'A pragmatist who gets results': How Beshear won NKY again

Two Northern Kentucky counties handed Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear votes on Election Day that helped him beat Donald Trump-endorsed Republican Daniel Cameron in a pivotal race with national implications.

Kentucky’s off-year gubernatorial race, one of only three in the country this year, is often a bellwether for the presidential election. Since 2003, whichever party has won the Kentucky governorship has also won the White House.

Beshear, a popular incumbent, won the election with about 53% of the vote compared to 49.2% when he was first elected in 2019.

Just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Kenton and Campbell counties were the lynchpin for Beshear’s slim 5,000 vote-win in 2019.

This year, Beshear won Campbell and Kenton counties by higher margins, according to Tuesday night election results. In Campbell County, he won 54% compared to 52% in 2019. In Kenton County Beshear got 53% of the vote, compared to 49.5% last election.

Beshear also won over voters in the Northern Kentucky Republican stronghold Boone County where he got 44% of the vote compared to 41.5% in 2019, though, the county still swung red for Cameron.

In Campbell County, dozens of Democrats met Tuesday night at Jerry’s Jug House, a small local watering hole in Newport's East Row Historic District.

Voters stood shoulder to shoulder cheering and shouting, “Four more years!” as news organizations called the race for Beshear.

“I think that the voters of Northern Kentucky want a pragmatist who gets results and what I love to see is that Andy won by a larger margin this year, which is showing me that people are willing to split their vote,” State Rep. Rachel Roberts, D-Newport, said amid the revelers.

She’s been one of the few Democrats in the Republican-led General Assembly for the past three years.

The victory is the only one Democrats celebrated as Republicans swept every other statewide office on the ballot, including secretary of state and attorney general.

If Kentucky voters are setting the stage for the presidential election, though, things aren’t looking good for former president Donald Trump.

‘A Joe Biden stooge’

The night before the election, former president Donald Trump spoke at a tele-rally for Cameron, whom he endorsed last year.

Trump warned voters, “If Beshear wins, you'll have high crime, high taxes and a Joe Biden stooge representing your state.”

Cameron, Trump said, would put an “end to this Biden-crazy, extreme agenda.”

The tele-rally happened just hours after the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner appeared in court for a highly public New York civil fraud lawsuit Monday.

Cameron has embraced the former president’s support and told voters Monday that he would stand up to President Joe Biden if he were elected.

As numbers rolled in across the state Tuesday night, Republicans at The Globe cocktail bar in Covington seemed to feel Cameron’s loss coming.

State Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, said she was surprised at how the election was turning out – a split ticket that benefitted Beshear.

“I’m not exactly sure what’s going on in the minds of voters. We hit doors up until a couple of days ago and the feeling was very, very positive,” she said.

State Rep. Stephanie Dietz, R- Edgewood, said Cameron represented a stark contrast to Beshear, who shuttered businesses during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic and who vetoed a bill that prevents minors from getting gender-affirming medical care, which the general assembly later passed.

“I think we’re going to see more of his extreme policies. I think we’re going to see more of him aligning with more of the Bidenomics … I think he’s done a great job in taking credit for what the general assembly did,” she said.

Policies over politics

Beshear’s stump speech throughout his campaign focused on his accomplishments during the past four years.

In one talk with reporters, he mentioned the $3.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge Project two times in about four minutes to highlight the biggest infrastructure project in the state in a generation. He also campaigned hard on his response to deadly natural disasters – flooding in eastern Kentucky last year and tornadoes in western Kentucky the year before that.

At the polls Tuesday, voter after voter brought up Beshear’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know a lot of people disagree and a lot of people felt hurt by some of the actions, by keeping businesses closed, but ... he was doing the best he could for all the people of Kentucky,” said Alice Kendrick, who voted at the Southgate Community Center in Campbell County.

State Rep. Roberts said Beshear’s re-election proves voters can break the “fever dream” of hardened support for party lines.

“If you focus on the policies and not the politics, then you’re going to do alright in Kentucky,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kentucky governor race results: Andy Beshear wins 2023 election