Over the weekend, the top two candidates running for the Republican nomination in the Kentucky governor’s race held rallies with Washington political figures that delivered national political messaging intended to move the needle in a tight race ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, stumped for former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft on Saturday in two Get Out the Vote Rallies.
Former President Donald Trump held a tele-rally with Attorney General Daniel Cameron — the race’s frontrunner — on Sunday.
Cameron leads Craft in the latest public polling. The Fox 56/Emerson College poll showed Cameron leading Craft 33 to 18% in the poll. However, Craft said in a campaign event last week that internal polling showed her “dead tied” with Cameron, though her campaign wouldn’t share that information.
At the first weekend rally for Craft, held just south of Louisville in a barn, Cruz said that the United States is in crisis, called Craft a “velvet hammer,” blamed inflation on Democrats, said that the left wants to indoctrinate kids, and compared the issues at the southern border to an invasion.
“This is an invasion, and it’s taken the lives of men and women in Kentucky and in every state in America,” Cruz said of the issues at the southern border.
According to Cruz, one way to address the issue in Kentucky is by voting for Craft as governor.
“I’m here to tell you we can fight back, and fighting back is going to start right here in Kentucky on the election for governor,” Cruz said.
Cruz also delivered a bevy of one-liners that stirred up the crowd, including at one point saying that inflation is so bad that Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, “can’t afford crack cocaine.”
While Cruz spoke mainly of national issues, two state legislators opened up the event. They discussed legislation passed this year in Kentucky that bans gender-affirming care for children, prevents teachers from teaching human sexuality in classrooms, and allows teachers to deadname transgender children.
Senate Bill 150 was sponsored by Sen. Max Wise (R-Campbellsville), Craft’s running mate and he and Rep. Jason Names (R-Louisville) spoke in favor of the legislation.
“Max was the author of that bill — Senate Bill 150 — and that is a bill as we know that empowers parents and teachers and removes the woke ideologies from our classrooms,” Nemes said. “Despite the veto by beta-male [Governor] Andy Beshear, SB 150 was overridden.”
Nemes introduced Wise, and the Campbellsville legislator said that the bill is an omnibus bill and allows the commonwealth to say, “We don’t stand for woke in Kentucky.”
Wise then hit out at the protesters — primarily school-aged children — that attended the state Capitol on the day of the veto override for the bill.
“So, we had everybody come to Frankfort to protest that bill, and they had green hair, yellow hair, pink hair — it looked like a Crayola Crayon day at the Kentucky State Capitol,” Wise said.
One main talking point for Craft’s campaign has been the education system in Kentucky, specifically addressing “woke” ideologies and critical race theory.
Craft’s campaign, which has spent more than $4 million on TV and radio ads through AxMedia, a division of Axiom Strategies — a national political consulting firm with ties to Cruz — launched an ad in April that featured “woke bureaucrats” parachuting into a school to teach critical race theory. Further, a teacher with a nose ring requests a student to use her pronouns.
“Our schools are under attack,” Craft says in the ad. “Woke bureaucrats parachuting in to hijack our children’s future, forcing woke ideology into the classroom — it’s immoral. I’m Kelly Craft, and as governor, I’ll dismantle the Department of Education and start fresh.”
Axiom, which had staffers at the event Saturday, has worked on other political campaigns with similar education messaging strategies, though the group says they’re unrelated.
Cruz also weighed in on the education issue on Saturday.
“These left-wing zealots, they look at our kids, and they want our kids,” Cruz said. “They want to corrupt them. They want to lie to them. They want to teach a critical race theory that America is irredeemably racist and that the entire history of America has a history of oppression.”
While Cruz spent Saturday in the commonwealth, there was speculation whether former President Donald Trump would fly into the state ahead of the primary. Trump endorsed Attorney General Cameron last June.
That endorsement has been a point of contention for Craft, who was appointed the U.S. Ambassador to Canada and as U.N. Ambassador by Trump.
“I think I’ve told you this before, I wasn’t in the race, so there was no choice to be made,” Craft said after the event when questioned about her thoughts on Trump’s tele-rally with Cameron.
Cruz said that Trump nominated Craft as the U.S. Ambassador to Canada and then nominated her as the U.N. Ambassador “to stand up for America against every enemy of America.”
Cruz came to Craft’s defense when she was questioned for being absent from her post as ambassador to Canada.
Trump didn’t address his endorsement of Cameron over Craft Sunday night, and reporters weren’t allowed to ask questions at the end. Trump’s call lasted roughly five minutes before a poll was taken on whether or not callers would vote for Cameron.
However, the former president did say that he had been a friend of Cameron for a long time, even before he entered politics.
“I’ve known him right from the beginning of his career,” Trump said. “I’ve been with him all the way, and now he’s doing this, and I have no doubt he’s going to be a fantastic governor.”
Trump hit on talking points from Cameron’s campaign that included hitting Beshear for COVID-19 lockdowns and stopping Joe Biden’s “unconstitutional vaccine mandates.”
“Your vote is an important one. You’re gonna get rid of this radical Democrat Governor Andy Beshear,” Trump said.
Both Cameron’s and Craft’s messaging has included getting rid of fentanyl, issues at the southern border, and getting rid of critical race theory — Trump hit on all these talking points in his roughly five minutes speaking in favor of Cameron.
“He’s pledged to fire the communist radicals trying to destroy Kentucky’s education system and he will get critical race theory out of children’s classrooms,” Trump said.
The race in Kentucky could also be a bellwether for President Trump’s reelection hopes.
On late Sunday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who is expected to announce his bid for president — endorsed Kelly Craft.
“You’ve had a woke liberal governor that’s put a radical agenda ahead of Kentuckians,” DeSantis said in the recorded clip that was distributed via robocall.
“I’m strongly encouraging you to go out and vote for my friend, Kelly Craft,” said DeSantis.
In the Emerson College poll, Trump is polling at 70% and leads DeSantis by 56 points in Kentucky, and with both GOP presidential hopefuls endorsing candidates, it could serve as a proxy for the 2024 Republican presidential primary.