Good evening and welcome to Katie's coverage of Election 2023.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Over the next 3 hours, we'll be bringing you up to the minute numbers and the races for governor and the other statewide races.

You'll be able to see those results at the bottom of your screen.

Members of our team will be joining us from the Democratic and Republican campaign headquarters, both in Louisville to provide updates throughout the evening.

As you'll see and you'll see interviews and candidate speeches.

We're joined in our studios in Lexington by five veteran observers of Kentucky politics.

Amy Wickliffe, a Republican strategist and partner with McCarthy Strategic Solutions, Kelsey Hayes, coots educator, Democrat strategist and principal at Blue Dart Consulting.

Bob Babbage, former Kentucky state auditor and secretary of State, is also the founder of Babbage Co-Founder, Veteran journalist.

Al Krause, Director Emeritus of the University of Kentucky Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

And Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state, partner with Frost.

Brian Todd and managing director of Civic Point.

Well, welcome all, and we've got a great jam packed evening full of excitement ready for us.

But right now we're going to join some of our colleagues who were in the field.

K.C.

Parker Bell is there at the Bashir camp.

Good to see you.

Casey Parker Bell, Tell us what's happening there.

Thanks, Renee.

Of course, as you said, I'm here in Louisville at the Democrat Election night Watch party.

It's less than a couple of miles from where Republicans are holding their election night watch party.

Now, both groups want to get a win tonight in the governor's race, but the people I spoke to here are confident the incumbent governor, Andy Beshear, will be able to win a second term.

Now, polling throughout this election cycle.

Has shown that Governor Beshear has a lead.

Over Daniel Cameron, but that is until last week, when an Emerson College Fox 56 poll showed the race.

As a dead heat.

That means there's a lot to keep your eye on after the polls close tonight.

And that's why I spoke to Austin Horn.

He's a political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader and Austin Lynne's insight on what to keep your eyes on as you watch the results roll in.

Brian has so far kind of taken control of his messaging a little bit more than the earlier in the campaign when we had a lot of PACs come in and spend on his behalf.

And he's sort of congealed around this message of you can like Andy Beshear, but there are compelling reasons to not vote for him.

And he's also sort of leaned into the Trump vote a little more and activated kind of that base.

And we know that Trump still has a loyal base across the country, and especially in Kentucky.

On the Beshear side, he's kind of leaned into this.

You know, me sort of camp.

It's worth pointing out that his father was first elected to statewide office in 1979.

I think so.

Kentuckians do know the Beshears and he's really kind of leaning on that sort of personal kind of message, I think you could call it.

In terms of bellwethers.

I would look at Kenton County first.

Kenton County is the most populous county in northern Kentucky, which is an important kind of swing region for governor elections.

It's generally Republican.

But last time Andy Beshear won it by a very thin margin.

I'd look at Warren County, too.

He won it by almost four percentage points last time, but it's expected to be a little bit closer.

And then Madison County as well, the suburbs around Fayette County, which we know is going blue, Fayette County is going blue.

But the suburbs around there, I think, are going to be really important for both of these candidates.

And that's a big battleground.

And aside from that, it's not a bellwether.

But really important is the margin in Louisville.

Last time it was close to 100,000.

We'll see if Beshear can can get there as well this time around.

But I think that's going to be really, really closely watched.

And if it's lower than, say, 80,000, then that might spell not as good of a night for Beshear.

But if it's higher than that or higher than 90,000, then I think they'll be feeling pretty solid.

I would look at turnout as we see the reports roll in, turnout in specific counties when it comes to blue counties versus red counties is really important.

I'm hearing anecdotally some of those more rural red counties might be having a little lower turnout of a night.

That doesn't mean it's a solid result one way or the other, but it could be an indicator that maybe things won't be as strong in these Republican strongholds.

All right, Austin, thanks for taking a couple of minutes.

Thank.

There is plenty.

To watch out for as these results are rolling in.

And we'll continue to keep you updated.

From the Democratic Party.

Headquarters tonight here in Louisville.

Back to you, Renee.

Thank you.

Kacey Parker Bell and Austin Horn as well.

Good way to kick us off.

And now we're going to talk to our panel about what they're watching right now.

You heard Austin Horn mentioned a few important counties that will be watching Madison, Campbell, Kenton, all across.

We think we've got some numbers that are somewhat determinative here.

Tell us what we got.

Oh, the state board of elections is reporting that Andy Beshear got 69 I'm sorry, 9275 votes and Kenton County, 61% of the total.

And Cameron got 6000, 27, 39%.

So Beshear wins that county by more than 3200 votes.

And in 2019, he won it by only 540.

So Trey Grayson, I think, has something to add here, though.

If you look.

At the vote total, that's about a 10% turnout in that county.

So while the state side is saying the precincts are in, they're not complete.

And so that that, you know, I don't know where those precincts come from.

Not saying he's not going to win, Ken, but I just think it's premature.

But I think the fact that out loud with Kenton is important because Kenton is a big deal.

You know, it's a large county, the third largest, the state.

The governor won it four years ago.

He had a turnout office, opened up in Covington very early this year.

They've been out canvasing really hard.

I live I grew up in Kent and I live in Boone now.

And I was struck by how many mailers I have two Democratic daughters.

So I get a lot of Democratic mail in my house.

But my Republican friends were struck by the number mailers they got from the Beshear campaign because of the organization, the money, and how important they think that area.

So it is clearly one to watch.

And Campbell, as well, Campbell, is what you also carried in 2019.

And Beshear lost Boone four.

Years ago, but actually he did better in Boone from kind of a catching up to what you would normally expect in Boone than he actually did in Kenton and Campbell.

Some of that because of turnout.

And so those are, I think, three bellwether counties, and they should report fairly early.

So we should have pretty good data pretty soon.

But it's just it's a little misleading.

On the secretary state's support site right now.

Yeah, that's how full that's like.

The the total vote being reported from Kenton County now is less than a third of the vote that was reported in 2019.

Yes, but just in frames point.

Right.

So what do we know about early voting?

Because we had some pretty remarkable numbers, at least up from the previous year when this early voting option, three days, early voting was allowed.

Amy, So how does it look and do we know where it leans?

We did.

I think we had about 7000 more people early vote on that November 2nd to two, fourth on that front, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, which is good.

I think I would give edge to Democrats of the number of Democrats that voted early.

I think there were a little bit more Democrats who voted early than Republicans.

I do think Republican numbers for early voting are up compared to previous years.

I think there's a comfort level.

I think Republicans are starting to embrace the early voting more.

But I would still give a little bit of an edge.

Now, you also can't just expect that if Democrats go in and vote and Republicans go in and vote, that they're going to vote for their party.

Right.

There's going to be some crossover there.

So what those numbers really tell us don't really define, I think, what we're going to see tonight.

Yeah.

A Democratic friend of mine, Kenton County, said those are the early votes, which explains why, because they are coming from all those precincts.

Right.

So they're being attributed to those precincts where the voter actually lives.

But those are the early votes, which explains also in goes what Amy said about Democrats likely doing better early.

But that appears to be a trend or not turning out.

Which I think we will now use based.

On what.

We hear has 92 175 and Cameron has 6027, which is, you know, still puts Beshear running well ahead of what he did in 2019.

But I think early votes are more likely to be Beshear votes.

Right.

And so we'll have to keep our eyes on that.

So Laura Rogers is Shay Roddy, who is our multimedia journalist who's based in Bowling Green, but she is in Louisville tonight and she is at the Daniel Cameron election night headquarters.

Good to see you, Laura.

And tell us what's happening there.

How's the energy in the room?

We always ask about the mood.

How are they feeling?

Well, Renee, it is a festive, jubilant atmosphere here at the Louisville Marriott downtown.

Hundreds of Daniel Cameron's supporters starting to file into the ballroom tonight and they are appearing optimistic and seem to be buoyed by the momentum that the Cameron campaign seemed to gain just over the last few weeks, even last week being joined on the campaign trail by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who came here to campaign for him on several stops, names like Riley Gaines, who's Senator Rand Paul, his wife, Kelly Paul.

So he's had some big support from well-known Republican figures as well as, of course, that endorsement from former President Donald Trump as well.

And here just a little bit ago, we had a conversation with Scott Jennings, a political commentator, who you know very well, and we wanted to get his insight into this race and how he views the Cameron campaign going into election results tonight.

We will share that conversation with you.

Now when the governor seat tonight.

Well, Daniels is one of the most talented communicators in the Republican Party nationally.

We saw that when he spoke at the Republican National Convention.

Time and again, he's just displayed uncanny communications skills.

So that's a core strength of him.

I also think he tapped on a message in October that did help draw this race very tight.

Obviously, there was some polling over the summer and into the even into the fall that showed Bashir with a little lead.

But I think everyone acknowledges the race got very tight in October when Daniel really started presenting it as a stark choice between him and Donald Trump and Andy Beshear and Joe Biden.

So he really was was encouraging Republicans to look at the national implication of this and what it could portend for the 2024 presidential.

I think that caused a lot of Republicans to snap back and say, oh, yeah, and by the way, this is our guy.

And so Daniels, a likable guy, a great communicator.

He's got a good instinct for messaging and people just kind of like him.

You know, the previous governor, Matt Bevin, had a lot of issues in that area.

There were lots of Republicans who didn't like him.

Some voted for him and some didn't.

So one of the things I'm watching for tonight are some of those Republicans who were uncomfortable with Bevin return to the fold.

Well, I would grade the Cameron campaign very highly.

I think they ran a very good campaign, especially when you consider how badly they were outspent by Andy Beshear, an incumbent governor anywhere in America is going to have massive amount of money.

Andy Beshear did that.

And that's what he did, right, was to really focus on fundraising candidate to candidate.

So I think Cameron, though, given the resources he had, they squeezed every amount of efficiency out of those dollars.

I think they picked smart messages.

And then I think in October, when they took a look at the situation in the world, they took a look at the situation in the United States.

They looked at, you know, Joe Biden really struggling with the economy and a lot of anxiety out there among Americans.

I really think they picked the correct time to try to go in on that.

So I would give him a high grade.

Also, I spent a little time on the road with Daniel.

The last few days of the campaign.

I saw a lot of enthusiasm and I do think it struck me that the campaign got highly organized under the direction of Terry Kamarck, who's on loan from Senator McConnell's operation.

He's McConnell's chief of staff.

He came home in May to run the campaign.

And I think Terry really put a focus on organization and making sure that they win as many places as possible.

I mean, Daniel was doing seven, eight events a day there, really for the whole month of October.

So that's another strength of his that I think they really got right down the stretch.

Well, whatever happens to Daniel, I still think win or lose, the sky is the limit for him.

He has amazing communications abilities.

He's in politics for all the right reasons.

He has an extremely supportive family that he relies on, I think, for his strength on the campaign trail.

I think his values are in line with most Republicans.

You know, one thing Daniel's able to do, you know, we sort of have some division in the party sometimes, But, you know, Daniel's got Donald Trump.

He's got Rand Paul, he's got Mitch McConnell.

He's sort of one of those guys that is a bridge builder inside of the Republican Party.

I think those people are extremely valuable and they are looked to as future leaders of the party, people who can bring Republicans together.

So I really think no matter what happens tonight, you're going to see Daniel on the state and national stage in the years ahead.

He's only, you know, his late thirties.

So there's a lot of runway ahead for Daniel Cameron, win or lose tonight.

Well, whatever happens to Daniel, I still think win or lose, the sky is the limit for him.

He has amazing communications abilities.

He's in politics for all the right reasons.

He has an extremely supportive family that he relies on, I think, for his strength on the campaign trail.

I think his values are in line with most Republicans.

You know, one thing Daniel's able to do, you know, we sort of have some division in the party sometimes, But, you know, Daniel's got Donald Trump.

He's got Rand Paul, he's got Mitch McConnell.

He's sort of one of those guys that is a bridge builder inside of the Republican Party.

I think those people are extremely valuable and they are looked to as future leaders of the party, people who can bring Republicans together.

So I really think no matter what happens tonight, you're going to see Daniel on the state and national stage in the years ahead.

He's only, you know, his late thirties.

So there's a lot of runway ahead for Daniel Cameron, win or lose tonight.

All right, Scott Jennings, we sure appreciate your perspective.

Yeah, interesting insight there from Scott.

And I also asked him, you know, as we anticipate these numbers coming in hopefully here before too long, what does he expect tonight?

And he said he's very interested to see the margins in Jefferson and Fayette Counties.

He's also interested to see the turnout in rural Kentucky counties and also coming into play here, those three days of early no excuse voting.

We haven't had that in a governor's race before.

Will that increase turnout, increasing that available for people to get to the polls?

So a lot to look to tonight and we will send it back to you, Rene, and your panel there in the studio.

Thank you, Laura.

Good to see you.

And we check in with you a little bit later.

So a lot to kind of tease out there in their conversation.

The rural counties.

So what are the rural counties, Amy Wickliffe that we should keep our eyes on?

Yeah, well, especially in the Eastern time zone, I'm just watching some numbers come in here down in Pulaski.

Laurel Some of these numbers that we haven't really seen anything in.

Pike I'm really interested to see what Pike does.

I think the the question is going to be because Beshear was really able to run kind of mini campaigns throughout the state.

One over in the east, you know, talking about the recovery from the floods.

And so does that message carry home with Beshear or is Daniel able to really hold on to some of these more Republican strongholds that we see in the old fifth and up through the through the east?

Right.

One of the points that you heard Scott Jennings talk about was the money in the race.

And we know that it was at least 50 million, probably more than that north of that now, Kelsey So and Beshear had a bigger hand there.

But those super PACs were somewhat of an equalizer toward the end in particular.

Yes, absolutely.

Super PACs came in and rescued Cameron, I guess you could say, and I've heard a couple of times, I believe Scott alluded to this, but about messaging that came from those PACs early on, you know, it wasn't necessarily messaging that came from the Cameron campaign.

So it was interesting to see maybe how Cameron settled in to his message.

But I also think to voters, what translated is that they maybe weren't really sure what Cameron was about because the message changed.

Are they going to talk about education or what?

Right.

It felt like throwing things to the wall to see what would stick.

And so I'm really interested just to go back to what Amy said to see, how does the flood recovery efforts that Beshear was able to lead translate in some of these other areas that maybe he would not have come out ahead on, but hopefully he can cut margins in areas?

When you look back at 2019, right, he maybe didn't perform as well.

Across.

In the last poll that came out before the election.

This was taken November 1st and second.

Cameron voters were more likely to say they were voting against Beshear than Beshear.

Voters were more likely to say they're voting against Cameron, but wide margin.

I think that reflects the fact that voters didn't really know Daniel Cameron yet and they gradually got to know him as the race went along.

I think he had a particularly good closing ad where he said Andy Beshear is a nice enough guy.

Well, the ad then proceeds to take a nice guy and make him look weak.

And that was one of the better closing ads I've seen.

And the series closing ad said, My opponent's campaign is based on attacks and lies, and in that ad, Bashir appeared more like a politician than he had in any ad yet.

But one of Fisher's great advantages is people see him as genuine and not, you know, full of the artifice of politics.

But he used that line, you know me.

Yes.

And that was the best line of the campaign, because he has built up a job approval among Kentucky voters.

That seems highly resilient.

After millions of dollars of attacks, he still got job approval over 50.

I think the question for the campaign and for, you know, for observers anybody else is it's clear that people say a majority Kentuckians say they approve of Beshear.

You know, I think there's enough polling data that confirms that.

But the question is, how strong is that?

And so, you know, on those margins and those are Republicans who say they like him, you know, maybe they liked his COVID leadership or they like his leadership on the flood recovery, as you talked about.

But when they get to know Cameron better, here is messaging.

And do they come back home and say, I like him, but.

Mm hmm.

And I think that's one of the challenges.

This is one of the things I've been talking to a lot of folks, you know, in the lead up to what's going on.

And one of the challenges that Cameron had this entire race is that popular governors never lose reelection.

And this century lesson and first of all, less than a dozen governors have actually lost reelection.

We have a little bit of a skewed perspective because we've had two, but only eight, less than a dozen of lost in the last 25 years or so.

And this one's got above 50%.

And so this will be the first time that's happened in a couple of decades if Bashir were to lose tonight.

But it's a pretty red state.

Cameron's a pretty good candidate, and so it could happen, right?

Like, you know, these rules don't they're not set in stone.

But it is one of the challenges all along.

And I will also say Cameron's a fresh face.

You know, kind of came out of nowhere.

His dad wasn't the governor and lieutenant governor.

And, you know, states you know, you know, all that background he was in his first term as as attorney general.

And so he's he's had a hard time comparing himself to a guy who, you know, at 5 p.m. for several months, we all sat and watched the governor talk and help us navigate through COVID.

Now, that angered some people, you know, some of the things he did.

