Time now for an end of week review of the major political news in Kentucky this week as we go inside Kentucky politics with screen left, Kelsey Coots, who is the principal of Blue Dot Consulting.

And on screen right, we have with us Terry Watson again this week.

He is the founder of Capital Range PR.

Thank you so much, both of you, for being with us.

We appreciate it.

A busy week there, getting busier politically as we get ever closer to November 7th.

We've had two polls in as many days this week gauging where we are in this governor's race.

This poll that came out today shows a much wider margin lead for Governor Andy Beshear.

I want to go to you first, Kelsey, about what you make of this this poll in particular.

I think really the story here is just looking at the overall polling trends.

Right.

It feels like a bunch of polls have come out recently and the trends are all showing that Andy Beshear is in the lead.

And so sort of regardless of whatever the margin is, it's showing that people like him, people trust him.

And that seems to be a bipartisan sentiment.

I think it's showing that there has been movement because of Hadley, that courageous woman who spoke about her experience being raped at 12.

I think it speaks to that ad is breaking through.

I've seen that everywhere.

But the only poll that matters is on Election Day.

So we need to make sure that we keep the pedal to the metal.

Well, and try and all of these polls, I think maybe except one a few weeks back, Andy Beshear never got to 51%.

Right.

So was there some good news for the Cameron camp here, as you interpret these polls?

Well, I think the one we saw earlier in the week is probably closer to being right.

It was a partizan one from a pro came in super PAC, but it was six points, which is in line with most of what we've seen.

The Emerson poll was a much larger lead for Andy Beshear, but it also significantly polled Cameron during the primary.

So, you know, Emerson hasn't been in Kentucky for for too, too long as a main pollster.

So, you know, their track record is is not good because you have just primary from this year look at that it'll be interesting to see kind of where where they finish on Election Day.

But if I had to bet, I would bet the poll you saw earlier in the week is probably closer to correct.

What the other of that poll earlier in the week had undecideds at 10%.

I believe that seems striking, that were this close and that still that large slice of folks who haven't quite decided.

Who could it break for sure?

I don't know.

You know, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with turnout this year.

You know, as most years you can kind of guess good turnout.

And the way the undecideds are going to break can always move a certain direction.

But this year, it's it's it's confusing because Andy Beshear is personally very popular, but it is such a red state.

So the question is, are those undecideds Trump voters who are going to break for the Republican?

Probably at the end the day?

Or are they kind of legacy Democrats, people who might vote for Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul but have been voting for the Beshear name since the seventies?

It'll be really interesting to see how that 10% and how, you know, a higher than normal turnout would affect the election.

And Kelsey, there's a substantial slice of the Republican vote that is going for Andy Beshear or say they will.

Yes.

Again, I think just how I said earlier, I think that people like Andy, they know that, you know, maybe if they don't agree with him on every issue, they know that he's telling them the truth.

They know where he stands on issues and is doing right by them.

And, you know, he's had to tell a lot of truths and a lot of hard truths as he's led us through a lot of things over the last four years.

And I think people really respect that.

I also think, you know, there are Republican women who don't like Cameron's position on abortion.

They don't maybe understand exactly what his positions are.

And and they think that maybe he's his positions are a little bit out of the mainstream on that specific issue.

And so it's not surprising to me that people are sticking with Beshear and and we hope to obviously see that holds through Election Day.

Troy, abortion is an issue that keeps reemerging in these final weeks, days of the election.

Russell Coleman, who's the Republican nominee for attorney general, made some news midweek when he said he does favor exceptions for rape and incest.

We would retraumatize these women by forcing them to have a child that was that was conceived out of rape or incest.

Is this causing some cognitive dissonance here within the party?

I don't think so.

You know, I think there's two things at play here.

One, Dana Cameron is the sitting attorney general, and there are challenges to some of these laws.

So I think he's got to be careful with where he takes positions because win or lose, until January 1st, he's still going to be representing the Commonwealth in some of these court cases, whereas Russell Coleman's out running a campaign and he's taken what's new.

By and large, a mainstream position.

Remember, Andy Beshear is the one who is outside of the mainstream on a lot of these issues because as attorney general, he said he would not defend the state's 20 week abortion ban, which over 70% of Americans believe 15 weeks with the exceptions.

So I think Russell Coleman's the guy out there just kind of plow on the middle ground.

That's the most populous position.

But I think a lot of that is due with with Daniel Cameron because it's his position as attorney general and active cases.

He's involved in defending the commonwealth's law.

Kelsey, as you alluded to that ad with the young woman named Hadley from Owensboro who had that testimonial, pretty powerful.

And do you think that could really convince a lot of people to side with Beshear and cast a ballot for him?

Absolutely.

I think that people know that, you know, this is an important issue for Kentuckians.

And I think that the reason why Russell Coleman so clearly stated his position is because maybe he was trying to distance himself from Daniel Cameron and say, oh, you know, people clearly are having a reaction and there's backlash to what he is saying, flip flopping, not being really clear, kind of partizan his words.

And so he's coming out and saying, hey, this is you know, what I think?

And I think it's an attempt to distance himself, like I said, from their candidate for governor.

We'll have to leave it there.

Thank you so much, Kelsey KURTZ, Terry Watson for being with us for a second week in a row.

We appreciate it.

Both of you have a great weekend.

Thanks, Renee.

Thanks.