Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron crushed his GOP “competition” in Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary election, more than doubling the number of votes than the Republicans’ number two choice, and setting the table for a battle with Gov. Andy Beshear in November.
With 119 of 120 counties reporting (Laurel County officials said last week they would not report election results to the secretary of state’s office), but all 3,630 statewide precincts included, Cameron received 144,490 votes, or 47.7 percent, compared to second place finisher, Ag Commissioner Ryan Quarles, who received 65,676 votes (21.7 percent).
Kelly Craft, who outspent her rivals by millions of dollars, garnered 52,136 votes (17.2 percent), good for third place.
Grayson County resident Jacob Clark received 1,899 votes (6.3 percent), placing him eighth out of 12 GOP primary hopefuls.
Gov. Andy Beshear, facing two challengers in the Democratic primary, received 176,524 votes (91.3 percent) out of 193,298 ballots cast.
Republican incumbent Secretary of State Michael Adams likewise dominated his two challengers with 171,261 votes (63.9 percent) out of 268,001 votes cast.
Current Kentucky Treasurer Allison Ball notched 190,644 votes (72.4 percent) out of 263,212 votes cast in the race for Auditor of Public Accounts. Ball, twice elected to the state Treasurer post, is term limited, hence her run for state Auditor.
In the race to replace Ball, Republican Mark H. Metcalf captured 135,367 votes (51.2 percent), besting his two challengers, Andrew Cooperrider (29.2 percent) and O.C. “OJ” Oleka (19.5 percent).
In the Democratic primary for Commission of Agriculture, Sierra J. Enlow outpaced Mikael Malone, as Enlow received 103,190 votes (58.7 percent) compared to Malone’s 72,458 (41.3 percent).
Earning the right to take on Enlow in November is Jonathan Shell with 148,132 votes (56.5 percent) to Richard Heath’s 114,253 votes (43.5 percent).
Voter turnout was poor, with only 14.4 percent of eligible voters casting ballots, as 500,902 total votes were cast against 3,468,537 registered voters.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
