GOP attorney general hopeful Daniel Cameron might not have helped himself at the NAACP state convention candidate forum in Paducah Saturday.
He confessed he’s not an NAACP member. He’s a “proud Republican” and a fan of GOP Gov. Matt Bevin, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and President Donald Trump.
“I align myself with the values of the Republican Party,” said Cameron, a Louisville lawyer who was McConnell’s counsel in Washington.
He said he didn’t “shrink away” from President Donald Trump’s endorsement. He has been “a stalwart” in “protecting the sanctity of life,” according to Cameron.
Cameron said he’s “pro-life” because he thinks “the scourge of abortion robs the world of so many babies, especially millions of African American children.”
In July, the president tweeted that Cameron was “a new STAR” in the GOP. “It’s an honor to be endorsed by @realDonaldTrump,” he tweeted back.
Cameron said that when he was growing up in Elizabethtown, it was hard for him “to imagine that someone who looked like me would ever be a candidate for statewide office here in Kentucky.” He said with him running, the state stands “on the cusp of history. If I win, Kentucky will have finally elected an African American to a stand-alone statewide office.”
He said he thinks every day about what his election “would mean to African Americans across the state, young and old. For our elders, it would help justify the lifetime of struggle for equal justice under the law. For our children, it would show them that, yes, African Americans have a full seat at Kentucky’s political table.”
Cameron said he and everybody in the Cherry Convention Center was “standing on the shoulders of giants” such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Thurgood Marshall.
He challenged the delegates, “If you are looking for an individual that is going to speak boldly and loudly into the future as opposed to being someone that is a relic of the past, then you will look seriously at this campaign.” Cameron said he recognized “the importance of this race and the responsibility that the attorney general has to all communities here in the commonwealth of Kentucky.”
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The NAACP is non-partisan. So organizers also invited to the forum Democratic and Republican candidates for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state.
GOP Gov. Matt Bevin didn’t show. Neither did either of the secretary of state aspirants—Democrat Heather French Henry and Republican Michael Adams. They all said they had previous engagements.
Cameron followed outgoing Attorney Gen. Andy Beshear who wants Bevin’s job. Beshear led off.
“I’m here because I hope this is a continuing partnership from my term as AG, but then moving into the governor’s office,” he said.
Beshear said he aimed to govern well, which meant “following that Golden Rule that we were all taught – that we treat our neighbors as ourselves.”
He continued, “But here’s what Matt Bevin doesn’t get. Who’s our neighbor? It’s everyone….So I would tell this governor, ‘Yes, Matt Bevin, Jenean Hampton is your neighbor, too.’”
Beshear outlined his oft-stated policy positions. He’s for strengthening public education, raising teacher pay, and making it easier to vote.
He favors criminal justice reform, protecting public pensions, and ensuring health care is affordable and accessible “as a basic human right.”
Beshear said his goal “is to be the best governor for health care that you’ve ever seen.”
He also promised to keep after opioid manufacturers and distributors. He repeated his pledge to immediately sign an executive order restoring voting rights to non-violent felons who have served their sentences, parole, or probationary time.
But Beshear kept reminding the crowd why he should be governor instead of Bevin. “Right now, we have a governor that doesn’t listen, that locks people out of the Capitol, and shows up in people’s neighborhoods and tells them that the problems they face are because they pray incorrectly.
“I’m going to be a very different governor…one where the doors of the Capitol are always open, and where you always feel you always have a say.”
What Kentuckians want “isn’t complicated,” according to Beshear. “They want a governor that listens more than he talks…solves more problems than he creates…They’re looking for someone who never engaged in bullying and name calling.”
He accused Bevin of spending “the last four years trying to divide us, trying to create an us-versus-a-them.”
On other topics, Beshear praised Kentucky civil rights champions in history.
Beshear said Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson, the notorious 1896 ruling that upheld segregation. Harlan, a former Kentucky attorney general, said segregation forced “badges of slavery or servitude” on blacks.
“[Harlan] was the very first Supreme Court justice to say everyone was equal under the constitution,” Beshear said.
Beshear also cited former governor and senator Albert B. “Happy” Chandler who as baseball commissioner approved the signing of Jackie Robinson, the first African American Major League baseball player, in 1947.
He said that in 1964, Kentucky was the first southern state to pass a civil rights law.
“Let’s get back to being a leader in civil rights,” Beshear urged. “Let’s get back to making sure that everybody can vote and let’s make sure we get back to being a state where we welcome everyone.”
Democratic AG hopeful Greg Stumbo followed Cameron to the mike. He started with a quote from the storied Negro League and Major League pitcher Satchel Paige: “You can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.”
Stumbo spent 32 years in the state House of Representatives and served a four-year term as attorney general. “Experience matters,” he said.
He cited African American lawmakers with whom he worked in the General Assembly – Sen. Reggie Thomas and former Reps. Jesse Crenshaw and Leonard Gray, who is deceased. He said he co-sponsored Gray’s bill to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday.
Stumbo said King was one of his heroes.
“Ask the people that I served with in the General Assembly about fairness and equality and voting rights and holding people accountable, and I think you’ll get a record that you’ll be proud to support,” Stumbo said.
He likened electing an attorney general to choosing a personal lawyer. “You may not see him every day, but he’s here for you when you need him.”
Stumbo added that he’s been a trial lawyer for more than 40 years. “I have prosecuted civil and criminal cases. I can tell you for a fact that I know how to get the job done. I know how to finish these opioid cases. I’ve done this job before. I want to lead the charge to make these opioid manufacturers pay.”
Stumbo said he was the first state attorney general to sue a drug manufacturer. “The legal theory that we developed in my office is the legal theory used in AG offices all across America right now.”
Two candidates who dropped by were given a chance to speak briefly: Robert Haley Conway, the Democrat challenging Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, and Democrat James Rhodes, who wants to take on Rep. James Comer, R-Tompkinsville.
J.W. Cleary, Paducah NAACP president, said this was the third time Paducah hosted a state convention. “The last time was 20 years ago, and the one before that was 40 years ago. But this time was so different because of all the the support from the community. Even the news media has gone overboard to cover the story.”
Delegates from across the state gathered at the civic center. More than a few were white. “Some people think of the NAACP as a black organization, but it’s a people organization,” Cleary said.
He added that blacks and whites founded the organization in 1909. “They knew that things weren’t right and that working together really makes a difference.”
Cleary’s chapter is making a difference. Paducah is Kentucky’s fifteenth largest city, but the Paducah NAACP chapter ranks second only to Louisville, the state’s largest city, in terms of membership, Coleman said.
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