Time now to look at the critical U.S.

Senate race in Kentucky.

And we have the awesome journalist who she is, Sylvia Goodman, who is the state Capitol reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, and doing a lot of things other than covering the state Capitol right now.

She is really on the campaign trail.

Good to see you, Sylvia.

Glad to be here.

I hope you're getting some rest.

We've got a few more days to go before it's all over.

Yeah.

No rest for the weary and busy.

So you have really been covering the U.S.

Senate race.

So talk to us.

Let's focus on the GOP side.

A lot of developments, probably since we last had you on comment and just in the last few days, tell us the state of this race right now.

I was actually on comment the night that the, Andy Barr received President Trump's, endorsement.

So that has obviously shaken up this race quite a bit.

All of the top candidates had really been chasing that endorsement.

And when he came down in favor of Andy Barr, it really shifted the GOP side of this race.

So, Lexington businessman Nate Morris, dropped out of the race.

He said that he had been offered an ambassadorship within the Trump administration, and that he was going to take that.

And endorsed Andy Barr, along with President Trump.

And then, Daniel Cameron, former state attorney general and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate.

He has stayed in this race.

He says he will stay in it, and that he he's kind of setting himself as a foil to Andy Barr, aligning himself a little bit more with the Liberty side of the, Republican Party.

So let me ask you about the fundraising part of this.

And we know that just yesterday, the day before, Daniel Cameron had said that he was pulling back on some TV scheduled TV ads that were going to happen the last week of the election or the days leading up to the election, the primary on the 19th.

What do you make of that?

Is that a big thing or not?

I mean, you can't discount anything in these last few days.

Everything is important.

Daniel Cameron has really lagged in fundraising dollars his entire campaign.

And I think we're really seeing that come to roost here in the final few days.

Andy Barr, meanwhile, has a ton of money behind him, a lot of PAC spending independent for him as well.

So I think that you can't discount the importance of those last minute ads.

But at the same time, you know, I think a lot of voters are probably decided at this point, although I say that there are still some polling numbers that we've seen where there are plenty of undecided people, at least in those polls.

So you can't really discount the importance of that Last-Minute push.

Get people that your biggest supporters, at the very least, to remember, Election Day is right around the corner and you got to get out to vote.

And the early voting starts tomorrow, Thursday.

Right.

And so many will take advantage of that.

And Daniel Cameron, as you said, has been really lagging in the fundraising.

And, but he is going on this multi-city county blitzkrieg tour.

He's doing these every day, going to different cities.

And so is Congressman Andy Barr.

Do you think he feels like he can make up on the ground, what he can't do on television?

And is that a realistic way to go about trying to tie this up on May 19th?

Look, it's a really difficult strategy, to to go for the ground campaign.

It takes a lot of work.

And also, you just won't reach people who don't go to political events, you know what I mean?

You're not going to reach somebody who, goes to work and then comes home and watches TV.

That's plenty of voters.

Now, primary voters are tend to be a lot more politically active.

They might be the types who go to, campaign events more, but it's definitely a tricky strategy.

We have seen Daniel Cameron throughout this race, really doing a lot of campaign stops, really trying to get around the state.

But I think that's true of all the Senate candidates.

So it's it's hard to say how much advantage that will really give him.

And we saw just today there was a posting on, I should say, not a tweet where he had discussed that he is out there talking to people and that he is going to vote for them.

He's kind of changing it for I'm going to be the rubber stamp for Trump as opposed to my interests.

Lie with your interests wherever you are.

That's where you can expect me to vote in Washington.

A little bit different language there, possibly the same meaning.

But do you think that's an effective strategy at all?

Well, it's interesting.

It kind of reminds me almost like he's positioning this race to be more like the Massey Gallery race, which is really drawing a lot of national attention.

I don't want to call, Daniel Cameron a massey, Thomas Massey type figure.

I, I don't think we've seen enough of how he would vote, to to really tell if he would be a true opposition figure, the way that Thomas Massey has been to his party on some of these key issues.

But at the same time, I think he's aligning himself with some of Thomas Massey's, historical kind of, the people, the Liberty wing state Republicans who, you know, might also be Trump supporters but still take issue with certain policies.

So I think that's a really interesting kind of dynamic to this race.

I don't know if it'll pan out for Daniel Cameron, especially since he started out this race, like you said, saying that pretty much in line with his colleagues, that he would be a rubber stamp, rubber stamp for President Trump.

Yes.

And your point that you were making as well, and, you know, you've seen him with some state lawmakers who lean a little bit more on the liberty side of things, who have endorsed him.

And who've been there when he's been on the road.

And so, you know, maybe that's who he's going to pick up.

You mentioned about polling.

I mean, what do we know about how either wide or close the race is between Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron?

Right.

Really quick to that point.

I saw actually his one of his surrogates has been, Representative Savannah Maddox, one of the leaders.

Liberty party in the state legislature.

But, yes, the polling I've seen, now, the most recent poll was from a bar aligned PAC.

So take it with a grain of salt.

But it did show that since this endorsement, that, Daniel Cameron has fallen significantly behind.

And Barr has picked up quite a bit of steam.

I think about a month ago, we saw a poll that had a seven point difference between the two seven points plus on Barr.

Now we see 19 points plus on Barr.

As always, polling is imperfect.

But it is a pretty, big jump for Barr since the so final just in the minute we have remaining.

Let's just talk about the Democratic side of the ledger.

Anything noteworthy there, particularly when it comes to the race between Charles Booker and Amy McGrath and where this race stands right now?

What a familiar primary this is deja vu.

And it's a little Connell C two.

But there's no incumbent they'll have to run against.

But it is definitely very interesting to see.

Democrats are once again in the polling at least so far the limited that we've seen are throwing their, support behind these two candidates.

McGrath and Booker, who have previously lost in U.S.

Senate races to Republicans.

Now, this is an open seat.

It changes the calculus a little bit.

There's some hope for Democrats that they'll see a blue wave this year because of President Trump's, low approval ratings.

In some states and in many states, I should say.

But at the same time, it's a real uphill battle for these candidates.

There are a few other, you know, less established names in federal politics.

We have State Representative Pamela Stevenson, who's previously run for state office.

Horse trainer Dale Romans.

So that's another definitely interesting race to watch.

And it'll shape how we, spend the rest of our election season.

That's right.

With just under a week to go.

We'll get there.

Sylvia Goodman, thank you for all your reporting and for taking some time to be with us today.

Appreciate it.

Glad to be here.