Kentucky Tonight hosted the second in a series of discussions about the 2023 primary elections as Renee Shaw spoke with Republican candidates for governor of the commonwealth.
Daniel Cameron is the current Kentucky Attorney General. He says he was inspired to run for governor after he saw how Gov. Andy Beshear closed schools, businesses, and churches during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cameron, who opposed those closures, joined a lawsuit to get churches reopened. The Elizabethtown native says he values and will protect the constitutional rights of Kentuckians.
“We need new direction,” says Cameron, “someone who reflects the values of the men, women, and children of all 120 counties. That’s why I’m running.”
Kelly Craft served as the United States ambassador to Canada and to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump. The Glasgow native says her campaign is based on concerns she’s hearing from families during the 100 kitchen-table conversations she’s held around the commonwealth. She pledges to be a voice for those Kentuckians in Frankfort.
“The issues they speak about? Education,” says Craft, whose mother was a teacher. “I understand the importance of removing the woke ideologies, of removing anything that’s an obstacle between our children, our teachers, and our parents.”
Somerset Mayor Alan Keck says his campaign is focused on economic growth, education, pro-family policies, and public safety. As the CEO of his family’s company, Keck describes himself as a “do something, common sense change agent.” He says he understands the challenges facing businesses, and that it’s time for everyone in Kentucky to succeed.
“I’m sick of losing. I’m sick of getting our butt kicked by Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio,” says Keck. “I think we’re better than that.”
Former state representative and current state Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles says he has the urgency to fix the state’s problems. The Georgetown native points to how he challenged Gov. Beshear’s COVID shutdowns of agribusinesses. Quarles says he is a consensus builder with a track record of bringing Kentuckians together.
“I have eight years of running the second-largest executive branch agency in Kentucky,” says Quarles. “We’ve done it scandal-free. We’ve cut the budget five times.”
Former attorney Eric Deters of Walton says he is the only non-career politician running for office and boasts about his fights against the government, the Kentucky Supreme Court, and Kentucky Bar Association. He says he wants to be the voice of the people and change the way Kentucky does business.
“I may be the most conservative candidate, but I also have the longest track record for genuinely fighting for people,” says Deters. “I am representing the truckers, the waitresses, the miners, the workers, union or not, all those people out there who are struggling.”
The Republican primary for governor also includes Jacob Clark of Leitchfield, David Cooper of Independence, Bob DeVore of Louisville, Mike Harmon of Junction City, Dennis Ormerod of Louisville, Johnny Rice of Berry, and Robbie Smith of Berea.
Priorities as Governor
Should he become governor, Quarles says his first budget proposal will return all coal severance tax revenues to the counties that generated them. He also wants to eliminate the estate tax, continue to foster what he calls a pro-growth tax code, and reduce the state income tax to zero. His other budget priorities include more investment in public education, especially in vocational training. Quarles says he is open to local option sales taxes so cities and counties can generate additional revenues, but he says that issue would have to be decided by voters through an amendment to the state constitution.
Keck says he wants to boost spending for the Kentucky Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet so that the state can better promote its unique cultural and recreational amenities. He also wants to increase funds for public safety and expand pro-family policies such as investing in child care and extending parental leave for those starting families, adopting, or taking in foster children.
Deters says his priorities are less government and more freedoms for Kentuckians. He wants a complete overhaul of the state tax system and to eliminate the income tax faster than the current plan to gradually reduce it to zero.
Among the top priorities for Cameron are fighting crime and drugs, strengthening parental rights in education, supporting law enforcement, and protecting the unborn and most vulnerable.
Craft says she wants to provide more resources to law enforcement, create jobs, promote fossil fuel production to keep energy costs low for consumers, and improve teacher pay and classroom resources.
Public Safety and Gun Laws
Despite nearly 190 mass shootings in America already this year, including two in Louisville and one in Paducah, most of the candidates say they do not support any new limits on gun ownership in the commonwealth.
Quarles says he got his first gun in middle school and purchased a gun for his father last Christmas. He says he opposes red-flag laws to temporarily remove guns from those judged by a court to be at risk to themselves or others. He also says decisions on how to keep firearms safely stored in the home should be a personal decision, not mandated by law. He says the focus should be on mental health, and he touts a Department of Agriculture program called Raising Hope that promotes mental health and suicide prevention among farmers.
“We’ve got to stop the stigma that is associated with those suffering from mental health issues,” says Quarles. But he adds that “before any Kentuckian... has any right or privilege taken away from them, they are owed their due-process rights.”
Deters says he carries a pistol at all times, and contends guns aren’t the problem, it’s the shooters. As for the Old National Bank shooting that left five employees dead on April 10, Deters questions whether those employees were allowed to have a gun at work for protection. He wants lawmakers to expand armed security guards in public schools to include retired police and military service members. He also thinks certain college students should be allowed to carry a weapon while at school.
“Kentuckians feel safe when they are armed,” says Deters. “That includes 21-year-olds on college campuses.”
The Second Amendment is “sacrosanct,” according to Cameron, who adds he opposes any kind of gun control. Instead, he wants to expand the ranks of Kentucky State Police officers by forming a new post in Metro Louisville.
“If we have a violent crime issue, if we want to make a meaningful step to address it, let’s put a Kentucky State Police post there,” says Cameron.
To staff that post, and others around the state, Cameron says governors should personally visit schools and colleges to recruit youth into law enforcement jobs.
As mayor of Somerset, Keck says he added more an $1 million to the police budget there. He says there are common sense guns measures he can support. For example, he says police departments shouldn’t be allowed to auction firearms confiscated from criminals, especially weapons used in mass shootings.
