Beshear wins re-election in 2023 race
Governor Andy Beshear wins the 2023 Governor’s race against Republican challenger Daniel Cameron. Photo/Facebook/Andy Beshear
By Chelene Nightingale
Many voters were implying that the Kentucky governor’s race was about values. If values were key, Kentuckians decided that their values were aligned more with Beshear than with Cameron. Although Republicans out register Democrats by 75,982 voters in the Commonwealth, the Democrat Governor won by nearly 90,000 votes.
As of 9:00 p.m., 111 of 120 counties submitted their election results with 3,297 out of 3,615 precincts reported. Only 34.22% of registered voters cast ballots for the 2023 general election.
Daniel Cameron, who won the office of attorney general just four years ago stated in his concession speech, “I promised the Governor I would be brief, so I will be brief tonight. Thank you all. Thank you so much for your willingness to commit to this campaign and this effort. An effort that was ultimately about our kids and our grandkids. 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 could ultimately be a shining city on the hill, a model, and an example for the rest of the nation to follow. 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 all of our Commonwealth, because at the end of the day–win, lose or draw–what ultimately matters is that we know Christ is on the throne.”
Beshear started his acceptance speech, “Thank you, Kentucky!”
He continued, “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.”
After cheers, he reiterated, “A choice to reject Team R or Team D and to state clearly that we are one Team Kentucky.”
However, Kentuckians clearly chose Team R for all the down ticket offices. Republicans won large margins for the offices of Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer and the State’s Agriculture Commissioner.
Russell Coleman defeated Democrat Pamela Stevenson by nearly 200,000 votes for the office of Attorney General.
Secretary of State Michael Adams (R) won re-election with nearly 250,000 more votes than Democrat challenger Charles Wheatley.
Popular Republican candidate Allison Ball won her new office as Auditor of Public Accounts. Democrat Kim Reeder trailed by nearly 250,000 votes.
Republican Mark Metcalf defeated Democrat Michael Bowman by over 150,000 votes for the office of State Treasurer.
Jonathan Shell (R) easily won Commissioner of Agriculture by over 200,000 votes defeating Democrat candidate, Sierra Enlow.
Although Cameron lost the Governor’s race, he received nearly 2,000 more votes than Beshear in Barren County. Cameron received 6,918 votes while Beshear received 4,965 votes.
Jobe Publishing will write more in-depth election coverage for the print editions.