But we were all there together with him.

And so we got to know him really well in a way that even many first term governors probably haven't had before.

I will say, though, that I think and we've talked about this before, typically Republic and see this October surge, right.

You see this kind of last two weeks of October, people really start to hone in and pay attention.

And we have felt that if you've been on the campaign trail this past week and attended some of the bus tour stops or some of the press conferences, the crowds have been amazing.

The energy has been amazing for Cameron.

And I think voters have started to come home.

Right.

They know that this race is so important.

They see it within striking distance.

They appreciate the fresh face that Daniel Cameron is and appreciate the message that Kentucky can be that shining city on a hill.

Right.

We can be the best version of ourselves.

Give me a chance.

And it's always when you are challenging an incumbent, right?

That incumbent has that built in there.

They're on TV every day.

They get to cut the ribbons, they get to open all the big fancy buildings, and so they get to run on what they've done.

And so naturally that opponent and as Daniel Cameron, that challenger, is going to have to convince voters why he can do it better.

Right.

And why.

Do you think.

What Kentucky's missing out without him in that seat, Bob?

I think it's a hard job to convince people that you don't like somebody when in fact you do like them.

So when the message change, too, he's a nice enough person but on the wrong team, that kind of implication, that was a little bit of a move to let people into the tent who like him but wanted to vote for their team and the team that they're voting for down the ballot, it looks like, tonight.

So it's popularity was a big factor.

His likability was a big factor.

And the closing message had it come sooner.

Yeah, might have been a differentiator.

Did it get his momentum to light across Daniel Cameron?

Well, it's beginning to look like it was a little late, but the one big word we haven't mentioned yet is Trump.

Yeah, you know, it looks like the Cameron campaign was counting on the Trump endorsement and their emphasis on that, their allies emphasis on it to really drive Republican turnout.

And if you looked at some of the late polls, it certainly indicated it was doing that.

And we may see more effective that in western Kentucky and the Central time zone than we're seeing in the Eastern time zone.

Yeah, just to that point, you know, I'm from Owensboro, Davis County girl.

And so not only am I looking at what's really going to happen there, just because that could be a place that Democrats make inroads.

Of course, Beshear won Henderson County and Henderson County also.

You know, abortion has been a topic during this election, went for the vote.

No sad last year.

So that proved to be, you know, an issue that was important to them.

But obviously, we're looking there.

We're looking in the Central Time Zone.

But going back to what Al said, I feel like, you know, in western Kentucky, that is sort of Trump's, you know, biggest place that people really are for him.

And so we're going to see not only are these Trump voters, did they come out on Election Day, but how much of a swing will it be?

Is it really going to make a difference in turnout once we get out of the Eastern Time zone?

And what about Robby Mills, the lieutenant governor candidate with Daniel Cameron from Henderson, neighboring Owensboro, Davis County?

Will that have any residual impact?

Because that's the the home team, essentially.

I think that was obviously the play.

You know, that's it.

That's his hopes.

They have to make inroads somewhere.

And I think they think that western Kentucky could potentially be the place for them, which is why, you know, then Robby Mills was, of course, a convenient.

Pick for them.

Robby spent a lot of time as a surrogate up until the end when they sort of campaigning together.

They did the divide and conquer.

I mean, governor, lieutenant governor, the same thing, obviously, but Robby spent a lot of time west of 65, trying to make those inroads, as Kelcy was saying.

And so we'll see if it pays off a little bit later as those numbers come in.

Well, you also had another Owensboro girl who was on the campaign trail, and that's the young girl.

She's now a woman, Hadley, who was featured in the ad about rape and incest.

Right.

And who had shared her story.

So she also has those Western Kentucky roots and see if that has it.

Here at an election eve rally.

With.

Steve.

Beshear.

That's right.

We're not just looking you know, the easiest way to figure this out on totals is, is Cameron keeping up with Bevin?

And then we would maybe see a close race.

John Channing Taylor County says compared to last time, Beshear lost today by 1400.

Last time it was 2000.

So it's a little pickup in a little county, but you start multiplying those and they become dominoes.

And that may be what we're seeing in some other places.

And the people of Tyler County would not like to be called Little Bob.

Because.

They would not like to be called a little county.

Where I'm from.

That's Bob.

That is.

Taylor County is the.

Geographic center, and it's a.

Pretty medium sized county.

As a trustee of Campbellsville University, very familiar with the.

County, appreciate.

And love it.

And it is a very nicely sized county.

Yes, I think.

Something to to talk about is a lot of people are going to talk about look at Bevin's numbers, you know, and can try to place a comparison there for what how Daniel might perform tonight.

But remember Daniel was on the ballot as well in 2019.

And when you look at comparing how Beshear did in some of these counties versus Daniel, Daniel actually outperformed the governor in several of these counties.

And so, you know, when you look at places like Warren and Scott and Madison and Daniel performed very well in 19.

So I think his performance on that will be something to kind of watch as well on on Henderson County.

And I do think, you know, that was one of 23 counties that the governor won in 2019.

And so I would look for Republicans to try to make a good run at flipping that back solely because that's Robin Mills home territory.

And I think that there's a lot of good messaging down there for that point.

Go ahead.

We're talking about Ravi Mills.

Just really quickly, something I'm going to be looking at, too, is just, you know, how how are the teachers turning out?

I guess there's not a way that we really can tell that by county here.

But, you know, that was just one of the biggest contrast in in the ticket.

And so not only are we talking about can you bring it home in western Kentucky, but does it does it seem like he's making inroads with that population of folks that really turned out for Beshear?

I anecdotal evidence on the bus tour was that the Kia had a big role in generating those Beshear crowds, but there was evidence also that there was just organic support as well.

You know, Bill Bartmann at Paducah told me that he was impressed at the size of the crowd that Beshear got down there.

And Cameron's was about a third of the size one county, I want to mention this was the closest county in 2019.

Boyle County.

Yeah.

Bevin won it by four votes.

Wow.

With about half the votes counted, Beshear is winning.

Three, two, two.

Wow.

So we're seeing a trend here and we're going to keep our eyes on these things.

Dave Wasserman, who follows elections across the country.

So he's not a Kentuckian.

He just called it for Beshear.

Oh, wow.

Well, he's not who we officially use.

We thought I just got like, you know, the guy.

Who follows elections closely around the country and.

You know, a guy.

Like to call like that unless he's pretty sure.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

That's why I mentioned he's pretty reputable.

So I just think that that's pretty telling.

This early in.

The game, I think.

I went to.

Somebody just when I just saw it might That's too early, but I think it's worth sharing with the viewers.

Yeah.

Well, we appreciate you doing this.

More more right.

A long night, if that's a good plan, because.

We're here tonight.

So we do want to remind you not that you need reminding of the messages that you heard on the campaign trail, either in ads or when the candidates appeared here or elsewhere during the debate season.

So this is a little message matchup between Andy Beshear and Daniel Cameron.

Red tape.

My opponent's campaign is built on attacks and lies.

But you know me and you know it isn't true.

I made it in college.

Football is a walk on none of the scholarship.

But all the hard work wasn't glamorous, but it taught me to leave it all on the field.

And that's exactly what I'll do as governor.

The school issue that Daniel Cameron is really talking a lot about how kids are being indoctrinated by leftist ideology.

It's a painting, very dark picture of what's going on in Kentucky schools.

Whereas, you know, Andy Beshear is giving a bit more of a Pollyanna version of what's going on in Kentucky schools right now.

If you want to catch a kid up on math, they have to have a math teacher in the room every day.

If you want to catch a kid up on reading, you've got to have an English teacher in the room every day.

We have to invest more in our system of public education.

I pushed for teacher raises.

My education first plan would provide an 11% across the board race.

But the biggest threat to our public education system are vouchers.

I oppose vouchers 100%.

They steal money from our public schools and send them to our private schools.

The reason he won't answer is he supports vouchers.

He has time and time again.

I agree that we need to expand.

Opportunity and choice, but this program and policy that I've put forth is about our public schools.

I'm married to a school teacher.

My sister in law is a schoolteacher.

My mother retired as a public educator.

I grew up in the Hardin County school system.

So I believe wholeheartedly in our public.

Education system and giving it the resources and giving our teachers the salaries that they deserve.

And I've offered the Cameron catch up plans to catch up our kids on the disastrous decision that this governor made to shut down our schools.

And I think this is a race about crazy.

Versus normal, where.

Sort of the crazy normal hits is that at the end of the day, we see those numbers maybe, But when you go to the grocery and you're buying groceries or you're looking at inflation, I mean, it's not the same thing.

So how is that translating for the voters at home?

And that is where that message is sticking with General Cameron.

Again, it is harder to buy groceries.

It is harder to purchase gas.

It is harder.

To secure child care.

The way that we can.

Help ease that is about eliminating the income tax.

You at home gauge how the economy is doing, by how much money you have in your.

Wallet and in your savings account.

And that's why I want to give more of it back to you.

Look, at the end of the.

Day, there's a philosophical difference here.

I believe that you should have more of your hard earned money.

In your pocket.

Andy Beshear believes and you just heard him.

Say he wants more revenue to the government and the governor talks a lot about an economy on fire.

But the fact of the matter is this is for many folks, an economy that's on life support.

My opponent says that things cost too much with inflation.

Well, what he's going to do is increase sales tax on everything and then apply it to groceries and medicine.

Otherwise, he's going to gut public safety.

He's going to gut health care and he's going to gut public education.

You simply can't afford the investments in those with his plan.

But Daniel Cameron's plan and the speed at which he's promised to do it is the Kansas plan.

It's what they did in that state and it cratered their economy.

The reason that we can talk about cutting the income tax is together we have built the strongest economy our state has ever seen, and we're building the number one and two largest battery plants on planet Earth.

And I believe the number five one as well.

Andy, when he gets to go around the state and have these debates, we get to see him kind of taking a victory lap for this record breaking economy, for record employment, for the infrastructure investments that he's had for the way that he's really led us through some really tough tragedies in this in this commonwealth.

Cameron really came to this point of not ever saying whether he would personally support any exceptions to the state's abortion ban, but saying he would if the legislature.

Passed a law.

I've said if the legislature were to bring me a bill with exceptions, I would sign it.

Well, look, I.

Am the pro-life candidate and Andy Beshear is the pro-abortion candidate.

He wants more abortions and wants you, the taxpayer, to pay for.

When he was in my position.

As attorney general, he refused to defend a 20 week ban on abortion.

As governor, he has vetoed a ban on 15 weeks for abortion.

I'm going to be.

A governor that promotes life and make sure.

That there are life affirming option.

Kentucky has the most restrictive, draconian law anywhere in the country.

It removes all options, even for victims of rape and incest, some as young as nine years old.

No child should ever have to carry the child of her rapist.

Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand.

What it's.

Like to stand in my shoes.

I will press every day to get exceptions for rape and incest because those that have been harmed and violated absolutely deserve those options.

So abortion has been the big central issue other than education.

Abortion I'll cross.

We heard a lot about that and we heard that in the mash up there.

But that is the most clearly defined issue because there's not a lot of gray area.

And I like to say that you see a Democrat running on abortion because the Supreme Court punted the ball to the other side of the field.

And Daniel Cameron decided to make a fair catch in his own red zone by not favoring any exceptions to the abortion ban that took effect when Roe versus Wade was struck down.

People want rape and incest exceptions.

And here's Andy Beshear, who basically favored Roe versus Wade, said he did and won't say how many weeks a pregnancy should be allowed to continue.

I was able to attack Cameron on that issue and make him out to be an extremist.

And here we have you referred to the amendment vote last year.

You know, most voters in the state want some right to abortion.

We could that wasn't the question on the ballot.

The question was, are we going to let the legislature decide this or should it be open to court interpretation?

And lo and behold, I voted for the latter because they know the legislature is super majority Republican and unlikely to do what they want.

Yeah, me too.

If you look at back in the 2022 cycle when the amendment was on the ballot, you also had Republicans in the House and Senate increasing their majorities at the same time, you had Rand Paul who beat Charles Booker by 23 points, I believe.

And so there's an ability for voters out there to separate an issue from a person.

And we saw that with the 2022 results.

Is that going to happen this year?

I think remains to be seen.

I can speak as a mid-forties female.

The number piece of mail pieces I receive from the Democratic Party on this particular topic was astounding, right?

I mean, I realized I was their target demographic, right?

I'm a single educated female living in a suburban urban area.

And so they were going after my vote specifically on that topic.

And we'll see if that bears out tonight.

But I do think voters can separate those issues now.

There's been so much, so many ads on it.

We'll see if that continues.

And one thing that we talked about a little bit was some of my political friends in the lead up to today.

Tonight was whether that ad, which was a really a devastatingly effective ad, might have been aired too soon because it allowed the conversation to pivot to some other topics near the end.

But I think what what Amy was pointing out is that it was still going on.

You know, in those mailers and some of the more targeted messaging.

My guess is in some of the digital ads that we don't see.

And so you had the big pop in the ad, the, you know, on TV, but also the the earned media from it.

Right.

And then the pivot.

But it is tricky to try to disentangle all these different considerations that voters have when they go to the polls, like what is the and we don't have I don't think we had anybody exit polling in the state, did we?

Not that I'm not.

So we're not going to even the exit polling, which can sometimes be tricky.

We're not even have that data right to know for sure.

We're going have to look at where the votes were and whether they were different and try to make some assumptions based upon that.

So where are the votes in Fayette County, Bob Babbage?

Because you have some intel here.

Yes, ma'am.

There are over 90% counted and beshears winning by 44,000.

Last time he won Lexington by 36,000.

We were watching the big cities to see if they delivered that same margin again.

Lexington has exceeded Louisville, though, from what Tracy telling me, and other people are texting me under-performed as a community day.

The turnout not so good in the thirties where the state is in the forties and then that might affect that margin and it might affect other things there too.

And in a couple of counties that border Jefferson, Oldham and Harden or Daniel Cameron lives and was raised, he is trailing Andy Beshear by just a little bit in each county but you'd think he'd be doing better now Again, we might be looking at primarily early vote here, but that is not a good sign.

But you have to take Harden where the economics have changed.

Yeah, we've got a battery plant going in there.

Sure.

Year leadership also change that community in terms of how they see the state and their future.

Right.

So just to remind folks, let's put up the 2019 general election map.

This is Beshear v Bevin.

And so we've been talking and if you're just joining us, thank you for tuning to Katie for election coverage tonight.

And we're looking now at some this is the 2019 map of how then Governor Matt Bevin performed and Andy Beshear.

And so that's pretty telling.

And so some of these same counties are still the ones talking about tonight.

To put this in context, that 23 counties, that's only the blue counties you see up there, if you're looking at it, come way only 114.

There were a couple that actually.

In 20.

15, 2015.

So you had and if you look it's interesting, like again where I'm from, yeah, Kenton and Campbell, traditionally Republican counties that Beshear actually won Warren County, which is basically everybody at almost everybody in Warren County who's elected now is a Republican.

But yet Beshear one and then you see some of the Scott County, which is I think almost everybody in Scott counties, Republican Beshear won.

And so he looks like at least in court this early data tonight, we're seeing some of these same trends where Bashir is making inroads into some of these places and doing well.

And that's why at least right now he's in the lead because he's still doing well in these same places.

You know, and I'm getting lots of retweets and text messages about it already being called for.

And I've asked out like somebody, tell me some good news and I'm hearing crickets.

So that's telling as well.

We do want to update.

So we've been talking a lot about the constitutional races that are on the ballot.

But in Fayette County, if you live in House District 93, which unfortunately was vacated by the death of a freshman legislator, Lamine Swann, who passed away several months ago, there is a special election there.

And Kelsey, I'll let you talk about the Democratic candidate here.

We think this is still going to hold in the D column.

Yes, I am so proud of Adrian and her team.

They have not taken any vote for granted and knocked over 16,000 doors to say, hey, we you know, we want your vote.

And and so, you know, it's so easy in a time where there's this big race at the top of the ticket to drown out some of these smaller races.

And so they've really put boots on the ground to just make sure that folks know that she's once their vote and is on the ballot and that hopefully that's going to pay off.

Yeah.

Any coattail effect from Beshear being at the top of the ticket?

I'm sure there will be.

Obviously, Fayette County is an area that that the governor has to do well in and, you know, blow it out of the water in terms of the margin.

So that should help her.

But but yeah, you can't ignore those 15,000 or 16,000 now doors that they knocked.

So just a few minutes ago, Chip Polston, who is joining us and he got an interview with the Kentucky Senate president Robert Stivers, because he is at the Daniel Cameron Republican Election night headquarters.

And we'll pass things over to Chip.

Renee, thanks so much.

Here was Senate President Robert Stivers.

Sir, thanks so much for being with us this evening.

What's your read on The Room?

How are folks feeling tonight?

