Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will win reelection to a second term in Kentucky, CNN projects, defeating Republican Daniel Cameron in a deep-red state that Donald Trump carried by about 25 points in 2020.
“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,” Beshear said Tuesday night at a victory rally at a music venue in Louisville, shouting over a raucous crowd.
Beshear, one of the nation’s most popular governors and the only Democrat in statewide elected office in Kentucky, made abortion a major issue in his campaign. His reelection bid served as a critical test of how the fight over abortion rights since the overturning of Roe v. Wade will shape the political landscape ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
While abortion is illegal in most cases in the Bluegrass State, Kentucky voters rejected a proposal last year to amend the state’s constitution to say that it does not “secure or protect a right” to abortion or the funding of abortion. Beshear attacked Cameron, the state attorney general, over his support for the state’s current law, which bans the procedure in all cases, except when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. The law does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
The issue drew national attention this fall when the Beshear campaign released an ad in which 21-year-old Hadley Duvall called out Cameron for failing to support exemptions to Kentucky’s abortion ban for cases of rape and incest, while recounting the trauma of being raped by her stepfather.
“This is to you, Daniel Cameron,” she says in the ad, looking directly into a camera. “To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable.”
At one point at his victory rally Tuesday night, Beshear thanked Duvall, saying, “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.”
During the campaign, Democrats worked to tie Cameron to Beshear’s predecessor, Republican Matt Bevin, on issues such as education and health care. Republicans, in turn, tried to nationalize the race by tying the governor to President Joe Biden and emphasizing Trump’s endorsement of Cameron.
Besides abortion, Beshear’s campaign also emphasized his leadership of the state through the COVID-19 pandemic, deadly tornadoes in 2021, and catastrophic flooding in 2022.
Beshear recalled these events in his victory speech, promising before cheering supporters to continue recovery efforts.
“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,” Beshear said. “And thanks to the people of Kentucky, and thanks to this election, we are going to see that promise through.”
Between Beshear’s reelection campaign and outside groups, Democrats invested upward of $48 million in ads in this nationally watched gubernatorial contest compared with a collective $43 million on the GOP side.
Beshear, whose father was Kentucky governor for two terms, previously served as state attorney general before winning a narrow victory over Bevin in 2019. His first term has been marked by countless clashes with the GOP-controlled state legislature over education, public assistance and tax policy, among other things. With Republicans holding veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers, those clashes are likely to continue.
In his concession speech Tuesday night, Cameron thanked his supporters and campaign volunteers, adding that he had called Beshear 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 and example for the rest of the nation to follow,” Cameron said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Eva McKend, Eric Bradner, David Wright, Ethan Cohen, Molly Gahagen and Melissa Holzberg DePalo contributed to this report.
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