“I think it’s insane that those are being sold to the highest bidder,” says Keck. “It’s a murder weapon and I can’t imagine that grieving family knowing that that gun is going to somebody else’s mantel.”
Keck adds there are much better ways to fund law enforcement needs than from the proceeds of gun sales. He says ending the resale of those guns does not violate anyone’s Second Amendment rights.
But Craft says police departments depend on those gun auctions for much-needed revenues.
“I am not going to take away the money from our police,” says Craft. “They are having a difficult time as it is with (a) lack of resources.”
Craft says she won’t touch Second Amendment or due process rights. She says the focus should be on addressing mental illness and on providing greater support and resources for law enforcement.
Public Education
On her first day in the governor’s office, Craft says she would sign an executive order directing the General Assembly to dismantle the Kentucky Department of Education. She contends the agency is dominated by bureaucrats, including current Education Commissioner Jason Glass, who she says promotes “woke ideologies” around race and gender.
“We have to give our teachers who have a passion to teach the power to be able to teach skills, knowledge, arithmetic, writing – hopefully cursive – and reading,” says Craft. “We have to give them that power – this is what they’ve spent their entire career doing.”
On the charter school debate, Keck says it’s “nonsense” that the state can’t support a system of both public and private schools. He also says teachers should be compensated better, but with one caveat.
“Accountability is one of the things that we should demand in exchange for raises,” says Keck.
While critical race theory (CRT) is not being taught in Kentucky schools, Cameron alleges that the “idea” of it is creeping into classroom instruction. He agrees that Commissioner Glass should find another job.
“I will make sure to work with our legislature to appoint new board members to the Board of Education that reflect our values,” says Cameron, “(and) that are more concerned about reading, writing, (and) math as opposed to schools being incubators for progressive ideas.”
Deters says he doesn’t know if CRT is in Kentucky schools, but he says he opposes it if it is. He says he supports school choice for parents, including charter schools, but he says the state also needs good public schools.
“We need a strong public school system,” says Deters. “Not everybody is going to be going to the private schools.”
Improving the classroom atmosphere is important for Quarles. He says teachers need more discipline options so they can better control the learning environment. He also wants more pay for educators, and better efforts at teacher recruitment and retention. He says parents also need a greater say in what their children are taught in schools. Quarles also says he wants to reform higher education to ensure it is affordable and offers degree programs that align with employer needs.
“It’s important that we as taxpayers get a good return on (education) investment,” says Quarles. “I have a doctorate in education. I can be the education governor of this state.”
Medicaid Benefits
In 2018, then-Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, instituted the first work requirements for Medicaid recipients in the nation. That mandate was later blocked by a federal judge, and subsequently reversed by Gov. Andy Beshear when he took office.
But Cameron says he would revive the idea and require some able-bodied Medicaid recipients to find work, go to school, or volunteer in community service. He says Medicaid should be a temporary program for people unless medically necessary or means-tested. The goal, according to Cameron, is to reemploy people faster and boost the state’s workforce participation rate.
Craft says Medicaid should provide a pathway from poverty to dignity. She also agrees there should be some kind of work requirement. Quarles says the able-bodied should be working and not at home watching Netflix. He contends that when otherwise healthy people are allowed on Medicaid, it takes away resources from those who truly need the assistance.
COVID Pandemic Response
All of the Republicans are highly critical of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cameron says the governor’s decisions “lacked common sense” and were unfair as they ordered the closing of churches and small businesses while allowing big-box stores to remain open.
“If you’re going to allow one set of folks to play by certain rules, allow everybody to play by the exact same rules,” says Cameron. “Gov Beshear picked winners and he picked losers, and we are still suffering because of it.”
Craft says schools should have never been closed, which she contends led to an increase in child abuse because teachers were not able monitor the wellbeing of their students like they are during in-person instruction.
“Gov. Beshear made a conscious decision to shut down our state,” says Craft. “We were all following (the Trump) administration’s guidelines… but he made a conscious decision beyond that to shut down this state.”
Beyond the school and business closures, Keck faults the governor for failures in the state’s unemployment system.
“The gravest disaster of the Beshear administration is he put people out of business and then didn’t have the competence to get them paid,” says Keck about the thousands of Kentuckians who struggled to get unemployment benefits. “How are they supposed to survive?”
Keck says he spearheaded a plan to safely and methodically reopen Somerset businesses during the spring of 2020.
Quarles says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, proved that states could safely keep businesses open during the pandemic. He argues that Gov. Beshear violated the rights of Kentuckians by sending state police to monitor church parking lots, and he caused irreparable harm to the state’s economy by shuttering businesses.
“I would’ve listened to our business groups, I would’ve listened to our restaurants,” says Quarles. “We needed to have some common sense there and I think that the record’s pretty clear that he ruled by a committee of one.”
Deters alleges that the pandemic was “overblown” and that COVID death statistics were “phonied up.” He says mandating health care workers to get COVID vaccinations was the worst thing to happen to Americans since slavery, and that closures should have never happened.
“I would not shut down this state at all unless it was the bubonic plague,” says Deters.
2020 Presidential Election and January 6 Insurrection
Deters says concerns about the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, are “much ado about nothing,” and he says those arrested for participating in the event are political prisoners.
Cameron calls January 6 a “challenge” and a “difficult moment.” He also argues that Americans worried about January 6 should be equally upset at the property destroyed by racial justice protesters during the summer of 2020.
As for the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Quarles says Joe Biden is the president, but he adds that there is reason to question some irregularities he says occurred around the country. Deters says he thinks the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