I think they're very excited about the down ticket.

I think they're cautiously optimistic.

The term I've used all night about what's going on in the governor's race results coming back really slumped.

So it's tough to gauge that.

Everybody's pretty excited.

So when you mentioned the results coming in a little late for the governor's race, it really seemed like the Cameron camp really in the last couple of days and really since that poll hit this weekend, that's when a lot of momentum really started to build.

And we talked to some media folks here who said a lot of national media suddenly this weekend got very interested in the race.

Is it too little, too late, do you think?

I don't know.

You know, all the all the polls were showing Daniel moving, the wind was behind his sails.

And I think it all came out in a really good time just prior to early voting starting.

So I think a lot of people saw that.

They got excited.

You know, President Trump really weighed in in a big way and I think energized a base that only he has.

So a lot of things came together and it really looks good that Daniel, as a shot at this and pulling it out in the sweep for the Republicans tonight.

So talking about that sweep, you feel very confident on down ticket at this point?

I do.

It's everything is following the polling data we've seen for the last several weeks.

I think the down ticket, probably the worst case might be a like a 5545.

I think some people may even hit a 60% vote margin if we get a Cameron win tonight.

Yes.

What do you see as the legislative priority moving forward?

Well, I think the first thing we're going to look at is making this state business competitive, continuing to work on the tax code regulatory system.

And then secondarily, focusing on education aimed at both K-through-12 and the secondary and vocational and technical, because those two have to go together.

That's what makes us marketable.

That's what makes us competitive.

On the flip side, if this is another Beshear win, is there any common ground that you can find at this point, do you think?

Well, apparently he's become more Republican than any Democrat governor I've ever seeing because he's taking credit for stuff that I had no idea he was for.

You know, I would like to go back to we've been talking about I'll cross.

He's a historian.

I like to know what his perspective is.

He's not the most Republican Democrat governor that's been around because he took credit for things that he actually chastised us on, on his press conferences and said, do you think I'm going to work with those guys?

But, boy, when it came election time, he wanted to be attached us at the hip.

Wow.

Well, it's going to be a long night tonight.

Senate President Stivers, we appreciate you being with.

Us so early in the evening.

We'll look forward to seeing how things play out tonight.

All right.

Great to see you.

Thanks so much back there.

Sure thing.

Renay, back to you.

Thank you, Chip.

So, yeah, so let's talk about that.

We all chuckled at the line of the governor has become more Republican taking credit for things.

And Amy Wickliffe, we've had this conversation many a times in the studio about all of these economic wins that Kentucky has been enjoying, that you say it's the Republican priorities and agenda and legislation that has really been to the credit of that.

Right.

It's a long term view that when Republicans took the super majority in the House, started working with a super majority in the Senate, they were start they started to make some significant changes to lay the groundwork so that we can see these benefits right now on the economic side.

And to the point of what President Stivers said about taking credit.

Know, we've all talked about how government Beshear takes credit for cutting your income tax when he vetoed the first bill that did that, he says it was because of something else.

But he certainly didn't write that in his veto message.

I think one of his tweets says that he kept the cost of insulin.

That was Representative Danny Bentley's bill.

Right.

And so I think there's just a little bit of it's interesting that a governor who has not really been able to forge that working relationship with the General Assembly, but in the campaign cycle, the number of bipartisan bills that he says he signed.

620.

627.

And so it's just been at this point we laugh, right, because this is this is par for the course for politics.

That's what you do.

It's right.

But exactly.

I've got final results from Madison County, which was the bellwether, according to, I think, Austin Hall.

Austin Rauner that shot out.

Yeah.

So this hot off the presses from Madison County, Beshear wins by about 1000 votes, 14012 to 13080.

Is that is that significant?

How significant is that for?

Well, Madison was one of these bellwethers that keeps going back and forth and it's growing Republican getting a lot of local Republican elected officials, Republicans representing it in the General Assembly, all of the contested legislative seats, the Republicans to pick those up.

And, you know, if Cameron is going to win, he needs to win Madison County, most likely.

You know, it's hard to imagine a scenario with him out not winning Madison and he loses it by a thousand votes.

So that's that's a problem.

And Beshear only cared about 74 votes last year.

So that's a that's a you know, there's a thousand not only did he win, but he won by a thousand more.

Right.

And so this is why we're seeing what we're seeing, I think, in the aggregate.

Right.

So we're still keeping an eye out on these results.

Thank you for joining us this is.

2023 election coverage.

We appreciate your time this evening.

We're going to be here for a couple of more hours.

We think it's what we planned on.

And of course, we will bring you those speeches as they come.

And you've been enjoying some interviews that our team from Public Affairs has been doing out in the field.

So hang with us because we don't we don't stop uninterrupted coverage for the next couple of hours and some change.

So thank you for being with us.

We do want to talk about down ticket, but it's probably a little early for that right now.

Trey, I don't know.

If Wasserman is calling the share.

I'm going to call the downside.

Okay.

I'm you know.

We're seeing that same split that we saw four years ago where, you know, Bashir won.

But the down ticket, Republicans a couple of them won by was 6040 split.

And even the closest races which were the ages in secretary of state's race, we're still pretty comfortable wins.

We're seeing the same thing tonight.

The attorney general's race in the Treasurer's race, there are more like 5545.

But Paul and Adams both are with 60% of the vote.

So it's pretty clear that the rest of the Republicans are winning and that these voters went in, voted for Bashir, a lot of them, and then went the rest of the way on the Republicans, on the on the down ticket, which is I don't think any of these races were in doubt.

But it is interesting to see that there wasn't a coattail effect, even with the organizing efforts of the Democratic Party for the top of the ticket.

There's just it's not trickling down.

And the Democrats had good candidates.

I mean, this is I think we would all agree, both parties probably had collectively the best slates they've had in a while.

There were no duds.

You know, there was nobody wasn't qualified for their jobs.

They had you know, you interviewed most of them.

Yeah, most of them.

Not all.

Most.

And, you know, they could all do the job.

And so I think the results were showing, you know, as a Republican, I'm pleased because these are my friends who are who are doing well.

And I think they'll be good in office.

But that splits the same thing we saw four years.

Ago and a history making matchup down ballot for office.

You once held it many moons ago, 1988, 92, right.

State auditor, you had two females going head to head with Alison Ball.

The Republican actually had that twice before.

Did we have that twice before.

In the 2000?

Carillo Alan and Linda Greenwell.

Forgot about Linda Greenwell.

Well, I thought we were making history.

On the down ballots.

Those margins are big.

Yeah.

And sometimes they be 50,000 or more.

Well, two or three of them are already more than that.

And we're still going west, so have more votes to count.

But it's impressive how they're winning compared to the top.

Apparently leaning the other way or in some cases called the other way.

And I will say one note on and I think, Kelsey, you talked about this last night.

You know, we didn't really see a lot of outside money and spending in the down ballot.

But on the attorney general's race, you definitely saw the Democrat attorney general's association dump a good pot of money in here the last couple of weeks, I think, and maybe even some over the weekend.

So I don't know if they were seeing something.

I don't know if that was just done to to kind of help prop up Governor Bashir as well and kind of run up the score in some of those counties.

But there was that was something that the Russell Coleman campaign had to contend with and ended up spending a bit more of his money as well.

County money from the mayor of London.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, probably.

Yeah.

That was one called Laurel County Money because.

That's right London.

London.

Mayor Companies money.

Yeah.

The money that he gave back because he had paid for a bunch of contributions.

Contribution on a.

Credit card you know basically for other people which is illegal.

So what they do, they turn it around and give it to the next person down the ballot.

Yeah.

So Coleman have also raised six or eight times that much money.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Roaring lead.

Yeah.

Even before anybody started to meddle in that race.

Looks like the AP heard me, you know, because I'm authoritative as a former secretary of state and they've called a out.

And I was just getting ready to say that.

So thank you for reading my mind.

So yes, and I think there was only, what, 40 something percent reporting.

But the Associated Press, who is who we are sourcing tonight, they have called it for the incumbent secretary, Michael Adams.

So this this like you said, there were some good candidates here.

And Buddy Wheatley, Charles Buddy Wheatley, we called him Buddy when he was in the legislature, had some pretty good bona fides, Bob Babbage.

And but, you know, it's just a tough year if.

Our chief attorney in the legislature had a lot to offer.

But again, Adams had tremendous prominence.

He's the most prominent secretary state in modern history, maybe forever, even though we had him.

And he's the third.

The third most.

Remarkable cause we're tied for.

First.

Is that right?

Well, considering you were his intern, that's only fair.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you for pointing that out.

We do it every time.

My interns do well in our program.

So Adams has national significance in that he's a national expert and he's moving up in this organization, and that's going to be important.

But he did exceedingly well teaming with the governor to come to an easy, quick decision that is paying off tremendously because Trey and I both advocated for early vote and so early vote work other places and weekend votes work and democracy around the world.

Finally, we have it.

And I think it's here to stay because people like it prefer it and use it.

So to take off.

On Senate President Robert Stivers logic about the the Democrat incumbent Governor Andy Beshear, becoming more Republican.

Did Michael Adams become more Democrat?

I mean, he would argue and I would agree he made it easier to vote and harder to cheat, because the other thing he did was he led the legislative battle to get a strict photo ID law in place, which is not something any Democrat would do.

Despite, to be clear, its popularity and polling among Democrats.

So that gave him credibility among Republicans.

We talked about him on primary election night where he had an election denier as his opponent and he was dumb.

But I think, as Bob said, that because Adams and Bashir worked together, that might have hurt them a bit in the primary, It got him a legitimate primary challenge.

He overcame that.

And then the fall.

My guess is there are a bunch of Democrats who appreciated him sticking his neck out, doing good leadership and rewarded him.

And it wasn't so much that they were voting against Wheatley or didn't think Wheatley was qualified, but they were voting for Mike Adams for this office.

And that is good.

That's a good thing for democracy that he got rewarded.

Well, that's what he even said, right?

That was his argument.

You know, don't let the kooks, if I if I'm not reelected, there's that's going to make room for the kooks, which I thought, well, that's kind of bold.

And perhaps I'd be interested in what?

Risky.

Bold but accurate.

Bold but accurate.

And something I think I found interesting in this race is the number of Democrats who are willing on Twitter and social media to just come out and say, You're the only Republican I voted for.

Ah, you're the first Republican I voted for, Right?

And so to me, I found that very interesting, is that some Democrats were very comfortable saying.

Well, most Democrats in the state are not really thoroughgoing partizan.

You know, they they would like to say, I keep an open mind and here's a guy who was, you know, pretty boldly bipartisan.

And I'd like to know what these former secretaries of state think about the ads that Adams ran in the Louisville and Lexington markets, where he knew Beshear was ahead.

Right.

Featuring Beshear, the Democratic incumbent in his ads.

He said, Adams said, My job as a candidate is to get elected.

And to get the most.

Votes and get the most votes right and do well.

And he did.

Yeah, he's had a tremendous turn.

He's done a tremendous job.

I'm not sure you could name many people could could have even challenged him.

Renee.

Yeah, he did a heck of a job and got rewarded for it tonight, Buddy, who at least a fine person could run for the legislature or something else again some time.

But for now, the verdict is in on Adams and he gets a big positive.

Yeah, well, I think the point was made last night by Will Carley on here that Adams was siding with a winner with Bashir by having Bashir in his ad because he didn't have Daniel Cameron in his.

And he didn't mention Daniel Cameron.

Yeah, he.

Didn't he didn't run Cameron ads in other markets.

Right.

Well, you know, when I ran in oh seven for reelection, you know, Governor Fletcher lost by a lot.

And we kind of, you know, we knew that.

And so it was this challenge of, I think the thing that there were some there was some angst inside the party just to kind of put it out there about doing this.

There was one belief that if you look at the margins that he's winning, like he didn't really need to do it and he angered some people in the party by doing it because he could have run on bipartisanship without a clip of Bashir.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

And so the question will be in his future political runs because he will be term limited.

And now we've got two governors.

If these numbers hold, we may have a governor seat that's open in four years, which happens to line up when he is term limited.

And he's decided if he wanted to run for something else in the primary, there'll be some long memories among some of the folks.

And he'll have to run against incumbents because he's out of step with the other governors.

The Senate for governor, he wouldn't have to write.

So that being said, as Bob said, he's absolutely right.

Your job is to win the election.

He did, in fact, work with Governor Beshear on that.

The legislature empowered them and made them work together.

I mean, that was actually the they tweaked the law when I was in office.

We've got the law in place to allow an election to be postponed.

We weren't envisioning a global pandemic, whereas thinking more of a tornado or, you know, the normal kind of natural disasters and the legislature change that to broaden what they could do, knowing we were on the cusp of, you know, changing how to do this.

And so they empowered them to do that.

He did it together.

And in the proof is he's going to win 6040 today.

Kate, you're not in this day and time work one time with the other side for something really important.

Are we so lost in partizanship.

Voters for the voters picked them.

I mean.

What they were all I'm saying is.

Look at him tonight, but maybe four years from now.

But the primary match up against.

Four years is a long time, so who knows?

If you don't win tonight, there is no four years from now.

Right.

Or two years or so.

Short game, not long game right now, Bob.

Average right short in all.

Yeah that's right.

So any other comment before we kind of move on we always really want to get the temperature of voters right We often have the candidates here.

We have the pundits here, but we rarely sometimes get a chance to hear from the voters.

So our Laura Rogers on the first day of early voting, which was Thursday, went down to a Bowling Green diner to hear what was on the minds of those voters.

And here's what she shared.

It's mid-morning and the coffee and conversation are flowing at Lisa's fifth Street Diner prices at the grocery store there.

Is than gotten so sky high.

That's a worry, a burden I have that we should all be worried about because it affects all of us too.

Public education and teacher salaries.

There's an extreme teacher shortage, and I understand why it would be difficult to encourage teachers with the salaries that they pay.

As Election Day draws closer, the talk turns to politics.

I've made my mind up thoroughly.

Some voters say they have inflationary concerns.

They're spending just crazy.

You know, you can't you can't run a government like that.

Spend, spend, spend.

They're also passionate about social issues.

I'm pro-life.

Women's reproductive freedom rights.

And one of the candidates has taken a very narrow view of that.

Brenda Willoughby, who lives in downtown Bowling Green, also has concerns about redistricting, the way that the legislative areas are gerrymandered now.

A lot of them lean toward one candidate or the other, or at least one political party or the other.

She says she is fairly happy with efforts at bipartisanship in Frankfurt.

They've been able to do a pretty good job of working together, even though they don't always align.

A common refrain economic concerns and choosing the candidate they think will be best for their pocketbook.

You can have one bag, groceries, and because the 50 bucks depending on what you've got and not really have anything.

And I worry about families, you know, especially with small children, kids how they can afford that.

Sandy Mayes wants to see more being done to tackle drug addiction and the opioid epidemic.

Just seems like everywhere I go now, talking people and friends, everybody has somebody, even in their family or they a family member or friend that has lost someone, a child.

The views are varied, but one thing everyone does seem to agree on, they want elected officials who are honest.

Be upfront and don't lie.

About things to a truth and be truthful with.

People and to stand by their campaign promises.

I'd like to see, you.

Know, things carry through.

I'd actually like to stand behind their word.

Thank you, Laura, for that.

So we are coming up on the top of the hour, and we thank you for making Katie your choice for election coverage tonight.

Thank you for that.

We're going to let you see the results in full screen form for the next couple of minutes.

We'll reset.

Do not go anywhere because we'll be right back.

On the other side, you're watching Katie's coverage of election 2023.

And thank you for sticking with Katie for our coverage of election 2023.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Renay Shaw, and we're in the Katie Lexington studio, joined by a panel of veteran political observers who are just dissecting everything as it comes in.

We have about half the vote in so far, and we know that the race A.P., Associated Press has already called the Kentucky secretary of state's race for the incumbent Republican, Michael Adams.

And also the auditors race has been called for who we think is the top vote getter for the third cycle in a row.

Alison Ball, who was state treasurer for eight years, she each time she ran, she was the top vote getter those years, 2015, 2019, and she's not interrupting her winning streak.

Top vote getter.

It looks like so far in this year's cycle, and she will go back to Frankfort as the state auditor.

So let's talk about these races and other things across, what we're looking for now in our second hour.

Well, it looks like Andy Beshear is going to be reelected, but we have to wait for the results from the central Time Zone, which Matt Bevin won by 50,000 votes in 2019.

Right now, the margin is about.

What do we got?

Uh, 383.

338.

45,000 votes.

Mm hmm.

So Cameron is running behind Bevin's performance at this point.

But you never know what's going to happen in Western Kentucky.

So we have to wait.

Yeah.

I do want to say that it looks like we were talking about flood relief and all of those things earlier and how that could potentially translate.

