A new poll from Emerson College shows incumbent Andy Beshear, a Democrat, a whopping 16 percentage points ahead of his Republican challenger Daniel Cameron in the state’s ongoing governor’s race, which will culminate in a general election later this year. Cameron is currently the state’s attorney general.
The polling, which was conducted among registered voters in the state and was completed on October 3, found Beshear with 49 percent of the support — nearly reaching an outright majority! Cameron, who like many other prominent Republicans has tried to use cultural issues in his campaign, was at 33 percent. A full 13 percent of respondents said they were undecided. Even if every one of those voters went with Cameron, it still wouldn’t be enough to deliver him a victory in the electoral scenario outlined by this survey. The problem was pronounced among independents, only 25 percent of whom backed Cameron.
Polling has repeatedly shown a lead for Beshear, whose father also served as a governor of the state, which is known for leaning heavily towards Republicans. (It’s even where Mitch McConnell serves as a Senator.) The younger Beshear can count himself among fellow prevailing red-state Dems like Laura Kelly, a member of the party currently completing her second term as governor of Kansas. Several party figures in the Senate and representing GOP-leaning states will be up for re-election next year, including Montana’s Jon Tester and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, with high stakes accompanying their races. In Ohio, though, there was recently another sign of voters bucking the GOP, with a rejection of a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would’ve made it more difficult to pass future amendments — including an abortion measure going before Ohioans later this year!
