Somerset Mayor Alan Keck and Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles are the latest Republican gubernatorial candidates to advertise ahead of the May 16 primary.
Keck released his ad Monday and called out the race’s two frontrunners — Kelly Craft and Attorney General Daniel Cameron — over their ad campaigns attacking each other.
“Are you tired of the same old politics?” Keck opens the ad before diving into his campaign theme of the “Keck Gameplan.”
“Kentuckians deserve a race about the issues, but instead, they are getting teddy bears and insults,” Keck said. “We have serious problems in Kentucky, and we need serious leaders to solve them. Instead of demonizing each other, let’s have a real conversation about the issues and how we are going to move Kentucky forward together.”
According to the Kentucky Registry for Election Finance 30-day pre-primary reports filed by candidates, Keck raised just under $107,000 for the quarter and slightly under $312,000 during his campaign. He has $54,000 on hand.
Quarles released his first ad Wednesday, focused on his own campaign, and hit on his Kentucky roots instead of attacking other candidates.
“A year ago, we promised to run a positive race based on who has the best issues and the person best able to beat Andy Beshear in November,” said Jake Cox, campaign manager. “Today, thanks to our grassroots supporters, who make up over 90% of our total funds raised, we are going up on TV with our first ad. With just 19 days left until Election Day, Ryan Quarles is well-positioned to win the Republican nomination.”
Quarles reported raising just under $273,000 for the first part of the year and roughly $1.2 million overall. Quarles’s campaign has spent significantly less than the other campaigns, and he has over $903,000 on hand — the most of the Republican candidates.
His campaign said he plans on spending more on with more ad spend expected before the primary.
Kelly Craft and Daniel Cameron — considered the frontrunners according to the latest Emerson poll — have been spending large sums of advertising, and the ads have mainly been directed at each other.
Craft has spent over $5.3 million on advertising, campaign expenses, and consulting services through or with Axiom Strategies and its media buying division AxMedia.
Of the $5.3 million, more than $3.7 million went to AxMedia for “media placement.” According to Medium Buying, craft’s total ad spend has been $3.82 million.
Just under $1 million went to Axiom Strategies for printing, direct mail, equipment, airfare, and other services. Just a bit more than $150,000 went to Axiom Strategies for consulting.
That money comes from a personal loan of $7.2 million to her campaign. Her billionaire coal magnate husband gave $1.5 million to the Commonwealth PAC that is spending to attack AG Cameron.
Cameron has spent just over $434,000 on ads to this point, with all of that going to TV. He also has the Bluegrass Freedom Action PAC supporting him — they’ve spent about $1.75 million.