It looks like 99% of votes have been counted or are reported to be in.

When you look on Katie's site, there's a there's a plug there and Andy is winning by 200 votes.

So 52.3% to 47.7.

And he did not win there in 2019.

Which county?

Which county is in?

Let your county and Letcher County have.

Got a good editorial in the Mountain Eagle.

Exactly.

Yes.

Yeah.

The local press sometimes.

Right stuff the only newspaper in the county but yeah.

Right.

So we'll keep our eyes on on those.

And also in the western part of the state, we're also keeping our eyes.

Henderson, Owensboro.

McCracken County, some interesting numbers I think you had mentioned earlier across about how that shaping up.

Yeah, we have.

With about one fifth of the vote counted, Beshear has a margin of about 1500 votes.

So if you extrapolated that he'd win the county by 6000.

That's probably not going to happen because we're likely looking at early votes.

And early votes, I think are more likely to be Beshear votes.

But if you look at 2019, Beshear lost McCracken County by over 3500 votes.

So as I mentioned, the report from our friend Bill Bartow on the respective crowds of the candidates in Paducah, maybe that was indicative of the result.

Yeah.

And I will say to keep it in western Kentucky and I'm sure these are early votes, too, but in Graves County.

Right.

Which is a place that I've been one to watch on the tornado end of the spectrum.

And Daniel Cameron is up over, over, Andy, pretty good.

51,516 votes to 626.

So still, those are probably early votes.

But if that's indicative of what we're to see, that will be a county to watch, to see how Beshear will perform.

That's one of the more surprising results of the night, actually.

Yeah.

That we were looking at the Jackson versus counties where you and I have talked about this before.

Renee Beshear lost by 20 points to Bevin last time and around fancy firm, the margin was looking to be about six for Cameron ahead of Beshear as those counties come in as a group.

We'll put those together and see where they turned out.

This time we expected because of the disaster efforts for Beshear to do well in those direct parts.

So that's an interesting comment that she shared and we'll look for more.

Yeah.

A lot to keep our eyes on.

We want to update you to about one of the special elections that was being held today.

If you live in the Kentucky House district number 93, how that shaping up.

Kelsey Coots with the Democrat and the Republican there.

The Democrat was ahead the last time we checked.

Yes.

Still holding pretty firm.

Yes.

Yes.

Last I checked, it looks like she's still holding again.

It's one of those with the down ballot.

There's so much noise at the top of the ticket.

Of course, the turnout that Beshear brings out in Fayette County would help her.

But but they put boots on the ground and in in hopefully it looks like that that's going to pay off.

Yeah, that's a tough district for Republican to win know Carl I think he's a great guy.

This is a second time running for that seat.

He truly wants to serve.

But an incredible businessman here in the Lexington area.

Again, just a really tough district for a Republican to win over there, but applaud him for for jumping in the race and anybody being on the ballot.

So right now, if we can do a double box, let's get our magic out.

And look here, Alison Ball, who is the auditor elect at the podium.

Let's listen in.

You cannot do this unless you've got a great partner with you.

And I've got a super excited little five year old boy, Adam Levi, right here.

Levi, you want to wave at my two year old?

Miracle's not quite sure what she thinks of all this, but I want to thank her, too.

They've been great troopers this whole time.

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for everything that you have done.

I have a great team behind me.

Jake Cox, you've been a tremendous campaign manager.

Thank you so much for everything you've done and all the team ball behind me.

It has been just important.

You cannot do this alone.

So it has been important to have all these people with me.

This was all of us together working, and I'm just so grateful to that.

God has been so faithful, this whole campaign He has provided.

He's been there with us.

He's made sure we've had good family time in the midst of working very, very hard.

And now I am ready to go.

I'm ready to be your next state auditor.

As I said, as Treasurer, I've been a watchdog of taxpayer dollars.

I know how to do this job and do it right.

And I've had a few things that I've gotten to be a part of.

I returned $174 million of unclaimed property while in office, I pushed to get a high school requirement to teach financial literacy as part of your graduation before you can graduate from school in Kentucky that is now the law of the land and something I believe is going to have a generational impact for years to come.

And of course, I've been that watchdog of taxpayer dollars.

I'm ready to go protect against waste, fraud and abuse, serve you and do the job the way it's supposed to be done.

So God bless you all.

Thank you for being here.

We're going get some more wins tonight.

Thank you very much.

Short and sweet, The auditor elect Alison Ball, thanking all of those who are flanking her on the stage.

And we also spied a former primary contender for state treasurer, O.J.

Alaka, who was in the crowd.

He, of course, worked with Alison Ball as state treasurer.

So those speeches are tough.

I remember when when I got elected and reelected in seven, it was a little bit different cause Fletcher was losing reelection.

And I just remember sitting on the stage, you know, excited about my win and looking out of the audience and seeing people devastated because Fletcher had lost.

It's a little bit worse then, because there was a people who were then losing their jobs, some of them.

But it is awkward, you know, because most of the people were there for Cameron and you mentioned that, ah, the speech was kind of short.

That was smart.

Mm hmm.

She said what she needed to say.

She deserved her time in the spotlight.

And but it's just it's for all these Republicans are going to have to go through this because they're all going to win the night and they're going to have to go up and give that speech.

Except a couple who aren't going to be there because.

Ezra Garrett County Courthouse or square, right?

Yeah.

Mark Metcalf and Jonathan Schell.

Right.

Right.

And we hope to have phone interviews with them later on this.

So it'll be easier for those guys to give their speeches, right?

Yeah.

They don't have to.

Work this dynamic.

It's not over yet, right?

I mean, all the all the votes aren't in.

So it seems a lot of.

Energy that's any kind of judgment there on.

There's a great job.

If I could have had succession and could have won, I would have loved to have a longer term view.

She'll do great job in that post.

And for trade purposes and mine, we've helped every secretary of state following us in one way or another.

Same for state auditors have worked together, shared ideas.

So there is a continuum there that makes the office stronger as time goes on.

So you're offering free advice to her, right?

Is that I think you said he chair of the transition team.

I think I like her very much.

I certainly help her.

I don't think she.

Needs a lot of help.

Alison Ball has not made many mistakes in her political career.

She has proven to be very proficient and I think she's got a long career ahead of it.

I was going to say I'm excited to see where she goes.

Yeah, I agree that I think she's going to be around for a long time.

You can see just in her speech, she's a dynamic, energetic Later, she has the best handshake of anybody that you've ever.

She gets stronger and stronger.

And what about maybe.

I think she.

Does a congressional seat, maybe.

A or.

You know, you know, a governor's race.

I mean, she's got it could be that it's the third straight year where she's the top vote getter.

And while she's had not rate a ton of money.

So that's I think one question people would have.

She can get votes and when you're going for a different office where you have a better ability or a need, I mean, I think everybody thought she was going to win.

So she didn't push the fundraising because she knew she didn't really need it.

She's got a good she's got something to sell.

You know, voters like her, people inside the party like her, people across the state, like her in large numbers.

Leading the ticket is a great thing.

That you do that.

Are we good?

Are we checking subject?

No, no, no.

Go ahead.

I'm talking to you.

Sorry.

Go ahead.

Julie.

The ticket.

The ticket a couple of times, not quite make it into the stratosphere, but Alison's going to go great places and great things.

It's not a guarantee.

I'm living proof, but here I am.

That's right.

Yeah.

So Right now we want to go back.

House Speaker David Osborne is joining us now and with Laura Rogers.

So, Laura, take it away.

All right.

Thank you so much, Renee.

Speaker Osborne, the race has been called for a couple of those down ballot races tonight.

State Secretary of State Michael Adams and now Alison Ball being elected as the next auditor.

So let's talk about the strength of those down ballot races for the Republican Party.

Well, obviously, a lot of excitement in this room and a lot of excitement to see Alison Ball down here first.

I know that they've already called the race for Mike Adams.

They've also called the race.

Understand now for Russell Coleman.

No big surprise.

They're tremendous candidates and very excited about about their candidacy.

And they're both assuming new offices.

Alison obviously has been in office for four years.

Russell moved to the attorney general's office.

But what an incredible public servant Russell has been, and I am so excited about him.

Assuming assuming that office.

Voter registration in Kentucky, 75 more registered Republicans than Democrats in Kentucky, what do you attribute that popularity of the Republican Party?

And again, the strength we saw on the Republican ticket?

Well, I think that clearly Kentucky has just become a Republican state.

It is it values conservative leadership and values It values the principles of the Republican Party.

And so I think that Kentucky has just naturally evolved over the years into a much more Republican state.

It's always voted Republican it's continued to vote more and more Republican, but obviously it is now become a truly Republican state.

A lot of attention tonight, of course, on the governor's race, the top of the if Governor Bashir does win reelection, do you think that the Republican supermajority is going to be able to work with him on some bipartisan legislation?

You know, I hope so.

I will tell you that I've got the same cell phone number that I've had for the last five years and look forward to it and utilizing it, perhaps more than he has in the past.

Should he should he win reelection.

You know, we've also always stood willing and ready to to work with this governor and work with any administration of Governor Bashir Bevin before him.

So obviously, we are going to continue to make good policy for Kentucky and make the kind of policy that the people of Kentucky want and value.

They have continued to reward us with increasing majorities as we've made that policy.

And and I think generally.

The people of Kentucky like the direction that Kentucky moving.

Do you anticipate releasing the budget bill before the governor's state of the Commonwealth address?

I believe you did that last year, a little out of step with tradition.

I that we will probably, in all likelihood release the budget early.

We will file it early in the session.

That was not contrary to popular belief.

That was not a political stunt.

We have said for the last six years since we've been in the majority at that point in time, that that we were the we were the budget makers.

We were the ones who passed the budget.

We were the ones that that made the budget.

And it was incumbent upon us to produce a product.

Does it mean that we aren't going to take absolute input from from from the governor's office or we'll take input from the Senate and hopefully we're going to put together a good document that is is good for the people of the Commonwealth.

Speaker Osborne, we sure appreciate your time tonight.

We'll let you go.

Enjoy yourself.

We got to snag you as you were walking through the door.

So thank you so, Rene, back to you.

Yeah, thank you, Laura.

And thank you, Mr. Speaker, as well.

I'll cross you.

Something resonated with you that you wanted to remark on.

Well, if Andy Beshear is reelected, he has a decision to make about relations with the legislature.

There's a lot of pressure within the Democratic Party for to help rebuild the party.

You know, first they had to get him reelected.

If that happens, he's going to come under a lot of pressure to help legislative candidates.

And the filing deadline for the legislature is, well, like three days after the session begins or something like this.

Week in January.

It is ridiculously early.

It is the earliest in the country in relation to the election is right.

But, you know, it was you know, they're just protecting themselves, which they should not do.

You know, they ought to be accountable after the session for what they do.

But that said, will Beshear choose to support, if he's reelected, some of these Democrats who want to take some of these seats that were Republicans might be vulnerable?

Or does he keep his powder dry and say, you know, if I write, I reserve the right to do that, but I'm not going to get involved in these races as the session is going on, it's going to be a tricky thing.

Well, I think the one thing his by constitution, the Kentucky governor is really and our legislators have finally figured that out, you know, it's the same Constitution, but we've seen legislative independence rise over the last couple of decades.

And even when Bevin was governor, the Republicans didn't always work with them.

And, you know, as the speaker indicated, they're going to introduce a budget that they've written and they've been very open about it that they will develop.

And the governor will have very little impact and put other than the raw numbers that go in.

And so it's interesting is normal, you would say politically be wise to not engage, but I'm not sure what political power he has with the legislature anyway.

So I don't know what he has to actually lose.

Well, they could take some executive powers away from.

The Franklin Circuit Court to bring it back.

Well, not necessarily.

I mean, we've.

Got almost every lawsuit there.

They give it back.

Yeah, but I'm.

Not saying those are wrong.

I'm just saying the courts keep giving you know, they've given powers to the president.

They've picked the wrong fights.

You know, there are plenty of other things they could do to reduce executive power.

And there's a long history of that in the last century in the state where, a legislature of a different party has kneecapped a governor.

But he also can wait until May.

He doesn't have to actually engage and help us folks out.

And so after the session, Thursday, April 5th, going to have his cake and eat it, too.

But I just don't know.

You know, I'm not sure that many, if any, of the political priorities that he's running on from a policy standpoint, he's going to have much traction.

This legislature in particular is we were joking about the you know, I think I joked off the air about I was so glad and he cut my taxes.

Right.

As Amy pointed out, it was a legislative bill that he vetoed the legislative, legislative, a Republican.

Legislators are really mad at how he claimed credit for this.

And so when you go into that session, I'm not sure there's going to be desire to work with much with them.

I don't think they're going to view this as a mandate from the voters to go work with him.

I think they're going to look at the results in every election of the last couple of years at all the levels of government and look at the down tick and say, we we're fine.

We keep winning.

We're going to be here longer than he's going to be here.

And so we'll see.

I mean, I just I just don't think that this he deserves credit if he ends up winning way.

The results are now overall, as the race hasn't been called, We're acting as if it hasn't been called.

But I just don't see that as a mandate that's going to result in policy success when it requires.

Right.

And I don't see him changing his desire to engage with the general.

Right.

If he's if he's gone through four years without really having that relationship, what changes to make him want that why.

Right now.

He's already been reelected.

Yeah.

Well it's going to be the political environment, not the legislative environment that he has to deal with because there's a lot of Democrats who, you know, have got their noses pretty heavily out of joint that he hasn't done more to support the party at large.

Yeah, we'll look at the 2022 races.

I mean, I think there was a lot of money held back.

Right.

That was not an incredible amount of money spent on a lot of these House races where there might have been some some good challengers on the Democrat side.

But, you know, for whatever reason and I'm not in those decisions of the Democratic Party.

But I think, you know, there was a lot of money that could have been spent, could have been raised in some of those legislative races, just weren't.

Well, they would also say the Democrats, it was gerrymandering, and that was always going to bedevil them.

It was 75.

The Republicans, not Democratic lines, you know, in the last go round before gerrymandering.

So, you know, we're a couple of seats more likely picked up after the districts were drawn.

Sure.

But that also corrected some of the gerrymandering that Democrats have done for years.

And so, you know, the other thing I'd say is every month this year, except for one, the Democrats have lost voter registration even, which is striking given how well organized the campaign obviously was and trying to get folks registered.

Even with that, it wasn't until the last month that they actually had a positive net gain of voter registration.

Okay.

Well, we are we're waiting now because Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams is preparing to take the stage.

And so as soon as he is, we're making his remarks, we will go there.

I don't think we have time.

We do have an interview with the Kentucky Senate minority leader, Gerald Mele, but we will hold that in anticipation for Secretary of State Michael Adams taking the stage right now.

Can we get a double box so we can just kind of see and maybe talk as he is entering the stage and maybe making some preliminary remarks and then we'll join when he gets to the meet.

Good night for Michael Adams.

And bipartisanship, he would say, works right here is good talk to Secretary of state Michael Adams.

Good evening.

On this stage four years ago I told you that Mission Impossible had become mission accomplished.

Our larger mission, though, wasn't just to win, but to make a difference in the lives of Kentuckians.

And we've accomplished that mission to in just four years.

We've taken Kentucky from the bottom in election administration to the top.

And thanks to your support, we'll continue making it easy to vote and hard to cheat.

Kentucky has defied the odds and the laws of political physics by taking highly polarized third rail issue of how we vote, putting politics aside, approaching it inclusively and in good faith and courageously making the biggest changes in over 100 years.

We're the only state doing that.

If we can boldly take Kentucky from the bottom to the top in election reform, why can't we do the same with education, with public safety, with quality of life, with social mobility?

The answer is we absolutely can.

And I'm optimistic for our long term future.

In the Commonwealth, the voters spoke clearly and we should take note of what they said.

Kentuckians rejected a negative campaign steeped in anger and divisiveness and a fixation on extraneous issues.

Kentuckians rewarded a positive campaign that offered uplift, unity and a focus on the real problems that matter to our people.

Kentuckians are smart.

They want to know what's in your heart, and they want to see results.

These past four years, I've shown you my heart and I've shown you results.

I think Kentuckians across the political spectrum for your overwhelming trust in me, I will not let you down.

Thank you, Kentucky.

Thank you so much.

Once again, another short to the point speech by the Kentucky secretary of state, Michael Adams, who was sent to a second term.

Kind of different tone, right?

I mean, as you said a moment ago, Trey Grayson, the energy in the room at the top of the ticket may not be doing as well when you're having to stand on that stage and give a victory speech when there's so much uncertainty with the top of the ticket.

It's a hard task.

It's hard.

And he read the room.

He aiming at someone Friday at a rally and he gave a pretty good stump speech, which is not something you would think of when you think of Mike Adams, but a pretty good stump speech.

But tonight, it was subdued.

