Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear wins reelection over challenger backed by Trump

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is projected to win reelection to a second term in office Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Daniel Cameron, the state’s attorney general, according to the NBC News Decision Desk.

Beshear, 45, led the Trump-backed Cameron, 37, for most the campaign, but late polling showed the candidates in a dead heat.

Beshear is broadly popular with voters, with a 60% approval rating, despite governing as a Democrat in a socially conservative state where voters overwhelmingly backed former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Cameron’s campaign had hoped to rally conservatives into voting against Beshear by painting him as too liberal on issues like abortion and LGBTQ rights.

But Cameron’s loss Tuesday suggests that social issues, and abortion in particular, could continue to tip elections in favor of Democrats more than a year after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which stripped women of the constitutional right to an abortion.

Beshear sought to convince conservative voters that he governs above partisan politics. He responded swiftly to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and flooding in eastern Kentucky in 2022.

The governor also touted Kentucky’s economic performance, with the state recording its lowest unemployment rate in history last year, though joblessness has ticked up slightly since then.

Cameron attacked Beshear for supporting abortion and LGBTQ rights, betting that the governor’s positions were out of synch with Kentucky voters.

Beshear stood his ground on those issues, and put Cameron on the defensive over abortion.