It isn’t even 2023, yet former United Nations ambassador Kelly Craft is still late to the party compared to the other Republicans who already jumped into the GOP’s crowded primary for Gov. Andy Beshear’s job.
Her long-rumored campaign launch made a splash anyway, given her past work for former President Donald Trump and her reputation as an ultra-wealthy Republican donor.
The past week was a little light on political news with the holiday weekend. Expect things to heat up, though, since Labor Day marks the unofficial kickoff to the turbo-charged part of America’s election season as candidates race to the finish on Nov. 8.
She’s (literally) running
Folks tossed off the ‘she’s running’ prediction, on- and offline, whenever Craft popped up in the news over the past year (like when she spent millions of dollars on a country ham at the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s politician-friendly state fair breakfast and charity auction).
Then Craft made her big announcement Wednesday with a video in which she’s shown actually running along Kentucky roads. (She stressed her bluegrass roots in that ad, highlighting her upbringing in Barren County.)
Trump already endorsed Attorney General Daniel Cameron for governor, so Craft ― who served as his ambassador to Canada first and then to the U.N. ― doesn’t have her ex-boss’s backing. But she got a fast endorsement from U.S. Rep. James Comer.
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Opponents slam Craft as an ‘out-of-touch’ billionaire
Craft is married to coal-industry billionaire Joe Craft, and the pair has donated a lot of money to conservative initiatives, though she was involved in Republican fundraising long before they got together.
Her wealth is core to the counterargument we’ll see people make against her candidacy. The Kentucky Democratic Party, for example, was out with a video criticizing Craft Wednesday afternoon.
“She’s an out-of-touch billionaire with a private jet and multiple mansions,” that video’s voice-over says. “She purchased the only government jobs she’s ever had. … Sorry, Kelly. Kentucky isn’t for sale.”
State Rep. Savannah Maddox, another Republican running for governor, similarly suggested Craft is an “out-of-touch” elite, telling The Courier Journal:
“Kelly Craft has openly supported Andy Beshear’s lockdowns and mandates. Citizens are tired of out-of-touch elites foisting their liberal agenda on us, when they have no concept of what it’s like to choose between filling up their gas tank or filling their grocery cart.”
Maddox may have been referring to a comment Craft made in an April 2020 interview, when she complimented Beshear for the precautionary measures he took to slow COVID-19’s spread in the pandemic’s early days.
Court order gets long-suppressed public pension report released
It took a year and a half of open-records request denials and a judicial ruling, but the Kentucky Public Pension Authority finally released a 97-page report this week from an investigation into controversial investments major hedge fund firms made with more than $1 billion of the pension system’s assets from 2011-16.
Reporter Joe Sonka put together a story explaining some key highlights from the report. This is the latest development in a years-long saga for the state’s public pension system.
The litigation isn’t over, either. Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office is continuing a lawsuit against the investment firms and several former KPPA officials, alleging they mismanaged the assets.
In case you missed it…
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Beshear endorsed fellow Democrats Charles Booker and Matt Lehman in their longshot bids to defeat Sen. Rand Paul and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie.
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Louisville Metro officials anticipate the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on their police department is coming soon but argue they haven’t waited to make reforms since police killed Breonna Taylor in 2020.
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Meanwhile, new records indicate a detective did not disclose critical information before police got a search warrant for Taylor’s apartment.
Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this newsletter. Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal’s chief political reporter. Contact her at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Yep, Kelly Craft’s running for governor
