Days after President Donald Trump shook up Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race with his endorsement of Congressman Andy Barr in the GOP primary, Republican candidate Daniel Cameron says he’s confident he’ll still win his party’s nomination.
“This is a two-man race between me and Andy Barr, and with that clarity comes a very real contrast,” Cameron said at his press conference in Louisville on Tuesday. “Not just in background, not just in record, but in how we approach the people we are asking to serve.”
Trump’s surprise Friday night endorsement of Barr was followed by fellow GOP candidate Nate Morris announcing he was dropping out of the race at the president’s request to accept an unspecified ambassadorship in his administration. Morris then endorsed Barr, who he had fiercely criticized since last summer as a “puppet” of retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell, who they seek to replace.
Trump remains very popular among Republicans in deep-red Kentucky, evidenced by the campaigns of Barr, Cameron and Morris over the past year competing to prove who was the most pro-Trump candidate.
Cameron says he can overcome the Trump endorsement because in-state voters know him by his conservative record as Kentucky attorney general — contrasting Barr as someone who is “paid for and bought by” special interest lobbyists in the nation’s capital.
“If you want real change, you don't need someone who has spent the past 14 years of their life sucking up to the D.C. swamp,” Cameron said. “You need someone who is focused on the people of Kentucky.”
In addition to claiming that Barr is beholden to “lobbyists, Big Pharma, big banks, billionaires” and “multinational CEOs,” Cameron accused Barr of voting “to give amnesty to illegal immigrants,” for COVID-19 restrictions and against repealing Obamacare.
Alex Bellizzi, a spokesperson for Barr’s campaign, dismissed Cameron’s criticisms in an emailed statement.
“Andy Barr is proud to have the complete and total endorsement of President Donald J. Trump, along with the support of his former opponent, Nate Morris,” Bellizzi said. “No one in their right mind believes President Trump would endorse someone who supports amnesty — so Daniel’s attack is a laughable lie from a losing politician.”
After Barr received the endorsement of Trump and Morris, Bellizzi stated that “it’s time for all Republicans to unite behind Andy Barr so we can defeat the Democrats in November and keep the Senate in Republican hands.”
Before the endorsements, recent polling had shown Barr with a small lead over Cameron and Morris trailing in third place, despite Cameron being badly outspent by his two GOP opponents and their aligned super PACs.
While Cameron’s campaign finally made a TV ad buy in April, a newly formed PAC emerged that month and has already reported spending $2.7 million on ads attacking Cameron. KY PAC, the new group, will not have to report its donors until the next federal filing deadline in July.
The well-funded Barr campaign announced Monday it was spending more than $1 million on a new TV ad buy touting the Trump endorsement.
Adding to his contrasts, Cameron mentioned that Barr backed out of what was supposed to be the final statewide televised debate in the race on Tuesday night — in addition to one last month on KET — saying Barr “ran away from” the opportunity after the Trump endorsement.
“In politics, you can run ads, you can send emails, you can send mail, you can say anything you want to behind a camera,” Cameron said. “But when it comes time to take the stage, look the people of Kentucky in the eye and answer for your record, that's when it counts.”
The former Kentucky attorney general also announced Tuesday what he calls the “Kentucky First Tour,” which is a nine-day, 34-stop statewide campaign tour ahead of the May 19 primary.
As for Morris’ sudden change of heart about Barr last week, Cameron said he expects to pick up many of his former supporters, but called that endorsement “politics at its worst.”
“There were open hostilities between the two of them, and in a matter of seconds, that disappeared,” Cameron said. “And I think most Kentuckians are sort of confused by comments made in opposition to one another, and then all of a sudden they're playing nice.”
While Cameron said Barr is supported by the “swamp,” he stopped short of saying that Trump is part of that swamp.
Asked by Kentucky Public Radio last week if he has ever disagreed with anything Trump has said or done, Cameron could not come up with any examples and expressed his full support of the president.
Given the same question Tuesday, he laughed and answered that “I disagree with this decision on Andy Barr.”
