Kentucky governor candidate Daniel Cameron endorses Trump but splits on election denial

FRANKFORT, Ky. − Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the only Republican in a crowded 2023 primary for governor who has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, returned the favor Tuesday when he told reporters he supports the ex-president's 2024 campaign to return to the White House.

His endorsement came a couple of weeks after the U.S. House of Representatives committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol recommended the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump for his actions related to that insurrection.

"Yes, I support Donald Trump in the (Republican) primary," Cameron said, though he noted GOP voters across the country will determine who their party's eventual nominee for president that year will be and made it clear he'll support whoever that nominee is.

Concerning the House committee's recommendation on criminal charges for Trump, he said: "Well, I’ll let others in the Department of Justice make a determination about that."

Cameron, who got Trump's early endorsement last summer for his gubernatorial campaign, officially filed to run for governor Tuesday morning at the Kentucky Capitol, though he already announced his candidacy in May 2022.

Elected in 2019 as Kentucky's first Black attorney general, he also is the first Black person from one of America's two major political parties to run for governor in the commonwealth. (The first Black person to ever run for governor here was Nailah Jumoke-Yarborough, of Louisville, who ran in 1999 as the nominee of the Natural Law Party.)

While he endorsed Trump on Tuesday, Cameron also acknowledged a fact the former president has refused to publicly accept: Democratic President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election.

When asked directly about that, Cameron said: "Yes, that’s right. ... Look, he was legitimately elected as the president of the United States. I don't know why this is a shock. We are in 2023, and yet there’s still breathless reporting on 2020.”

Some Republican strategists blame Trump and his influence - including election denial - for the GOP's failure to win control of the Senate in November as well as other key races. Many Republican candidates who denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election lost.

Cameron is part of a crowded field seeking the Republican nomination for governor. Other GOP hopefuls include Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, state Auditor Mike Harmon and Kelly Craft, who served as ambassador to the United Nations and Canada during Trump's administration.

Journalist Joe Gerth contributed to this article. Reach reporter Morgan Watkins at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Daniel Cameron endorses Donald Trump as he files for Kentucky governor