He was.

He talked about his record.

Kind of, you know, leaned into it.

But it was no different than Ball's approach.

Now, some of that is also the difference in their personality.

Yes.

Both, I think, were consistent.

But, you know, he did talk a little bit about issues that are broader than the secretary of state's office, which, you know, could be a hint about the future.

I think I heard a bell ring.

Like.

The 2027 governors race.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you could say, like where had these first two speeches?

Right at the top two vote getters, there seemed to be neck and neck to see who's going to get the most votes.

And it would be natural to think that ball, having won that three statewide races, Adams was having one, two in large numbers.

You know, an Adams lot four years ago.

Victor River.

Former Miss America.

Heather French.

Henry was really impressive.

Maybe the one of the surprises of the night and.

Then he went in and wins with 60% of the vote that, you know, yeah, maybe it is a ring ring for four years from now, right?

And there's others.

Real Quick.

Kelsey.

Right, quickly.

Oh, I.

Was just going to say, one of since Speaker Osborne was on, I've been refreshing over here, just looking at Oldham County, that was one that I had been looking at for the governor's race just to see how are those sort of suburbs trending for Democrats, really?

And it looks like Cameron right now is only leading there with 96.2% in by about 200 votes, and he would need more, about 1500 to be.

And his wife is from Oldham County, correct?

That's correct, yes.

So we'll keep our eyes on on Oldham County.

There's some intel about Campbell County, which we'll get to.

We're gonna lay people in suspense for just a moment because Kacey Parker Bell is standing live.

He has the Kentucky House minority floor leader with him, Derek Graham.

Take it away.

Kacey Parker Bell.

Thanks, Renee.

Leader Graham, thanks for taking a couple of minutes to be with us and thank you for having me.

But the first question is, as we're seeing these results roll in tonight, how do you feel about how are faring?

I think we've done we've done in the governor's race extremely well, areas that he did not carry in the previous his initial election.

I think it says that the people want a leader who is honest, who was strong, and he was towards doing what's right for the Commonwealth and not for political waste.

And the governor has focused on trying to do what is right not only for now but for the future of Kentucky.

Are there issues you think that the governor spoke about in this campaign that really translated to the voters?

I think you look at what he's done in his four years.

He's a job creator.

I mean, we have the best economic development in the history of the commonwealth.

The fact of the matter, he has supported women's decisions to make their own decisions with their health, the support of public education, which is a key to opportunity.

He's focused on making sure that we fund public education.

And don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with parochial and private schools.

But when parents make that decision, that's their decision.

I did it and I made that decision.

But the public is responsible for funding public education.

And the governor has continuously reminded us, and the whole reason behind that as a history teacher was that when the founding created this marvelous system of government, the whole purpose was it needed to continue on.

And the only way to continue, continue on was by making sure you had public education to educate the public in terms of how the system should work and how a country should operate under our democratic process.

Leader Graham.

Republicans hold a supermajority in the House and Senate in the Kentucky General Assembly.

Are there lessons that.

Democrats can pull from this year's election that can help you all in next year's election?

I think what people are saying tonight, that they approve of what the governor is doing and they want the General Assembly to work with the governor, to work in a bipartisan way to take care of those issues like it, public education, about infrastructure, about economic development, all of those things.

We need to work together because when we work together, we succeed overwhelmingly.

And I think they saying that tonight that they support what the governor is doing and they want the general assembly to support him.

And there will be some times when there are disagreements.

But we can agree to disagree, but work together to try to solve the problems that we need to do in times of dealing with public policy.

Are these some of the issues that you anticipate Democrats pushing during this year's General Assembly?

What are those issues?

I think I just talked about it, making sure that we protect women's health, making sure public education is funded.

Giving the governor the opportunity, what he needs to help bring in more industries into this commonwealth.

We're thriving, but we need to do better and we can continue to do better.

And his leadership is going to provide us with what we need to do in order to get where we need to be.

Later, Graham Thank you.

Thank you all for having me.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you all.

You do a great job.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Bernie, back to you.

Oh, thank you, Casey.

Thank you.

Later, Graham, for that plug.

A little while ago, our Kelsey Starks talked with Sylvia Goodman, who is the new state capital reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, to get her perspective on this year's governor's contest.

Too.

Sylvia Goodman is Kentucky Public Radio's Capitol Reporter.

Thanks for being here with us.

A recent piece of yours focused on voter turnout.

And this is the first governor's race where we've had that early voting option.

Do you think that's had an impact or if at all?

So a lot.

Of Kentuckians did take advantage.

Of early voting.

It was more than.

Last year in the midterm.

When it was also an option.

I'm not sure if we're if we're clear yet if it's having a positive impact on overall voter turnout, though.

Although we are seeing a pretty.

Good turnout already for an off year election.

It's looking quite even with what we.

Saw in 2019.

Which I should note was.

A pretty record year.

For us.

Usually we have pretty abysmal turnout in the off years, but this year it's looking closer to 44 or 45%.

It's unclear, though, if that is due to early voting or it might just be.

Because people are excited about the candidates.

It's a close race that brings people to the polls, too.

So there's a lot of.

Different reasons and as you've been covering these candidates in different venues, what's your main takeaway in how they are characterizing themselves and each other and how that is resonating with voters?

So more recently, Daniel Cameron has been really pushing his Trump endorsed tent.

He's trying to really appeal to people who support Donald Trump and do not support Joe Biden's a pretty significant portion of the state that disapproves of the job that Joe Biden has done.

And and he's trying to.

Tie Andy Beshear to him, you know.

Via his different policies.

Inflation, that's not popular.

Clearly among Kentuckians.

But Meanwhile, Beshear has.

Kind of.

Beshear has emphasized.

The fact that he represents all Kentuckians.

He's really focusing on economic development.

He's also talking a lot more about how you should vote for the person.

Who will make your life better.

And posing himself as that candidate, asking people to shed their party affiliations.

And do you think one or the other has resonated with voters particularly or just each on both side?

It's really tough to say.

I think this is going to be a really close race.

I mean, some of the polling we've seen has seen neck and neck.

Some has.

Seen Andy Beshear, especially over the past.

Several months, with a pretty sizable lead.

But, you know, closer to Election Day.

People vote closer to.

Their affiliations.

And the majority of Kentuckians this year are Republicans.

So I think that that's playing a big role in it, too.

You know, last night.

Daniel Cameron had.

A tell, a rally with Donald Trump trying to really shore up that vote, too.

And I'm sure that's all going to play into tonight.

And the Cameron campaign has shown a pretty sizable increase over the past couple of weeks at least, really pulling ahead, making it neck and neck.

Is there a particular feeling you are hearing from the Cameron campaign or how are they feeling?

You know, I'm sure they're feeling great going in tonight, especially seeing those.

Polls kind of level out.

But like I said, I'm.

Would not be.

Surprised if we have, you know, a few thousand vote margin, which would trigger an.

Automatic recount that we might not have an answer tonight.

All right.

We'll stay tuned and find out.

Thanks so much, Sylvia.

We Appreciate it.

Back to you.

Kelsey, thank you.

And thank you, Sylvia.

We don't think we're going to be in a recount situation tonight in the governor's contest, but let's talk about where we are right now with some important pivotal counties.

Let's start with Campbell County first, Trey Grayson.

So Campbell County, which is, again, one of the counties we talked about very early in the evening and identified as a bellwether.

So Campbell's one of the northern Kentucky counties.

I was actually born there.

Cameron Beshears won 16,865 to 14000 to 71.

That's a 2600 margin.

To put that into context, four years ago, Beshear did, when he won it by 2400 votes.

If I'm reading this now, I'm sorry, what about 1700 votes?

So he picked up about 1000, almost a thousand vote gain.

It was 2400 Bevin win in 15.

So think about that for a second ago, 2400 margin, 1700 vote lost, 2600 vote loss.

And while all that was happening, the Republicans gained 3200 registered voters right.

During the last four years.

So this is a county where, you know, that's a big swing.

And if what happens tonight when officially somebody puts a checkmark next to Bashir's name, this is the kind of thing that, you know, instead of narrowing or winning the county you'd think Cameron needed to win.

He actually lost.

And I'll tell you, there was a really good get out the door effort by Republicans.

And Campbell, Democrats obviously did a great job, too But the Republicans were unified and Campbell knocked on a lot of doors and Beshear increased the margin.

So for Henderson, let's go out west.

Bob Henderson out west is the home of our friend, Senator Robbie Mills, who was the lieutenant governor.

Candidate.

Beshear has won.

Henderson 4092 two 2519.

The Coleman Stevenson race is virtually tied.

Coleman is up 19 votes.

Adams won by 50.

That race for Secretary of state almost tied there in Henderson as well.

Very important numbers just for that region of the state.

And also, Mike, like at Lexington is called this for for Beshear and they haven't missed a call in 30 some years.

Thanks to Mike Taylor.

Mike Taylor is always the guy who studies it and makes it makes it pretty early.

And he's he's called.

We have some lighter numbers from Henderson.

This is from the Katie site.

With 92% counted, Beshear has got 6657 to 5034 for Cameron and that is a substantial gain over what he had in 2019.

His margin then was only 560.

So when I want something else about Campbell County, a friend texted me about this and reminded me that one of the things that in northern Kentucky, we're very impacted by the television advertisement from across the river.

It's also why our turnout slowed because nobody understands when is our primary election not on the ballot, but one of the biggest races in the country tonight was on a constitutional amendment in Ohio, enshrining in the Ohio Constitution, right to choose a right to an abortion.

And so there were millions of dollars that were spent over the last couple of months on that issue.

Plus, there was a special election in August to try to raise the threshold so that it would require 60% approval.

So you saw ads then, and that was kind of a proxy vote for the abortion vote.

So if you were in northern Kentucky view or you saw way more abortion marketing because of that bleed in that from, you know, from Ohio.

And so I think we talked earlier about the impact of abortion and that it is hard to discern tangle all these things.

But in northern Kentucky, it's clear that that would have been a message that would have been heard loud and clear.

And I think if we were to dive into some of these Campbell County numbers, for example, I'd be curious to see where this this Delta was and if it's in the Fort Thomas suburbs, for example, where we've seen Democratic inroads, perhaps abortion could have played a big role in Beshear success there.

So something as we dive into the data, but it is it makes the northern Kentucky market unique compared to the rest of the state because it was right there on the air a lot.

Mm hmm.

And the abortion referendum in Ohio going the pro-choice way, the marijuana referendum is closer, 56 to 44 in favor with 23% counted.

I will also say in northern Kentucky that I think that the share was on the air longer up there, too.

So he was putting out his message and communicating.

And part of that is probably just due to obviously resources.

That is an expensive media market up there.

And he was able to communicate with voters about the abortion issue as well.

And I believe they're running some education ads.

I'd like to know how much money that campaign put into voter contact because my predecessor is Courier-Journal.

Political Writer Bob Johnson lives in St Matthew's or a suburb nearby.

And he said a Beshear canvasser came to his house for the third time last weekend to make sure that they had voted or were going to vote.

I've been there.

I received three door knocks and on paper I am Republican through and through, right?

There's nothing that they should be looking at other than my demographics.

So in Covington, we're getting annoyed because we're calling so much.

And I told her, I said, Yeah, but they're still going to vote for him, right?

She said, Yup.

So that's why they're keep calling.

Right.

It was your campaign thought that the door knocks last time paid off for them and their emphasis on it.

This time the budget for Beshear and door knocks was $4 million.

When you're paying door knockers and paying to aggregate that data and paying to figure out who you go back to, whether it's Amy or Al or you or me.

That's significant.

That's a tremendous advantage from just good old shoe leather politics.

And paying to organize the volunteers because because whereas on Republican side, because of the lack of money inside the campaign, it's volunteers coordinating volunteers.

I mean, there was we had turnout office in northern Kentucky and L.A., by all accounts, did a great job in northern Kentucky, but it was kind of one person with a bunch of volunteers working really hard and and and you're seeing a difference, I think, in the results.

And I thought.

That number combined the the the direct voter contact with I want to see what their mail budget was.

That's what I want to see because they in their ability to run.

I mentioned earlier there are many campaigns.

I mean they were running a mini campaign in the West, one in northern Kentucky, one in the east, different demographics, even receiving various mail pieces and numerous mail pieces.

It's not just like they were targeting a demographic with one.

You were getting multiple.

And so that is a that was a true benefit on the Beshear side to have those resources, to be able to sit back and realize and really hone in and target where they needed to pick them up.

So right now, we're going to rejoin Laura Rogers, who has with her state representative, Kevin Bratcher, who's put in a lot of shoe leather for Daniel Cameron, the Republican challenger in the governor's race.

Laura.

We'll send it over to you.

All right.

Thank you so much, Renee.

Representative Bradshaw, let's talk about your efforts here in Jefferson County.

You represent constituents here in the local area.

So you were working very hard for general came right here in this campaign.

Yeah, I think he's a great guy.

Once you meet Daniel, you just you just really think that what a wonderful guy he is and how how what a great leader he would be.

You know, it's not looking too good right now, but the dance is not over yet, so we'll see what happens.

And as the West comes in.

So since the last gubernatorial election, the Republican delegation has grown in Jefferson County.

So do you think that that is going to translate to more votes for General Cameron?

Well, I hope so.

You know, it's hard to beat an incumbent.

And Governor Beshear has been out very visible.

He's been from Paducah to Pikeville and through Louisville, and he's worked hard.

And we have put up a good fight and we're just waiting to see the results.

And I think that, you know, anything can happen.

It's it's not too great right now, but I'm not giving up hope.

You see it.

A couple of months ago, House Republicans from Jefferson County did release a sweeping public safety plan that would expand crimes leading to the death penalty.

That includes killing a police officer or attacking and fitting all that leads to a deadly overdose.

So how long are you going to be pushing for that as we head into the next legislative session?

Oh, our legislative agenda has not changed one bit, no matter what happens tonight.

If we had Daniel as the governor, we could it would give us more power to push this through the safer Kentucky Act, sponsored by Jared Bowman and Jefferson County.

And many, many people are supporting it.

It is something that needs to be done.

People are sick of crime in Louisville as well as the rest of the state.

And we want to make legislation that reflects the people's voice is and the people's voice is that if you commit a crime, you need to pay the price.

And we have 18 or 19 proposals in that bill, and we're going to be pushing it hard no matter who the governor is saying.

Representative Kevin Bradshaw from right here in Jefferson County, we sure appreciate your time on this election night.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Renee, back to you.

Thank you, Laura.

Thank you, Representative Bradshaw.

Or so.

We've got some new data that we want to share with you and some interesting factoid.

So Mike Ruling, who used to work for window forward.

Right, texted me earlier today an interesting fact that 40 years ago tomorrow, Martha Layne Collins became the first female and don't date the only governor in Kentucky.

So, Trey Grayson, you were going to make a quip about that, but it may not.

Yeah.

You know, Amy, that we're going to race to see who could say in 40 years later, Kentucky elected its first black governor.

Yeah, neither of us.

Well, I guess I got to say it, but not an.

Inaccurate so what is what does the possibility of that look like right now, like where we are now?

I mean, I think you just said off there the bishop's picking at 15 points.

And I don't think it's good enough to say it's looking pretty.

You know, we know what he's going to do.

And we are preparing for Governor Beshear to take the stage at what we believe to be probably 13 minutes from now.

And we don't believe it will be a concession speech.

So we talked about the 16 counties that Beshear and Cameron both won last time and the shares won 14 of those tonight.

So that's one of those little margins that we're finding different places for the share.

We're finding obviously some margins for Cameron, too.

But the Beshear good news is outweighing the Cameron, good news right this minute.

And we'll see what the governor has to say when he takes the stage.

Maybe it's an encouraging word to everybody.

Stick around or maybe he is ready to say something more significant.

Yeah, And we were talking while during the interview about the disaster counties.

Let's talk about in the western part of the state, because those numbers are starting to trickle in now all across.

We believe that Graves County, you said, might be an outlier here.

Explain.

Yeah, the major counties that were affected by the natural disasters, the western Kentucky tornadoes and floods appear to be going for Beshear.

Most of them didn't go for him last time, but we've had a very interesting result in Graves County.

As Amy pointed out earlier, you've got almost where it looks like 5/6 of the vote has been counted and Cameron leads 6763 to 38, 85.

That is 63 and a half to 36 and a half percent.

That's pretty amazing.

And I'm proud to call people in Graves County and say what is going on down there because you know, the the perception and maybe this is the media perception is that people in these disaster counties were very happy with the performance of the governor and his people.

But maybe there's some other factor going on down there.

Maybe people think that it's been a long time, almost two years now, since the tornadoes and Mayfield doesn't look that much different.

Downtown Mayfield is not.

So over now.

I've got Kenton County numbers and it's just same stories.

