Trump-backed Daniel Cameron wins GOP Kentucky governor’s primary

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Tuesday won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, defeating former Ambassador to United Nations Kelly Craft and Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles.

The primary race was essentially a proxy battle between the two 2024 GOP presidential frontrunners, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

The 76-year-old former president endorsed Cameron’s bid to be governor of the Bluegrass State last June, and just hours before the polls closed, DeSantis, 44, threw his support behind Craft, a former Trump administration official.

“President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. The results in Kentucky’s Republican gubernatorial primary tonight reaffirm that,” Alex Pfeiffer, spokesman for the Make America Great Again PAC, said after Cameron’s victory on Tuesday.

“Republican voters stand with President Trump, not Ron DeSantis. It’s time to unite around Donald Trump. Voters know that President Trump has their interests in mind when he endorses a candidate, not the interests of the consultant class,” said Pfeiffer.

DeSantis, in an audio ad that aired Tuesday endorsing Craft, said that he knows “what it takes to stand up for what’s right, and Kelly Craft’s got it. She’s proven it. I’m strongly encouraging you to go out and vote for my friend Kelly Craft.”

“Kelly shares the same vision we do in Florida. She will stand up to the left as they try to indoctrinate our children with their woke ideology. Kelly will fight against crazy ESG policies that are trying to end the coal industry in Kentucky, and Kelly’s going to do everything in her power to end the fentanyl crisis that is hurting Kentucky families,” DeSantis added in his eleventh-hour endorsement. 

With 51% of the votes counted, Cameron received 45.9% of the vote, easily topping Quarles’ 21.7% and Craft’s 17.3% support.

Turnout was reportedly light in many locations due to inclement weather across much of the state Tuesday. 

Cameron will now face incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in the general election on Nov. 7, 2023.

If elected, Cameron would become Kentucky’s first black governor in history. 

He is already the first black attorney general in the Bluegrass State and the first Republican to hold the title in seven decades.