go to waste if people don't go out and vote this fall, Taylor's family's attorney Lonnita Baker said Monday.

The statewide push will focus on registering new voters and engaging with people who don't typically vote, organizers said. They also plan on opening two offices - one in Louisville, the other in Lexington - in the coming weeks.

More: 'It's heartbreaking': Breonna Taylor's mother says DOJ report shows what we already knew

Organizers noted Cameron is endorsed by former President Donald Trump and said he is "pro-gun, anti-choice, anti-immigrant, unequivocally supports our policing systems in their current form and is no champion for Black people."

Though no police officers were charged in Taylor's death as a result of the state investigation, four former officers face federal charges after being indicted by a grand jury.

Taylor's death also led to a Department of Justice investigation into LMPD. Following its blistering findings, the Justice Department and city are working to forge a consent decree and implement police reforms.

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky governor's race: Until Freedom to campaign vs Daniel Cameron