Campbell County, you know, and Kenton County of four years ago, Beshear eked out a win by about 550 votes, whereas four years earlier, Bevin won by over 5000 votes.

This year, Beshear wins by 3000.

So another net of 2500 turnout was a little bit lower than maybe was expected in Kent County yet, but it was still a big win.

So that's if you're adding to last year, that's again, another 2500 votes.

And now Beshear Cameron did win Boone County pretty comfortably.

But when you add it all up, the Beshear strategy of trying to do well and deliver lot of votes in the the second or third, depending how you measure largest metropolitan area of the state.

Sure did a nice job up there.

And in Jefferson County, the turnout may have been a little lower than last time, but this year has improved his margin.

We've got 56% counted and he's got 113000 to 46000, while for Cameron and last time he had margin of about 98,000.

And when you look at those Collier counties, kind of around the Boone Kenton Campbell area, I mean that Daniels performing very well.

Those are just smaller counties.

There's not enough votes there.

Right.

So I think that's interesting, though, is to see that even though in Kenton and Campbell, it looks like, you know, Beshear is has a pretty comfortable lead there, you immediately go right below into those rural counties.

And it's you know, it's read right there.

So I just.

Want to zoom out for a second to go back to talking about the shoe leather.

Right.

And all the door knocks.

I too, got to door knocks from the campaign in the last like ten days.

And I saw signs pop up in my neighborhood, you know, everywhere.

And so in 2019, obviously, we know that Governor Bashir won by 1.5 votes per precinct.

That's a thing he always says on the campaign trail.

And so last time they knocked over a million doors, of course, they were going to say, oh, that was going to be a focus this time.

But I really just want to like shout out the organizers and all of the volunteers who have really put their blood, sweat and tears into this, because over the past couple of days, we always talk about, you know, who we call in in these counties.

And everybody says, what are you hearing on election Day?

And I always my answer is it's it's probably going to be close and I'd rather be us than them.

And of course, yes, we know about the incumbency and all of that.

But really it's who was going to in these areas that we know, like Kenton Campbell, that Beshear was going to have to do well in and say, hey, that wasn't a fluke last time.

Right.

It those those folks that were door knocking, being well-resourced and being able to turn out, our supporters seem to be, you know, that's the secret sauce here that helped him, I think, really deliver this victory.

So like, yes, it was his message, but also when it came down to it, they were disciplined on their ground game.

One county we haven't mentioned is Hopkins, which was a disaster County, Dawson Springs, the Beshears hometown.

Right.

Cameron has carried it 6900 to about 5800, which is fairly remarkable.

I do think Robby Mills probably had an effect there because that is in his district right.

Can also say is, you know, looking ahead to the presidential race, the Trump factor here.

Mm hmm.

If you look I mean, you look at some of these counties over in the east where in 2020, like and not in a breath it right.

They voted 7675, a closer to 80% Trump.

Right.

But yet they are sticking Andy Beshear.

And I think this is the question about the campaign.

You know could could you get could be Cameron get those voters to come out with Trump not on the ballot and it's not a presidential year.

And if they came out to the how do they vote And yeah, I mean, Cameron still doing pretty well in rural Kentucky.

Still going to probably win more counties I'm guessing is looking at the way these numbers are coming in.

And you know, Amy made the great point about separating the collar counties, the southern northern Kentucky counties, those are rural counties.

I mean, there are a lot of those folks work in northern Kentucky.

But those I think most people would classify those as rural counties.

And so it's kind of consistent with the way we're seeing rural Kentucky vote.

But that was one of the big questions we all had.

You know, I've been at the crop and it's shown a 5248.

We're acting like, you know, that's still a pretty close race against an incumbent.

But it does show that I think, you know, go back to what Kelsey said.

We saw momentum.

I think anybody agreed there was momentum on the Cameron campaign at the end.

But the question we all had in the back of our minds was what are we seeing momentum that was closing it or closing momentum that was pulling ahead, it seemed pretty clear wasn't pulling ahead, but it was closing.

It wasn't a you know, I know some of the campaign, the be sure campaign early, you know, internals are between five and ten for a lot of the campaign and doesn't look like that's going to be the margin of victory.

It looks like it might be a little bit closer, but it just wasn't enough.

They ran a great campaign, an incumbent governor.

You know, the Cameron is a good candidate.

Kentucky is a pretty Republican state.

But it just it doesn't look like it was enough.

So we are waiting now because we understand that there will be a speech here momentarily from Russell Coleman, who is the Republican contender and the attorney general race.

AP Associated Press has not called that race, but we are anticipating that Mr. Coleman will take the stage here momentarily.

As we understand it, Scott Jennings is either on the stage now or getting ready to approach the stage, and he is congratulating Jonathan Schell, who is the commissioner elect of agriculture and Mr. Mark Metcalf, who is the state treasurer elect.

So that is happening right now.

We can double box that, so we can show that to our viewers what's happening.

And as Russell is taking the stage, Russell Coleman, we will take his remarks.

I want to thank God, my family and the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky who.

I stand here tonight at the end of an 18 month job interview filled with gratitude, humility and more determination than ever.

To all those listening in this room and around Kentucky, whether you supported me or not, I promise you this we will protect your family.

We will defend your rights, and we will back the blue brown for the neighborhoods in West Louisville struggling to address violence for rural counties and small towns.

Fearful that Washington's radical agenda is attacking our values and our way of life.

For the parents across Kentucky who lay awake even this evening worrying about their kids, that they may fall victim to the poison that we're seeing flow from over a porous southwest border.

And for the law enforcement leaders who risked their lives every day, who be out there on dark country roads and answering calls this evening when we're in our beds safe tonight, I see you.

I hear you.

And I will represent all of you.

And to Representative Stephenson, Colonel Stephenson, we may from different parties and bring different philosophies, but I appreciate her service to our Commonwealth and I appreciate her service to this nation.

Please join me in honoring that as Attorney General.

I look forward to working with anyone, regardless of party, who will stand with our law enforcement, who will protect our families, and who will help me put drug traffickers and violent criminals behind bars where they belong.

Getting elected today was a team effort.

What a privilege to be part of such an incredible Republican ticket.

We spent many hours together at.

Lincoln Day dinners, Fancy Farm and on the bus tour.

And I can tell you that Alison, Mark, Jonathan and Mike are all first rate leaders with tremendous integrity and tremendous competence.

Whoa.

Above all.

I'm proud, proud to follow in the shoes of an extraordinary attorney general.

My friend and my my good friend, Daniel, Jay Cameron.

As you know, he is a man of faith, of character.

He is a once in a generation talent.

I always knew that Daniel Daniel was was destined for many great things, so much so that we named our kid for him.

I pause for a moment because there are enormous shoes to fill and following the footsteps of our favorite Attorney general and our soon to be treasurer.

Mr. Madcap likes to say that sometimes shoes are just so enormous they can't be filled, but you seek to walk in them, to follow behind them, to seek the counsel of those that came before you.

And I can certainly say that in regard to our 50 Attorney General Daniel Cameron, I, Ronald Reagan was very fond of saying there's no limit to what you can accomplish, the amount of good that you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.

Now, that's much easier said sometimes in politics.

This victory, it isn't just mine.

It is yours.

It belongs to all of you who prayed for us, who contributed precious resources, who welcomed me into your homes.

The best part of this campaign was meeting the extraordinary people from every corner of this commonwealth and the barbecue, of course, the barbecue as well, to our commonwealth and county attorneys, some of whom are in this room, to our sheriffs, to our chiefs of police, to my brothers and sisters in the Fraternal Order of Police, the FOP, those who stood up early and often to support this campaign.

This is your win.

You won't just have a seat at the table.

We will focus on supporting you every day.

We serve in the attorney General's office.

Now to my team, from volunteers to the best in the business crew at Run Switch PR, Thank you for allowing me in this campaign to be the beneficiary of your considerable talent.

You made me better.

I want to say a special thanks.

Where is he?

To Gavin Henshaw, a young man who has become like family.

He spent countless hours in the truck with me from the mountains to our river counties and everywhere in between.

Always with a smile.

And as many of you all know, always professional, always with an encouraging word.

Gavin has made his native Paduca and most importantly, friends to my amazing wife, Ashley and our and our incredible kids and they made one sacrifice after another.

So you're hearing Russell Coleman, the attorney general?

Well, can't call him attorney general elect because the Associated Press hasn't called it.

But that certainly is a victory speech.

Once again, very subdued because.

His friend, a very good friend, Daniel Kahneman, at the top of the ticket is not having as good a night as Russell Coleman, Mike Adams and others, Jonathan Schell, Mark Metcalf and Allison Ball.

And so we're continuing to watch those numbers as they come in.

But we do want to make a note of those of us who know Russell Coleman know that he's got some good manners and some good home training, as we would call it, where I'm from.

And Kelsey Coats, you made note of the fact that he was very gracious and made a very gracious commentary toward his Democratic opponent, Pamela Stephenson.

Absolutely.

What I always like to say about her is, you know, people talk about liberty and justice for all that she's worked her entire career to make it true.

And that's one reason why she ran for attorney general.

And so I just really appreciate he thanked her for her service.

And she has a lot to be proud of in the race that she ran.

I think whenever she got to travel to a bunch of counties, I don't know if it was all 120, but a lot of them and she has like that magnetic personality.

And so people appreciate her service and of course, like her as a person.

Just it's difficult to communicate on those down ballot races at scale.

But she has a lot to be proud of as a candidate.

And so I just appreciate, I guess, now Attorney General elect Coleman for for giving her a shout out.

Well, last night, Ray Watson said not to be confused with Trey Grayson because he.

Can't spell his name.

Yes, he can't spell his name.

Said that if there was ever an artificial intelligence tool that could spit you out, he said, Chad, an attorney general, it would look like a. Republican attorney.

General.

Thank you for putting his background.

I mean, absolutely his background as a former FBI, former U.S. attorney, I will say, and I've Russell is just a good human being.

And I think we saw that come through in his speech tonight.

I think he he really speaks through the lens of a father.

And I think when he says that he wants to keep Kentucky family safe, he really means that because he is looking at his own children and wants to make sure that if you break the law, you're going to be held accountable.

But there's a lot more that that office does.

And so excited to see how he puts together his office, who might stay in today.

Right.

And where he goes.

And for people who are interested in where people are from, which I tend to put a lot of importance on, Hmm.

Russell is sort of the ghost of Larry Ford.

He is from Butler County, graduated from Logan County High School, and I think they probably have a lot in common.

Yeah, so Russell's a coworker of mine, so I remember talking to him several years ago about actually a different race that just the timing didn't make sense for him.

And, you know, Emmy's right about that service.

I mean, I think one of the things that's interesting that the AG's office in Kentucky, but all across the country have right now is the opioid settlement money.

I know that you know the settlement.

So there's there's hundreds of millions of dollars that are flowing through that office.

But I'm just I'm just proud of him and excited for Bob.

But real quickly, because we have some breaking news.

Coleman started quickly early and got it funded.

Those are the fundamentals that you have to follow.

Associated Press has called the race for governor Andy Beshear.

He has secured a second term.

These are the results you're seeing on your screen.

79% reporting, 53%, 47%.

We're still dissecting those counties, some still outstanding.

And we've been talking about those, whether they're in disaster areas or not, and some surprises.

But that's the totals there at the current time and associated Press has called it for Governor Andy Beshear.

We understand this is a live picture.

Right on cue.

Right on.

That's how.

We work.

That's good for.

You.

Production values are high.

And I have to say, we appreciate our crew so very much and they are jubilant in that room.

You can tell the energy just from the ability of the excitement there.

You can certainly feel right now.

And we expect the governor to grace the stage here very shortly.

We were told 15 minutes, about 15 minutes ago.

And so now that Associated Press has officially called the race, we can anticipate his arrival on that stage very, very shortly.

Commentary Real quickly.

Why did he win?

Why did he.

Win?

Kentucky has made up their minds about him long ago.

They know.

Andy Yeah.

That was the best line.

Yeah, You know me as well.

You know me.

You know.

A lot of it was baked in early in the process and hard to change either way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, again, that's a that's really governors just get reelected, you know, they spend for you, they get elected.

So the voters actually even in this case, even if you call it an anti Bevin vote, he was elected governor.

He spent four years getting another state travel in the state.

And his term was so unique with the COVID, with the pandemic and the natural disasters.

And that really allowed him to step away from the partizanship that might have hurt him as a governor of a party that is losing ground in the state.

He was able to transcend party politics and the, you know, travel the state raised the money, spent the money wisely.

And he's got a pretty.

Well he can get himself elected, but not those who also shared the ballot with him today.

You know, we got to look up for number one just in the same way we earlier we talked about Adams looking out for himself.

You know, Beshear had to look out for himself, had to make that hard decision.

And we've seen this in other states, Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana, where governors have been reelected, Kansas when they're in the minority party.

But once they get in office, they build a constituency, they develop a record.

They get to know the voters in a way a governor can.

I think it's a different ballgame or some of the US Senate candidate or U.S. senator.

But you're closer to the people.

The school groups come to you, you go out, you present all these checks and you've the opportunity to do that also means they turn on you.

It's harder, get them back.

And we've seen a couple of governors got turned on and they couldn't get it back.

And Beshear got as popular as Al said.

It was baked in.

They made up their mind a long time ago.

And no matter how successful this campaign was for Cameron, he just couldn't make a. Dent on it.

So Amy Wickliffe, There was a text sent to me from a Republican who said, Is this a referendum against Trump?

Those moderate, they called him reasonable, educated Republicans who decided no more.

We're sticking with Andy or going with Andy?

I think so I mean, I really do in this.

And listen, I'm not a Trump Republican, right?

So you have to take that for what it's worth.

But I really do.

I think that especially when you look at some of these counties where Trump has, you know, performed very well in 2020, and it just didn't translate that that Trump endorsement just did not filter down.

And so I.

Always wondered just how powerful it would be.

You know, does Donald Trump have the sort of hold and influence over Kentucky voters, but he can get them to turn out for somebody they don't really know that?

Well, the answer is no.

I think our civic spaces, too, don't always reflect like that.

We do have more in common than, you know, our our politics maybe like us to believe.

And so people want that sort of belonging.

And I think really what this race boiled down to was a lot of, you know, Andy really communicated that he was running for something.

He has a vision for Kentucky that people believe in.

And what does he always say?

You don't fire the coach if you're on a winning streak.

And I think that people really bought into that.

Again, he ran for something, not necessarily against someone.

And I just think that voters, they've liked Andy and he kept them exactly like you said.

Well, now we know that Associated has called all the races, including the governor's race.

And we just got a press release from David Paterson with the Kentucky Education Association.

Big headline, Katy AIDS Empowered Educators across the Commonwealth helped carry Beshear to victory.

The 40,000 plus members of the KIA and fellow supporters in public schools across the Commonwealth once again made the difference and bring an electoral victory to Governor Andy Beshear, a champion for public education.

Are they taking too much credit?

They're Kelsey Coots.

No, I think that whenever you look, you're you're saying.

Yes, he's right.

No, you're right.

So, yeah.

No, I think with teachers, you know it's like you look and in obviously the race is about education and you know Cameron had his catch up plan and and Andy is a pro public education governor and has been unequivocal about that.

But I also think, you know, you look at their running mates it was it's not all it's like deeds, not words.

Right.

And so when you look, Andy picked Jacqueline Coleman, an active teacher and his running mate, versus somebody who voted for the sewer bill.

And then whenever it was ruled unconstitutional, he said, hey, should come and call a special session and let's take the pensions away again.

And I think that teachers just don't forget that.

And so whether or not sort of that momentum was felt on the ground of them showing up in droves, you know, at rallies or whatever it was like in 2019, I think they definitely said, we know that Andy's on our side.

We maybe don't quite believe what Cameron has to say about education.

And and again, it paid off and a.

Lot of Republicans.

Yeah, yeah.

And Cameron did try to atone, right?

I mean, he met with educator groups and he said, I'm sorry if Republicans have made you feel undervalued or something to that effect.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And I think that that maybe didn't resonate across all teachers.

Right.

But I think there's something to owning that right to look back and say, look, if someone in our party made you feel less than that, your job was not important, then I'm for that.

And public education has been a key platform When Daniel has talked about education.

Right.

And his wife is a public school teacher, I think Sister in law is a public school teacher in the CPS system.

So he's a public he comes from public schools.

So, you know, that didn't cross over.

I will say Andy Beshear has had the benefit of interviewing for the reelection campaign for four years, right?

Yeah, that was I was shaking my head not because I didn't think it mattered.

It mattered.

But you asked you framed a question of like, are they taking too much credit?

I think they're taking too much credit.

I think there's a whole lot of victory, has a lot of parents here and and the reality is, if you look at the actual issues, I mean, every year and Governor Bush here talked about raising teacher salaries, he never accomplished it because, you know, if you look actually look at education policies that were implemented, there's not a great record there.

