Poll: Beshear leads Republican opponents in governor’s race

January 26, 2023

WTVQ News Desk, Justin Walker,

KENTUCKY (WTVQ) — Looking ahead to the 2023 Kentucky governor’s race, a new poll puts Gov. Andy Beshear ahead of four notable Republican opponents, with Attorney General Daniel Cameron leading those GOP candidates challenging Beshear in the upcoming gubernatorial primary.

The poll released today, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, says Beshear out-paced all those candidates this month but that Cameron is an early top contender.

Out of 404 Kentucky Republican voters polled, 39 percent said they’d support Cameron, 13 percent would support former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft, 8 percent for Agricultural Commissioner Ryan Quarles, 5 percent for State Auditor Mike Harmon and 2 percent for the other Republican candidates running. 28 percent were undecided.

Daniel Cameron’s campaign manager Gus Herbert responded to the poll with a statement:

“Poll after poll demonstrates General Cameron is by far in the best position to unify the Republican Party and take on Andy Beshear in the General Election. Our campaign is diligently working so that as May’s Primary Election approaches, we will rally conservatives behind General Cameron as he is the only Republican who can win in November.”

ABC 36 Political Analyst Tres Watson says GOP candidates have a hill to climb if they want to challenge Beshear in the general election.

“Any republican who believes this race is going to be easy to beat Andy Beshear, I think this poll is a wake up call for them,” says Watson.

According to the poll, voters choose Beshear over all republican challengers.

To break it down, if the election happened today Beshear would beat Cameron by nine percentage points. Beshear also has double digit leads against all other GOP candidates.

“He’s clearly got strength. What I will say is, he also hasn’t been hit. He’s riding on top of the water. There’s been a lot of sunny days for him. Picking up speed, but there’s clouds ahead. Once you start seeing those negative ad start coming out, you’re going to see Andy Beshear’s numbers start to go back down,” says Watson.

Watson says while the poll is a good beginning marker, the candidates have to focus on getting out of the primary before looking too far ahead.

Meantime, Kelly Craft is responding to ABC 36 about controversy over a campaign ad talking about her family’s experience with the opioid crisis..

Many who saw the ad, presumed it meant one of craft’s loved ones had died as a result of addiction.

Craft’s campaign issued a statement to ABC 36 today saying:

“As a mother, Kelly knows that the pain caused by the drug epidemic affects almost every family in Kentucky. Kelly has dealt with the chaos addiction causes, first hand. She knows what it means to miss a close family member at the dinner table. Kelly knows the pain that is felt as a family member misses holidays, family dinners, church, school, work, and family events as they confront an addiction ravaging their life. Kelly’s close family member battled addiction and went to rehab. By the grace of God, that family member was able to overcome the addiction and move on with their life, but we all know the struggle never ends for a family and remains ongoing.”

“An empty chair represents a long road of pain, whether caused by the passing of a loved one or years away from the table.”

“It’s insensitive and malicious to think an empty chair implies only death, and shows that those implying such don’t understand the pain caused by the drug epidemic.”

Asked about the ad, Watson says voters tend to have a short term memory when it comes to elections.

“People who have lost loved ones to opioid addiction they ma have a different view on it than someone like Kelly Craft or other people who’ve had loved ones be addicted to opioids but recover. I can’t really say having not lost someone myself, but it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. The state has huge problem with it. It’s affected so many lives in the state. And everybody kind of deals with it in a different way,” says Watson.

There are 3 democrats and 12 republicans running for governor this year.

The primary is set for may 17th.

You can find a link to the poll here.