The Republican nominee for governor, Daniel Cameron, announced his running mate as Sen. Robby Mills (R-Henderson) on Wednesday morning.
“I was looking for a strong conservative with a track record of getting things done,” Cameron said. “Someone who shares our values and fights for what’s right.”
Cameron described Mills as pro-coal, pro-family, pro-life, and a “stalwart for Western Kentucky.”
“Robby will be a strong partner in our quest to defeat Andy Beshear and bring commonsense back to the governor’s office,” Cameron said.
Gov. Andy Beshear formally announced his current lieutenant governor, Jacqueline Coleman, as his running mate at the Capitol on Wednesday — the announcement is part of a new law that requires lieutenant governor candidates to file separately.
“Lt. Gov. Coleman and I are committed to working for our Kentucky families so we can turn these four years of progress into decades of prosperity for every single Kentuckian,” Beshear Tweeted.
Beshear said that choosing a running mate is the first major candidate decision on the campaign trail. He further tried to tie Mills to former Gov. Matt Bevin — who cast a divisive figure in Frankfort and throughout the state at the end of his term and lost his reelection bid to Beshear, a Democrat.
“Selecting the person who helped lead the charge to enact Matt Bevin’s plan to slash pensions for our teachers, police, and firefighters shows how Daniel Cameron does not care about hard-working Kentuckians,” Beshear said.
Chris Kirkwood, a political analyst and graduate student in political science at the University of Kentucky, tweeted that it is a smart move not to write off western Kentucky.
“Beshear did better than all the other statewide Dems there, and trying to neutralize that latent hometown advantage is good strategy,” Kirkwood said in the tweet.