Missed the Kentucky governor debate? Here are 4 key takeaways.

With the bright lights burning on Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and GOP nominee Attorney General Daniel Cameron for their second debate of the election season, the candidates for the state’s highest office Monday presented similar messages but in slightly different tones.

Both leaned in a little less hard on characterization of the other’s personality and hammered away on distinct policy differences compared to last week’s previous debate.

Cameron probed Beshear on taxes, crime and educational outcomes. Beshear went particularly hard at Cameron over exceptions to the state abortion ban, a repeated theme in television advertisements, and charter schools.

The debate, held at Northern Kentucky University and moderated by a panel of journalists from the Cincinnati area and Lexington, took place in a region that’s growing fast and features two “swing” counties that went for Beshear by slim margins in 2019.

Unliked the first debate, candidates were allowed to rebut each other’s answers when mentioned – that was the case for a majority of answers.

Here are the top four takeaways from Monday night.

Less Biden and more brass tacks

One notable change: The amount of times Cameron hearkened to Democratic president Joe Biden.

In his opening statement, Beshear jokingly set the “over/under” – a betting metric used to predict a statistics – on how many times Cameron would refer to Biden at 16.5. You’d have cashed out if you picked the “under,” as Cameron mentioned the president four times in his brief opening statement, but largely veered away from the commander-in-chief for the rest of the debate.

Instead, Cameron dug into Beshear on perceived failings of the Department of Juvenile Justice and other cabinets, his lack of support for fully doing away with the state income tax and crime. The result was a less predictable and Washington-oriented line of attack from Cameron.

“Andy Beshear believes that the government is in the best position to spin and control your money. I think you as a citizen of this commonwealth deserve to have more of your hard earned money in your pocket,” Cameron said.

The Republican called Beshear out for not offering any proposal on criminal punishment. When Beshear responded to a public safety question by highlighting his successful efforts to get the Kentucky State Police a raise, Cameron said the governor had “no plan” to address crime.

“You don’t feel safer because you’re not safer under this governor. There has been a 68% increase in murders in our rural communities. There’s been a 30% increase across the state. That’s not something that the governor is going to be able to run from over the course of these next two or three weeks,” Cameron said.

Abortion debate continues

Abortion is one of the top issues that’s shaped the race in the final weeks, and it lingered as a major topic Monday.

The two were locked in a battle over where to have the debate: with Beshear pushing hard on there being no exceptions for rape or incest in a law that Cameron has vigorously defended, and Cameron tried to shift the debate towards where Beshear would cut off abortion access.

The debate over Cameron’s position, however, is more relevant for Kentuckians, as the current law banning nearly all abortions at any stage of pregnancy is in full effect, though it’s still being challenged in the courts.

“When people throw out ‘week this’ or ‘week that,’ it confuses Kentuckians about what the law is. The law is zero. We have zero options,” Beshear said.

Cameron tried to frame the debate as who was “pro-life” and who was not.

“I’m the pro-life candidate and Andy is the abortion candidate,” Cameron said, later incorrectly stating that Beshear “doesn’t want any limits on abortion.”

In a recent interview with the Herald-Leader, Beshear said that he would support a law that allows the procedure up until fetal viability, which is somewhere around 24 weeks.

School choice?

While the debate over whether or not Kentucky should set up a program partially funding scholarships, or vouchers, to K-12 schools appears to be a major priority for the Republican-led legislature, it has mostly eluded debate in the governor’s race.

Beshear tried to change that on stage Monday night. He referenced Cameron’s previous support for a pension reform bill that received serious push back from teachers, as well as claims that Kentucky students were being “indoctrinated” in the classroom.

“My opponent claims that teachers are doing things in the classroom that they’re not. That is an open attack. He said he would have fought to keep those illegal (pension) cuts in place and – ask him, he is on tape – he supports a voucher program that will take tens of millions of dollars out of our public school system, out of the paychecks of our educators, out of the resources that they need, and again send them to fancy private schools,” Beshear said.

The governor incorrectly stated that Cameron’s “catch-up plan” to tackle COVID-related learning loss included vouchers for private schools.

“Well, the first person I want to enroll in the Cameron catch-up plan is Andy because it appears he has not read my policy,” Cameron joked.

However, Cameron has signaled support for voucher programs in the past and defended a 2021 bill passed by the legislature on this score.

During the debate, Cameron stated repeatedly that his policy proposals were focused squarely on public schools, avoiding questions about if he would support bills to set up a voucher program. After the debate, he stressed the same and leveled a new allegation on Beshear’s feelings toward private schools.

“What I can tell you is that Andy Beshear hates private schools. My plan is about our public school system, making sure that our teachers have the resources. Look, the majority of our kids are in public schools and we need to fight to make sure that our school systems are world class,” Cameron said.

Is Beshear “crazy?”

Beshear has attempted to brand himself throughout his tenure as governor and in this year’s campaign as compassionate and relatable.

Twice now, Cameron has offered long arguments in a debate setting that Beshear is actually “crazy.”

When asked after the debate if that line of attack works against a politician like Beshear, Cameron listed off all the reasons he thinks the criticism is true.

“I think it’s crazy to have a governor here in Kentucky who openly endorses Joe Biden. I think it’s crazy to have this governor who fails to protect women’s sports from biological males. I think it’s crazy to have this governor shut down our small businesses, our churches, and our schools… I think the majority of Kentuckians think that that person should not be leading our state, and that’s why I’m running so hard to replace him,” Cameron said.

Beshear and his wife Britainy chuckled at Cameron’s “crazy” line after the debate.

“The people of Kentucky know who I am,” Beshear said.

“They know this family, and they know we care about every single citizen in the commonwealth of Kentucky. Meanwhile, I have an opponent that won’t say that he supports exceptions for victims of rape and incest. I’ll let the people of Kentucky decide who’s crazy and who’s not.”