Daniel Cameron loses bid to be Kentucky’s first Black governor

“In honor of Breonna, Daniel Cameron lost with a mandate,” activist Tamika Mallory said in a statement to theGrio.

Republican Daniel Cameron was unsuccessful in his bid to become Kentucky’s first Black governor. Cameron was defeated by incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

The race for Kentucky’s top executive office was called by the New York Times, CNN, and NBC News.

A 37-year-old rising star in Republican politics, Cameron was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and is a protege of Sen. Mitch McConnell.

The current attorney general is a controversial figure in Black communities in Kentucky and across the country for his handling of the case involving the Louisville police shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. 

The 26-year-old Black woman was fatally shot by officers serving a no-knock warrant at her apartment.

The Republican prosecutor declined to charge the officers who fired the bullets inside Taylor’s home during the botched police raid, instead deciding to charge one officer with endangerment for shooting into a neighbor’s residence.  

The fury toward Cameron was so fervent that activist Tamika Mallory moved her social justice organization, Until Freedom, to Kentucky to register voters across the state and campaign against his gubernatorial aspiration.

Reacting to Cameron’s loss in a statement provided to theGrio, Mallory said, “Tonight was a good night and an affirmation of the power of organizing.” She added, “We began this journey fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor and took our protest to building power. In honor of Breonna, Daniel Cameron lost with a mandate.” 

“He showed us that he doesn’t deserve to be in that position, and we cannot allow him to get there,” said Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, in July. “It started with Breonna for us, but if he gets in that position, they’re going to continuously kill us, and he’s okay with that.”

Cameron called out activists in a campaign ad using footage of a Black Lives Matter protest, saying, “They tried to intimidate me and my family. I’ve stood strong then, and I won’t back down now.”

Cameron fashioned himself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor endorsed by law enforcement and vowed to have the backs of cops. He also touted lawsuits he filed against the administrations of President Joe Biden and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear for “illegal” immigration, abortion, and vaccine mandates. 

Though Trump defeated Biden in Kentucky during the 2020 presidential election 62% to 36%, Beshear remains a popular figure in Kentucky, likely because of how he led the state during the COVID-19 pandemic and several deadly natural disasters.

Beshear distanced his campaign from Biden, the national leader of his party, instead choosing a Kentucky-centric message of unity. A Morning Consult poll showed Beshear is the nation’s most popular Democratic governor of a red state.

Pamela Stevenson, the Democratic nominee for Cameron’s current job, told theGrio that Cameron and her Republican opponent, Russell Coleman, a former U.S. attorney, are part of a national party trend that is more interested in a “power grab” than representing and protecting communities. 

“You only have limited resources, and you focus your whole office as a weapon so you can have power. Meanwhile, Kentuckians are suffering,” she said. “They don’t have what they need to take care of their families.”

Stevenson criticized Cameron’s handling of the Taylor case, saying, “If the office of attorney general was for the people, by the people, to serve the people, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”  

She added, “It would have been instant justice. The Department of Justice would not have come down to do the job he should have done.”

Though Black Kentuckians make up less than 10% of the state’s population, they are reliable Democratic voters and, therefore, needed for Beshear to win in a red state like Kentucky.

Gerren Keith Gaynor is a White House Correspondent and the Managing Editor of Politics at theGrio. He is based in Washington, D.C.

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