(The Center Square) – Shared blame goes to her Republican Party for the gubdernatorial loss in Kentucky on Election Day.
State Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, said in a letter to supporters Wednesday both Republicans and Democrats “were complicit” in Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s loss to incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
The lawmaker wrote in part, that “52% of Kentuckians chose Andy Beshear last night because they bought into the rose-colored picture that Republicans helped Beshear to paint. It’s time we put down the paintbrush and pick up the scissors.”
Maddox said Republicans in Washington and Frankfort failed to curb spending and executive overreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Relief packages like the American Rescue Plan Act and the CARES Act led to Beshear having the ability to go around to Kentucky communities this year and hand out ceremonial checks for projects like new baseball fields and farmers markets.
That led to voters seeing Beshear as someone “getting stuff done” despite record-breaking inflation depressing the value of people’s paychecks.
According to unofficial data, Beshear won by 67,081 votes. That difference was an increase more than 13 times greater than Beshear’s win over then-Gov. Matt Bevin in 2019. That election had more than 121,000 additional voters.
Republicans won the five down-ticket statewide races on Tuesday, with each winning candidate earning between 58% and 61% of the vote.
Maddux herself was a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. She backed out last December, six months after throwing her hat in the ring, citing a lack of resources to mount a successful campaign.
In her third term, Maddux has made a name for herself in the Capitol as a staunch conservative. She’s pushed bills to defend Second Amendment rights, to place restrictions or prohibitions on abortion and to bar transgender females from participating in girls’ and women’s athletic competitions.
After the 2023 General Assembly session ended, Maddux also lashed out at the House majority leadership after they stripped several Republican members of committee assignments just before adjourning for the year.
“Differences of opinion are to be expected when you have a Republican supermajority of 80 people, and no two members will see eye to eye on every issue,” she tweeted in March. “However, I am troubled by the fact that punitive measures were employed to chastise members whom I believe were acting in good faith and doing their best to represent their districts.”