Yeah, he has a teachers lieutenant governor.

Well, the legislature was not about to give the teachers a raise.

Right.

You know, they said we'll leave it up to the school boards.

They gave them extra.

They gave them record setting money.

That's right.

And most of the teachers end up getting raises because that's where the bulk of the budget goes to is personal expenses.

But but record.

I just like I said, I think your question was, are they taking too much credit?

Yeah, that's taking too much credit for Babbage.

All of you are students of the whole process journalism, advertising, politics, policy, all that goes with it.

Renee.

Certainly Andy Beshear is that kind of person.

I heard him in smaller groups over the years refer things before his dad had a meteoric start.

Lost in 87, lost in 96, and then came back amazingly and won two terms for governor convincingly and served with a popular standing.

But the little things about that that Andy Beshear paid attention to, he's well-educated, he's well prepared, but he's always looking to see the strategic points that matter and learning and teaching those to other people sort of they're done right.

He does control his shop very carefully, room 100 of the capital and everybody else, often to the times, oftentimes frustrating press who can't get the answer for somebody.

Here's a hermetically sealed administration.

Now, there's not enough reporters in Frankfort these days to find out more about it.

But, you know, the the message control and the strict obedience that is required in the Beshear administration is probably the toughest I've ever seen in Frankfort.

But the idea.

That it worked and always it worked and it worked, as McConnell and others have shown us, you have to stick to the fundamentals and not deviate.

And well, this and this vector, you've got to stick to the.

Yeah, there's 100 good ideas coming in the door every week.

And you're lucky if you can pick one or two.

And I would say I go back to again the daily briefings COVID where we all got to know them.

You know, we talked earlier about Cameron not being all that well known, first time attorney general, not particularly well known when he won the office, Beshear had the benefit of the last name, but he also wasn't very well known on a personal level when he got elected attorney general.

And he spent a lot of that time, one term running for governor.

And then we all got know him, you know, especially for those several months every day at 5 p.m., you know, watching him struggle, watching, you know, he couldn't cut his hair like we could you know, we couldn't cut our hair, you know, getting the first vaccine, struggling with this, telling the story about people dying.

You know, a lot of I think ultimately I have to pick one thing.

I just think it's that I mean, I realize there were a lot of decisions that he made.

I remember for that they're decisions he made that I disagreed with.

And there were a lot of Republicans disagree with a lot of the things.

But I think that I saw a headline.

I was doing some research for something the AP called The Consoler in Chief, and that was the role that he played.

And that's how he got defined through that leadership trying to figure this out.

That was very unprecedented, where he didn't know a lot of people, his staff didn't know a lot of people.

And about three months in, I mean, the president, you know, we all can remember where we were in that week in March, that when the world got shut down.

And this is a state that's divided between ten media markets and a lot of them don't really pay that much attention to Kentucky.

So a lot of voters in state are not in touch with what's going on in Frankfort.

Yeah, but in those three months, he had the opportunity that no Kentucky governor has ever had or hopefully will never have again.

Yeah.

To get in everybody's living room or dining room or bedroom on a daily basis.

We knew.

His style, his style mattered, and he had the style.

And the style.

Very good.

The heart and demonstration of leadership that won people over and they stuck with it.

They didn't care if there were $76 million of money spent in the state all over the place trying to change their mind about him.

They knew who he was and he made that point, you know, me.

And that's when they really got to know him.

You said consoler in chief.

And I think, you know, on the campaign trail, he would say or in debates when he would get asked about COVID and things, he would he would be willing to make that he was willing to make the hard decisions, even if it cost him.

And I think in those briefings he would even say that.

Right.

And I think that people even now, you know, hindsight's 20, but they would say we were all scared and nervous and didn't know what was going on, but we thought that he was standing there making the best decisions that he could on behalf of all of us and on behalf of Kentuckians.

And that's why, you know, on his signs on the the RI vamp of the logo, it says, and really being right because it's to remind people, you know me I think.

A lot of people that governor.

Was a first name basis right Abby James Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Or Martha Lane But.

Yeah but it but it's not recently no.

Happy occasion was the best combination for.

Some.

Context.

I.

Don't know why.

Not all but the 5 million of.

The people in the millions, I can tell you you don't know what you're talking.

About with my grandfather, but how.

Did you turn to his office to.

Grab a great button that said Happy.

And Kaine, I mean, how could you beat that for first names?

And we had Alvin and we had others of of Simeon, Willis and Sam.

But that was a different that was a different era in politics.

And, you know, Andy, when he ran four years ago, we weren't calling him.

And I mean, like, it feels disrespectful in some respects to call him Andy right here, but it doesn't really because that's how people got to know them.

You know, I sometimes struggle with this because, you know, I work with Russell Coleman.

I used to work with Daniel Cameron and I, and sometimes I inadvertently use their first names when I really shouldn't.

But with Andy, I don't think he and I think he appreciates.

That if he wants it, it's to his advantage.

Yeah, he's Andy.

He's not this year.

He's not you know, and it's irony.

His own irony.

Is that he.

Needed the Beshear to get the office in the first.

Place.

Yeah.

He's just.

Andy King.

When.

He doesn't win because Andy Cross he doesn't win.

Well, let's talk real quickly because it is after the 9:00 hour.

So if you're just us, you're getting to the good stuff, as we say, because we are waiting for Governor Andy Beshear to take the stage.

The Associated Press has called the race for him and the Associated Press has called all the races on the ballot for the constitutional offices.

And so we'll get you up to date on those in just a moment.

But I want to turn our attention real quickly before we to back to those headquarters about the Politico piece across that Jonathan Martin did about is Kentucky like raising its next president right.

Well, will Kentucky elect a president?

I think was the headline that was over Jonathan Martin's piece in Politico.

About Bashir and about Cameron, too, that both of these men could earn some pretty substantial place on the national stage and particularly Andy Beshear.

Yeah, it will be interesting to watch the commentary at the National in the next week about Beshear because he's clearly got a formula Now.

It may apply just in this particular case because he had the unusual situation of COVID and the circumstances that we just discussed.

It's not really replicable, but I think it does tell the Democratic Party, which is so steeped in identity politics these days, that you need to have people who can appeal to the broad, middle and sound themes that people will respond to.

And I think, you know, I would have said this a year ago, but if you send Andy Beshear to New Hampshire and Iowa, actually Democrats don't like New Hampshire anymore or take it back.

They don't like Iowa anymore.

You him to these early voting states, South Carolina, he would have some resonance.

And in a multi-candidate race, you know, it's not beyond the realm of possibility for him to make a significant impact.

So right now we are waiting and we're going to put up a double box.

You're hearing some broadcast lingo.

This is Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is taking the stage tonight, Scott Jennings, who is serving as emcee, just introduced him.

You see him standing there with his wife, Mackenzie.

I bet there was a poll between Cameron and Beshear who know each other very well right.

And they arranged for Cameron to concede and then the right.

And that's why we've been waiting for Beshear to make his remarks.

Right now, we're going to join Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Well, that didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to.

Well, look, it has been such an honor to run as the Republican nominee for governor and to run alongside someone who is the pride of Henderson County and the best dressed.

Man I know the fact that he runs a dry cleaners might have something.

To do with that.

But but Rob Mills, it's been a lot of I promise the governor I'd be brief, so I'll be brief tonight and say, thank you all.

Thank you so much for your willingness and commit to this campaign in this effort, an effort that was ultimately about our kids and our grandkids, you know?

Yeah.

And, you know, often times when I go into counties in communities, I would bring the best campaigner I know with me, my wife, Mackenzie Cameron.

Doesn't she look radiant tonight?

I think.

But it's been an honor to be her husband.

We've got a 22 month old at home and we've got another one on the way next spring.

As soon.

But whether it was Mackenzie or Vicki Mills or all of you all here, again, this was about future generations.

And as I called the governor to congratulate him.

I know from his perspective and from all of our perspectives that we all want the same thing for our future generations.

We want a better commonwealth, one in which it can ultimately be a shining city on a hill, a model, an example for the rest of the nation to follow.

And so, as I did with Governor Beshear, I want all of us to think about what these next few decades will look like.

And I ask that you pray for Governor Beshear and his team and for of our commonwealth, because at the end of the day, win, lose or draw, what ultimately matters is that we know that Christ is on the throne.

Thanks, Mac.

This.

But that's what Mackenzie.

And I will return to.

We'll return to trying to be the hands and feet of Christ.

And I know that you all will as well.

We'll try instill those principles in Theodore and the child that will be named at some point.

We're still trying to figure that name out.

But that's what it's about here on this earth.

About leaving better it better than you found it and giving a better future for your kids and your grandkids.

So let us continue in effort.

Let us continue in that work.

I want to thank my campaign team.

I'm not going to name all of them, but I want to give a shout out to Terry Carmack, my big brother.

You have Brandon Moody, who has been with me since the 2019 campaign and the final member of the troika, Scott Jennings.

Thank you, my friend.

And of course, I've got to give a shout out to my mom, who is a very warrior.

So thank you to all of you.

May God bless you and God bless Kentucky.

Thank you so much.

Well, there you have it.

Giving an embrace to his wife, Mackenzie, who is expecting their second child due in the spring.

I think they said yesterday on the campaign trail they're expecting another boy.

Theodore is.

Named.

Coleman High.

They named Coleman since Russell Coleman has named his daughter Cameron.

Ruby.

Right.

A very gracious.

Which those who know Daniel Cameron would expect none, nothing less than that.

And he started off with a little humor.

Well, that didn't go the way I expected.

I'll cross mean, those are an endearing way to concede graciously and also give a shout out to Governor Andy Beshear and even offer prayers for his leadership.

As he indicated, this was choreographed.

Good humor always goes a long way, focusing on future and grand principles and family that's great.

And he made a specific appeal with those religious references to what has become the most active base of his party.

And, you know, one thing he didn't mention, Donald J. Trump J Trump is no longer of any use to Daniel Cameron.

And I think a lot of people, Daniel Cameron, are perfectly happy with that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He said on that part.

Amy, pick up from there.

That I thought it was a very gracious.

I would expect nothing less and I felt for Mackenzie in that moment I have is Trey mentioned earlier those are tough rooms to be in.

I was on that 2007 race right when Ernie Fletcher lost.

And so I've been in those rooms.

When you're watching those results and come in and it's it's an emotional time because you are physically exhausted.

You are mentally exhausted.

You literally have left it all on the field.

Those are some of the toughest days that you have when you work campaigns like that, especially statewide campaigns and so my heart breaks for him.

This will not be the last that we see of Daniel Cameron.

I think he has a very bright future.

And that's the question to be asked now, what next?

Now, I think what's interesting, what Cameron did in this race, he had an easy reelection.

I mean, we're seeing Coleman run up.

He's actually Coleman is almost approaching 60%.

And the vote totals right now.

So Cameron could have easily won, run for reelection, wanted to walk and positioned himself for potentially running for the United States Senate in 2026 for an open seat.

Instead, he decided, I'm going to bet on myself and try to run for governor.

And the bet in the short run didn't pay off.

And as he said, it didn't go as exactly as he expected.

And so we'll see what the future holds.

But I do think, especially watching him, I watched him, you know, I used to work with him and watching him grow first in the office as attorney general, but especially in the last couple of weeks as a candidate.

He does have a lot of political talent.

And he if he wants to make that a career, I think he could he could do it.

He can go to practicing law.

He can go pivot and do something else.

I want to echo what Amy said in watching Mackenzie.

I teared up a little bit because I remember the hardest part about losing a race is tough, but the spouse has to go through it worse than anybody because so many times you're out on the campaign trail and even in the like.

When my 2010 race, even though I ended up losing by a lot, we still had great crowds in my bus.

It was an RV tour.

We called it a bus tour.

We had great trials.

Those people believed in me and they kept me going, made me feel good about what I was doing.

But my wife was back home.

She couldn't go to that many, many of the rallies in Mackenzie while she was there.

A lot of that time, she's got a young kid at home and she can't be out of this much.

It's just really hard to go through that.

And so watching Mackenzie on that stage, you know, brought back some memories.

You know, you probably went through this in 95 with Laura would have gone through that.

It's tough.

And and we even saw Coleman break down a little bit during his talk thinking about it, because these guys are such good friends and Russell probably thinking, but for Daniel deciding to bet on himself not in that race, you know, Daniel gave Russell a little bit of a heads up which allowed him to get out and get a lot of endorsements and clear the field.

He ran without a primary.

And now Russell is going to get to be the attorney general.

And I think he'll do a really good job.

But there's a personal element to all of this that's really hard, whether you're, you know, a Republican or a Democrat.

And Governor Beshear, you know, when he was a kid, his dad lost that 87 primary and he had to go through that and then came back ten years later and lost the McConnell general election.

And so this this Occupy nation can be hard, can be incredibly rewarding and enriching with the friendships and the memories.

But we see some raw emotions on election night.

I you know, they say it's not personal.

It's politics.

It's very personal.

When we win or lose a vote in the capital or on a night like this, it's extremely personal.

I'm very moved by his remarks.

A total class act, exceptional.

And I think for for and Beshear for this night was going to turn out it was going to be a time of adjustment for sure.

But they will be key leaders in our state for many, many years, no matter what.

And on a national level, both will be looked at, talked to, recruited.

They have endless opportunity after tonight and they should both be congratulated.

How this has worked out in this moment.

Let's take a double box right now because we do believe it's take I'm sorry, excuse me there.

Let's we got a double box up.

This is Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman holding her little girl as well today.

Our we'll take this four.

Other Democrats, Republicans and independents and elected the team that puts Kentucky families first today.

Folks, we have gotten a lot done in our.

First four years.

Record economic investment, the lowest unemployment ever, record our budget surpluses.

But there is so much more to do.

And because.

Of you, we are going to make that happen.

My daughter is a.

Teacher in my class.

I see the problems that we face through the lens of the.

Kids in our classrooms, so we have to work together to make sure that all of our kids have everything that they need because the future of our booming economy, it's in our classrooms today.

I tried to tell them.

When you attack public education.

In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, you will lose.

There are so many thanks to give tonight.

So many of you played such an important role in this victory.

First, I to thank the people of Kentucky.

For giving us another chance.

And next, I got to thank my family, the people who made sacrifices so I can do this everybody.

On our campaign staff who helped guide us here.

If you volunteered, if you knocked.

On a door, if you gave a dollar, you are part of this.

When.

And last but certainly not least, is a governor.

Who chose a.

Teacher as his running.

Mate in Kentucky.

It has not been an easy four years, but I watched him up close lead with empathy and compassion.

I watched as Andy treated every Kentucky family like were his own, and I watched him prove that it doesn't matter your zip code, your political party or anything else.

Then he was.

Going to fight for you because you.

Are a Kentuckian.

It is my pleasure to introduce my friend.

Your friend and our governor for four more years.

Andy Beshear.

Thank you.

Kentucky.

Tonight.

Kentucky made a choice, a choice not to move to the right or to the left, but to move forward for every single family.

A choice to reject teen R or Team D and to state clearly that we are one team Kentucky.

A choice of Jack Harlow over Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

And tonight and tonight.

The people of Kentucky elected me as the third two consecutive term governor in our history.

But folks, this wasn't my win.

This was our victory.

It was a victory that sends a loud, clear message, a message that candidates should run for something and not against someone.

In that a candidate.

Should show vision and not so division.

Yeah, and a clear statement that anger politics should end right here and right now.

Just just look at what we were up against.

Five super PACs.

My opponent's super PAC.

Mitch McConnell Super PAC Rand.

Paul Super PAC, the Club for Growth, the Republican.

Governors Association, all running ads full of and division.

And you know what?

We beat them all at the same time.

This election shows who we are as Kentuckians.

We are a proud people who take care of each other.

We believe in the golden rule that says we love our neighbor as ourselves.

In the parable, the Good Samaritan that says we are all each other's neighbors, no exceptions.

Our neighbors aren't just Democrats.

They're not just Republicans.

They're not just independents.

Every single person is a child of God, and they are all our neighbor.

We get through the hard times and we get through them together.

We to the good times and we get to them together.

And wow, are we getting to them right?

Kentucky is on.

A historic win streak.

The two best years of economic development in the history of, the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

We're building the.

Bridge, Spence Companion Bridge.

Without tolls.

We're four laning.

The entire Mountain.

Parkway.

And we're pushing I-69 forward so fast that Indiana scrambling to catch up.

We're bringing clean drinking water to our counties and we are running high speed Internet access to every home in Kentucky.

We're building the two biggest battery plants on planet Earth and the cleanest, greenest, recycled paper mill in this country.

We have record high budget surpluses and record low unemployment.

We've created almost 50,000 new jobs.

$27.8 billion in new private sector investment.

