With just over a week before the Kentucky primary elections, top GOP gubernatorial candidates Attorney General Daniel Cameron and former Trump ambassador Kelly Craft chickened out of tonight’s debate. They were expected to discuss gutting Medicaid, their multiple conflicts of interests, who loves Trump more, and their plans to dismantle the Kentucky Department of Education, amongst other topics. While they can try to hide their abysmal records and plans from Kentuckians, it’s clear their agenda would only hurt the Bluegrass State.
Here’s what you need to know:
On Medicaid:
- Cameron and Craft have committed themselves to the Matt Bevin plan to gut Medicaid, which could jeopardize health care for 136,000 Kentuckians and cost the state more than $270 million.
On Conflicts of Interest:
- Kelly Craft has claimed to not know that her husband donated $1.5 million to a superPAC backing her candidacy. The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance is looking into the possibility that her husband’s actions violated election rules.
- A group backing Daniel Cameron received $100,000 from Pace-O-Matic, a company that then brought a lawsuit against the state a week later. In addition, Pace-O-Matic executives contributed directly to Cameron’s campaign the day before the lawsuit was filed. But of course, Cameron’s office said that there was nothing nefarious or improper about the donation.
On Being the Trump Candidate:
- Daniel Cameron received the endorsement of Donald Trump before Kelly Craft entered the race. Since then, he’s been completely focused on proving his loyalty to the indicted former president. Cameron went so far as to refuse to call the events of January 6th an “insurrection.”
- Kelly Craft touts that she served as Ambassador of Canada under the Trump administration and makes sure no one forgets that she did not get Trump’s endorsement only because she was not in the race at the time.
On Dismantling Kentucky’s Department of Education:
- Kelly Craft has made the central themes of her campaign firing the Education Commissioner and dismantling Kentucky’s Department of Education — two things the governor has zero authority to do. Craft’s solution has been to issue an executive order asking — nor ordering — the commissioner to resign and the legislature to dismantle the Department of Education.
- Daniel Cameron, and every other candidate, support the Craft plan.
Published: May 8, 2023