FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed paperwork Wednesday to enter the state's 2023 governor’s race, hoping to ride his resistance to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s coronavirus restrictions into the governor’s office.
Cameron, seen as a rising GOP star, made history in 2019 as the first African American in Kentucky to serve as the state’s attorney general. Now he’s trying to blaze another trail in his bid for governor.
The attorney general last year led the legal fight against pandemic-related restrictions Beshear imposed to try to stem the spread of the virus. Cameron won the case in the Kentucky Supreme Court, which cleared the way for new laws to rein in the governor’s emergency powers. The governor maintains that his actions saved lives.
Cameron has close ties to the state's most powerful Republican — U.S. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell — having formerly served as the senator’s legal counsel.
Cameron enters what could become a crowded field of Republicans running to unseat Beshear in next year's top-of-the-ticket race.
Recent polling shows Beshear remains popular in Republican-trending Kentucky. The governor has landed the state’s two largest ever economic development projects during his term.
Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press
