Why some KY Black voters say Cameron doesn’t ‘reflect our needs.’ | Opinion

On Tuesday, a small group of Black voters, politicians and activists gathered at historic Shiloh Baptist Church to talk about getting out the vote across Lexington and beyond in the 2023 governor’s election between Gov. Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

“If there was ever a time we needed to vote, it’s now,” declared Rev. Richard Gaines, the minister of Consolidated Baptist Church, another historic Black church on the north side.

The Lexington event was put together by the local NAACP and Transformative Justice Coalition, but it’s hardly the only one.

The national Black Voters Matter group is hitting college campuses by bus. The Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky is pursuing get out the vote efforts across the state. Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, is crisscrossing Louisville and knocking on doors for a campaign called Vote for Breonna.

And many of these activists and politicians are making the point — implicitly and explicitly — that while it’s great the top of the GOP ticket is a Black man for the first time in Kentucky history, he does not necessarily represent traditional Black interests in Kentucky.

“We want politicians who reflect us,” said Whit Whitaker, director of the Lexington NAACP. “But we also want politicians and policies to reflect our needs.”

In a tight race, Gov. Andy Beshear will have to sweep Kentucky’s urban areas of Lexington and Louisville. As someone who won by just 5,000 votes the first time around, he knows every vote matters and every Black vote is crucial. A poll released on Nov. 3 showed Beshear and Cameron neck and neck; among Black voters, 7.4% of those surveyed, Beshear led Cameron 78-16.

But as his opponent Daniel Cameron has shown, Black voters are not a monolith, and polls increasingly show that they may not feel the same loyalty to the Democratic Party as in years past. As Time Magazine noted this spring, Biden’s favorability ratings among Black voters shifted from 84% right after he took office in 2021 to 74% at the end of March 2023, according to YouGov/Economist polling.

Democrats also got a scare in Louisiana, where Republican Jeff Landry was elected governor in an election in which 72% of Louisiana’s white voters showed up compared to 24% of Black voters, even though the Democrat, Shawn Wilson, is Black.

University of Kentucky political scientist (and Louisiana native) Steve Voss made an interesting point: The national Democratic Party and affiliated interests abandoned Louisiana. Because voting is an essentially social act, getting out the vote efforts make a huge difference, as they probably will in Kentucky.

“Interest groups that are active here that have given up in Louisiana, and that will make a difference,” he said.

Kentucky is far less diverse than Louisiana, where the Black population statewide is just 7 percent. But urban areas are much higher: Jefferson County is 22 percent and Lexington is 15 percent. That can make a big difference, and Black voters can no longer be taken for granted, said Celine Mutuyemariya, organizing director of the Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky.

“Our organization is focused on Black Kentuckians because we are often ignored,” she said.

“We are treated as pawns in elections. No one is trying to understand what our priorities are. That’s why we’re trying to talk to voters, so they have the support and information they need to make informed choices at the polls.”

Plain speaking

Let’s be honest. Democrats shouldn’t take Black voters for granted, as they often have.

But Cameron’s platform, which espouses traditional Republican views on criminal justice, abortion and education, doesn’t reflect the majority of Black communities in Kentucky, and it isn’t racist for me or anyone else to say that.

People I talked to were particularly incensed by Cameron’s recent statement that he had never faced any racism before this race. Specifically, “I never faced racism or discrimination while growing up or working in Kentucky until I decided to stand up to the national Democrat establishment. I don’t support their policies, so the left attacks me for my skin color.”

“Do you believe that? Because I do not believe that,” said Hannah Drake, an artist and activist in Louisville. “This is the eighth-whitest state in the nation and he has never experienced racism? Just stop.”

But Drake made an even more important point: “You can be a Black conservative and say racism exists,” she said. “If you have to deny who you fundamentally are, there’s something wrong with that.”

Cameron says racial identity is besides the point.

“People, regardless of skin color, want a leader with real plans to address the learning loss, high taxes, out of control crime, and inflation that is destroying our savings. And that is what I will do as Governor of Kentucky,” he said in a statement. “This election is about core values. It’s not what you look like, but where your values stand. My campaign has tried to embody the promise of America – that if you work hard, and if you stand on principle – that anything is possible.”

As Herald-Leader reporter Tessa Duvall wrote earlier in the season, Cameron’s lack of action in the Breonna Taylor case — later corrected by federal authorities — still incenses many Louisville voters.

That may not be as strong a motivation in other areas, said Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort. But when you look at the other issues — education, healthcare, voting rights, criminal justice — most Black people think Beshear’s platform is a better fit, he said.

“I think Democrats are better for working-class people,” he said. “We have conservatives, moderates and liberals, and you have to find common ground and bring people together. Cameron definitely doesn’t get that done.”

Cliff Albright, the co-founder and director of Black Voters Matter, is the mind behind the “Uncle Daniel” ad, which Cameron and his white allies decried as racist.

“The Black community is not a monolith,” he said in a Thursday phone interview. “But we don’t think it’s racist to say that Cameron has supported policies that are against the interests and desires of most of the Black community. There are some issues that we have a wide consensus on: police accountability, affirmative action, healthcare.”

He said many people are alienated by the mental contortions a Black lawyer — still rare in top tier Kentucky law firms —would have to make to say they will prosecute corporations for affirmative action.

“It’s really confusing, except to the extent that it’s all about pursuing political power,” he said.

Albright is now in Mississippi, where there’s another closely watched off-year governor’s race going on and where Black votes will matter a lot.

“Our ultimate goal, whether it’s Kentucky or Mississippi or anywhere, is to have more people voting,” he said.

“The policies that benefit Black people benefit everyone. There has never been a time where Black people have made advances that have not benefited the entire state.”