On Nov. 7, Governor Dem. Andy Beshear was reelected to his governor seat, while many high profile state positions were won by Republican candidates.
Beshear won back the governor seat alongside Lieutenant Governor Dem. Jacqueline Coleman with 53% of the votes, against 47% for Republican candidates Daniel Cameron and Robert Mills, according to election night reporting from kentucky.gov.
Beshear’s victory makes him the third governor in Kentucky’s history to win consecutive reelection. The second governor to do so was his father, Steve Beshear.
“Tonight, Kentucky made a choice, a choice not to move to the right or to the left but to move forward for every single family,” Beshear told a crowd of supporters in Louisville on Nov. 7. “It was a victory that sends a loud, clear message – a message that candidates should run for something, and not against someone,” Beshear said. “That a candidate should show vision and not sow division. And a clear statement that anger politics should end right here, and right now.”
“We all want the same thing for our future generations. We want a better commonwealth, one in which it can ultimately be a shining city on a hill, a model and example for the rest of the nation to follow,” Cameron said in his concession speech.
Had Cameron won the governor seat, he would have been Kentucky’s first black governor.
Rep. Russell Coleman defeated House of Representatives member Dem. Pamela Stevenson, for the position of Attorney General, with Coleman earning 58% of the vote against Stevenson’s 42%.
Coleman is a former US Attorney for Kentucky’s Western District, appointed by then President Donald Trump in 2017, and also served as a senior advisor and legal counsel for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“I stand here tonight filled with gratitude, humility and more determination than ever,” Coleman told his supporters on Nov. 7. “To all those listening in this room and around Kentucky, whether you supported me or not, I promise you do this: We will protect your family. We will defend your rights, and we will back the blue.”
Rep. Michael Adams, the incumbent Secretary of State, won a second term with 61% of the vote, defeating Dem. Charles “Buddy” Wheatley, a former member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, who earned 39%.
During his first term, Adams became known for expunging thousands of inactive voters from the Kentucky rolls, and for collaborating with Gov. Beshear to make voting safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In just four years, we’ve taken Kentucky from the bottom in election administration to the top, and thanks to your support, we’ll continue making it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” Adams said during his acceptance speech.
The title of State Treasurer went to Rep. Mark Metcalf with 57% of the vote. Dem. Michael Bowman received 43%.
Metcalf has served as county attorney for Garrard County since 2010, and previously held the position from 1990 to 1996. Altogether, Metcalf has served as county attorney for six terms.“I believe very much that what we’ve accomplished tonight will have the kind of impact that will lead other rural Kentuckians to declare for office, in positions of leadership across this great Commonwealth of ours,” Metcalf said during his victory speech at Lancaster’s town center.