So tonight, I stand here excited and optimistic about what we're going to do these next four years together over these next four years.

It's time for a couple of things.

First, it's time to get our educators the big.

Pay raise they deserve.

It's time for.

Universal pre-K for every Kentucky child.

We're going to keep attracting new.

Jobs and new industries, building our workforce, building the Kentucky we have always dreamed of.

And it's amazing that we're here because we have been through a lot together.

Devastating tornadoes in the West.

Historic flooding in the east.

And after each, I made a promise, a promise that I would help rebuild every home and every life.

And thanks to the people of Kentucky and thanks to this election, we're going to see that promise through.

I pledge tonight to continue to be a governor who serves all our people, regardless of your party and regardless of who voted for these next four years.

We have an opportunity, an opportunity to come further together.

This is our chance build that commonwealth we have always dreamed of.

To stop the fighting.

To push away the division.

To recognize that we have more that unites us.

That can ever pull us apart.

And that the opportunity right in front of us is more promising than at any time in our lifetimes.

I have a lot.

Of thank you's first to my parents, to Steve and Jane Beshear.

Thank you for all your support, your service and your leadership.

I love you, too.

My wife, Brittany.

And my kids Will.

And Lyla.

You are the reason I do this.

That you're the reason I do everything.

I love you all so much.

Oh, Hadley is here tonight.

Yeah.

She is a brave young woman who came forward to share her story, to speak for so many that couldn't speak for themselves.

And because of her courage.

Because of her courage.

This commonwealth is going to be a better place and people are going to reach out.

For the help they need.

Thank you, Hadley.

Thanks to my close.

Friends here tonight, and I just want to take a minute to recognize that we've lost some incredible people recently who stood on a similar stage with us just four years ago.

I know they're smiling down.

I know they're so pleased that where we're going and I know they know that we love them and that we will see them again.

I want to say thank you to every volunteer and field organizer that did the hard work.

Of knocking doors.

See, it's that type of energy that helped us win.

I want to thank the.

Entire campaign staff and my campaign manager, Eric Hyers, who ran a perfect race.

And I want to say a huge thank you to the official Commonwealth of Kentucky staff, not just not just everyone in the governor's office, but every single state employee.

The work that they do every day is why we are at this special place in our history.

I love serving on Team Kentucky with each and every one of those state employees, and we have an opportunity now not for four, but for eight years that will set up decades of prosperity.

I know that every day I have left as governor is special that every day we have left, working together is a day to improve the lives of our fellow Kentuckians.

I love this Commonwealth and I'm going to work as hard as I can for each and every one of you.

So from the Beshear family to every Kentucky family, we love you.

Good night and God bless.

Four more years for Governor.

Andy Beshear secured a victory for a second term this evening.

The race was called by the Associated Press at 8:57 p.m.. And we heard just moments ago Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general, giving a rather gracious concession speech.

And he called and congratulated the governor.

And there you have the governor giving his remarks to an exuberant crowd there in Louisville tonight.

So let's talk for a few about what we heard and the future of Beshear and also some other elements of the race that we haven't spoken about so far across.

You know, I remarked that the religious lines that Daniel Cameron had in his speech, uh, Governor Beshear actually more religious lines.

And I think that reflects the fact that this is a religious state.

You know, most Kentuckians are people of faith, and they want to know that their governor is a person of faith.

And Andy Beshear never forgot that.

And I think it was really one thing that helped cement that voter approval early on and kept it where it is.

Kelsey, how do you interpret night and the victory by Governor Andy Beshear?

Yeah, I think, again, the governor said it, it goes back to vision versus division.

I hate to use that exact talking point, but I do think that that's it.

Again, people when attacks came at A&E, again, I feel like I should be calling him the governor.

He is the governor.

But we all feel like we now have whenever attacks came, it is people didn't want to believe them.

It almost didn't matter what they were.

It's like they liked A&E.

They trust a tough law and they want to be him.

Right.

And so it was just difficult to combat that.

I also think that Kentuckians are looking for, you know, they trust a Democrat in the governor's mansion.

That has been shown the past, however many cycles that we talked about, the one term governors, those were all Republican.

And so I think that, yes, Andy Beshear is gifted.

People trust him.

And there were things in the atmospherics that led to him winning.

But I also just think that Kentuckians trust the Democrat in the governor's race.

Historical night for him, too, as well.

Right?

I think and I think looking forward, what does this do for future Republicans running for office, especially looking at messaging?

Andy Beshear really doubled down on the economic message, really highlighting those economic successes where the Republicans really focused in on more social issues.

And certainly double down on the pro-choice message in many ways.

Yes.

And so is that something that Republicans be looking at to see?

Okay, Does the Kentucky electorate.

You know, what's really going to resonate with them is are they social issues?

Are they really going did they to me that didn't really drive out the base tonight for Daniel like I think Republicans thought it would.

Go 150 that we just talk about in that nomenclature other than just transgender rights.

I mean, he that abortion all those other things and Trump and those things didn't have very much sticking power.

Well, quickly, Bob Babbage.

Years ago, I heard this comment.

We vote for people we like who are like us.

Both these candidates were likable and projected a tremendous personality, great style.

They were likable and they were future oriented, positive, promising.

For Beshear, he started early, stuck with the plan.

He knew exactly what he wanted to do.

He didn't deviate.

He didn't take all the suggestions and all the noise.

He stayed with it, executed brilliantly and won a heck of a race.

And you said earlier a while back that he learned lessons from his father.

Right.

And the campaigns he did not have success with.

From his father and I think others, he was a good student of the process as well as a scholar of the issues.

We have on the phone with us.

Commissioner elect Jonathan Schell.

Good.

Do I think we'll we're seeing a picture of you, but it's good to speak with you this evening, Mr. Schell.

I'm going to refrain from calling you representative as I first began to know you.

Congratulations to you on your victory tonight.

Thank you very much, Renee.

So talk to us about how feeling tonight I know it's bittersweet when the rest of the ticket is victorious and the top of the ticket not.

And so talk to us about how you interpret and then we'll talk more about how you want to govern as the commissioner of agriculture.

Yeah, I've not seen any of the results from any other campaigns.

I've been hearing again with my people here locally, celebrate them having a good time and eating and telling stories.

And, you know, I'm just excited about being able to get the campaign over with so that we can get to work.

Yeah, a pretty decisive victory for you.

What kind of work are you ready to get to?

You've shared some of these ideas, but what remind voters and viewers what you want to accomplish?

You know, for me, you know, we're going to put together a good transition.

Working with the current commission ran quarrels, too, you know, get a good transition in very easy.

So on day one, we can start working with the legislature on priorities.

The department may have, you know, that we see as we go through transition.

And then, you know, for me, I want to start the conversation in Kentucky about agriculture is economic development.

And it's one of the largest employers and largest industries, most all of the counties in the state of Kentucky.

And, you know, for me, that means looking at infrastructure for agriculture, making sure that our farmers and ag businesses have the resources that they need in the markets available with private sector investment.

It means looking at local markets and working with known entities that have to have food on a daily basis to ensure that a larger portion of Kentucky grown products are there, like hospitals, jail systems, school districts.

And then, you know, looking at the regulatory environment coming out of Washington, D.C. and pushing back where we need to and just making sure that people that have never stepped foot on the farm or don't have the same understanding of what rural America as in rural Kentucky is needs are that we're were a voice for that, fighting against it whenever necessary.

Well, Commissioner elect Jonathan Shell, we won't take up more of your time.

Thank you for giving us a few.

Congratulations to you and we'll keep track of your arguments.

Thank you.

Yeah, go ahead, Trey.

One of the you know, obviously, the main storyline tonight is race.

And and but I want to make a point about commissioner like.

So he was kind of the boy wonder of Kentucky pilot Kentucky Republican politics in the middle part of the 20 tens when the Republicans took over.

He played a big role in recruiting candidates in the election cycle in the 2016 election cycle, helping develop the strategy.

They created a position equivalent to, like the National Republican Congressional Committee at the state level, and they won.

And he spent that first term as the majority leader.

And then he was upset.

And the primary there was a teacher who was running.

There was also some local dynamics.

And, you know, there was a big race in one county that wasn't his base.

But anyway, he lost in the primary and they rebuilt his political career.

He went and worked for the Senator McConnell's reelection campaign.

He got into this race early, kind of establish a foothold.

So this is what I want to do, is when I want to run on, build a base, raised a bunch of money, and it's done pretty well tonight.

So there's a redemption story tonight.

And so he's got a lot of political talent and he's somebody we've seen commissioner of Agriculture as you know, Jamie Comer almost won the Republican primary for governor, is currently a leader in the Congress, might come back.

You know, we might if we had time, we might talk about that later.

Brian Corales ran for governor, you know, running the Kentucky community title court system.

Jonathan Schell has has high level political talent, and he'll be somebody we're going to continue to talk about on election night in the future.

And so this is a good kid redemption story for him.

And he's got to feel really good about this.

I want to tell the control room Mark Metcalf is calling me.

So if you can call Mark Metcalf, we'll try to get a quick interview with him before.

We won by more than four votes tonight.

He won four votes tonight, and everyone knows that reference from a previous run.

With 10 minutes left, Al Cross, let's talk real quickly why we get him, Mr. Metcalf on the phone about some of the other themes or undercurrents of the governor's race that we haven't talked about that we should watch include race.

Yeah, let's just start with race.

You know, Daniel Cameron, if he'd been elected, would have been the first black Republican elected governor in the United States.

And that's something in a state that was a slave state join the Confederacy as they were losing the war effectively and still has this legacy of racism.

And Kentucky has really never had to deal with race in the same way that states to the South have, because we have such a small black population, you know, they found it easier to leave.

So they did after the war.

And I think that there are still lots of people in Kentucky who don't really know of a person of color and that may have been something of an obstacle for Daniel Cameron.

I hope it wasn't much of an obstacle, but I talked to Republicans in western Kentucky were concerned about his race being a factor.

My guess is that it was negligible in terms of the result.

And you can see he did well in some of these western Kentucky counties, which the most Confederate part of Kentucky.

But we can't let this moment in history pass without thinking about race.

Right.

And the racist ad that appeared late in the campaign must be labeled racist by anybody who's a thinking person, anybody in leadership and those who fail to hear it lately.

So have a chance.

And referring.

To the the.

Black is a content.

It was clearly racist and.

Referring to the black pack that ran the radio ad calling him Uncle Daniel and, raising the brand.

And we also should mention that Daniel Cameron did come strong out against these measures, even an obscure little minority recruitment program in state government no one has heard of and probably few have participated in since its inception that he brought that up, that he joined, you know, other attorneys general against DEI measures and firms and companies.

So there was a reason why some of those other constituencies thought it wise to remind people of where he stood right now.

So do we have Mark Metcalf just yet?

Control room, If not.

Okay.

So while we're waiting for that, Amy, your thoughts?

I just think I think it was a shame there's a way to communicate right to a certain constituency, the way that that that that particular PAC tried to communicate that message to black voters I thought was a disgrace.

And I think it you know, it has no place in Kentucky politics.

That's all I'll say about that.

So we do have Mark Metcalf with us now, who is the state treasurer elect.

Thank you, Mr. Metcalf.

What prompted me on my cell phone, we made that announcement live on television before actually connected with you.

I think you can hear me, can you not, sir?

Yes.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Well, congratulations to you, sir.

I know it's maybe a mixed bag of feelings tonight, but you did secure your victory.

You're in Garrett County, you and Jonathan Schell.

I think we're down at the square earlier this evening.

So talk about how you're feeling now and what you want to accomplish as the next state treasurer.

Well, I'm very grateful to the people of Kentucky for this great victory.

I intend keep my promises, which is to look out for our our our miners concerning the coal issues, making certain that coal is not being discriminated against by the large money managers that are trying to direct investments on pension funds.

I intend to stand strong for them.

But also for the working people of Kentucky through the Treasurer's office, and that's the wage earners.

That's what I said tonight.

I've said often before, was that I intend to stand up for the two wage earners, that I mean the the carpenters, the bricklayers, the farmers, the policemen, the people who work hard for a living, they will have an advocate.

These are the people who pay the taxes in this state.

And I intend to work out our debts with the help of the General Assembly and stand tall against CSG through the through the Treasurer's office.

And so talk about that as we have on this studio before, about environmental, social governance and the position that a state or even the purview that a state Treasurer had, what even addressing those types of issues, how do you see that unfolding?

Well, still the general has delegated to the Treasurer to monitor the positions of the management, money managers, the people who manage our pension primarily, and many of them are trying to direct state pension funds away from the fossil producers.

They produce the most abundant and the least expensive of all the energy sources we have.

And I intend to advise the General Assembly we should end our contracts with these same money managers if they continue down this path.

Well, thank you, Mr. Metcalf.

With time running near for us to end our program, we appreciate your time for a couple of minutes.

Congratulations again to you on your victory tonight.

And we'll see you around the Capitol.

Thank you, Renee.

I appreciate your time.

Take good care, sir.

So with a few minutes remaining, let's put a little bow on everything.

The Associated Press has called it all.

So all of the races from governor on down the ballot have been called.

Governor Andy Beshear was the only Democrat to be elected, reelected.

And in this case and all the others down ticket, all the Republicans were victorious in the House District 93.

We want to remind our viewers again, particularly those voters who live in that district, that the Democrat did secure a victory tonight that does not change the balance of power, even really make a dent.

It keeps the numbers the same and the state house.

So as we think about how this race win, Trey Grayson, we'll start with you first.

You'll keep it short, really short.

And your overall.

I feel that that's personal.

Yes.

Politics is personal and personal is.

All right.

Andy and Andy, I'm going to use the you know, Andy spent four years getting letting Kentuckians get to know him, leading this commonwealth and was able to overcome the growing Republican nature of the state.

I mean, you look at the 60 to 40 results, all the down ticket, it's like the more votes that come in, the more impressed with with his win.

And so, you know, he put he put together administration he put together a policy priorities.

It executed it ran the state through a really tough time.

From a policy standpoint, I'm not sure what a second term looks like, but that's for, you know, maybe that's for Kentucky tonight on Monday.

But for tonight, he deserves his win.

And he he and his his supporters, his family and his friends should be really pleased because this was a hard fought battle and it wasn't clear, I think going into the night, we weren't sure.

But he won.

And congratulations.

You know, Bob.

Is you know, the private rhetoric you hear is often very important, very instructive.

Many a Republican told me Andy is going to be hard to be.

They weren't saying we're going to beat him with him, you know, take him out, although they may have said that in other forums privately, people said over and over, Bashir will be hard to beat.

Why is that?

All these things that have accumulated in our conversation tonight that were positives that he reminded people of, he stayed steady.

He worked hard.

If he can keep that momentum going a second term, there are certainly economic and other advantages that he creates by serving again.

Daniel Cameron, just 37 years old.

Lot ahead for him.

Amy worked with a lot of a lot ahead for him.

I can't wait to see what he does.

I hope he takes some time to rest to kind of refocus, say, But the good thing is, is he does have he has several years to kind of figure that out and map out his future.

I think looking and thinking about this race and looking at all of these races tonight, two things stick out to me.

Voter behavior and Kentucky fascinates me.

Right.

If we thought it was a Bevin thing, right, that enough people go into the voting booth and you check the governor's race here and then you move all the way over and straight down.

That is fascinating to me.

Right?

So now we have two races where that has occurred.

I also think going back to issues that resonate on a statewide level, not necessarily on your state House and state Senate, because those are little pockets.

But social issues may not be the way to the voter's heart on a statewide race.

Yeah, make note, Of course.

I'm going to give you 30 seconds.

Yes.

Again, I just think voters chose somebody who has a record of accomplishment that showed up for them time and time again.

And they say, oh, maybe I don't agree with him on it on every issue.

But they know that whenever he was shown up to work over the past four years, that it was for them and for their families.

And he was making decisions to the best of his ability and a lot of these hard times.

And so they stuck with him.

Last word across.

The year won, this race by five points.

The late polls indicated that he might very well lose it.

And people will say, well, what about those polls?

Can we really rely on them or not?

Every poll has an error margin and this result of five is actually pretty close to the error margins.

And I do think now you have to at the quality of polls as we look at these races, especially when you get down to the short rows, as they say, they weren't all that wrong, but I think they gave the impression of more momentum for Cameron than really existed.

And that may have been just somewhat by the endorsement of Donald Trump, both on broadcast television and the email video.

Well, thank you all.

It's an interesting evening, exciting at times.

And we thank the viewers for being with us all campaign season.

You've been with us on Kentucky Edition.

Comments Kentucky tonight and evening.

Thank you for trusting us to deliver this content to you.

Thank you so much.

And we will see you tomorrow night for Kentucky Edition at 630 Eastern, 530 Central.

I'm Rene Shaw.

Take good care.