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'Won't back down now': Campaign ad highlights 2020 protest at Kentucky attorney general's home

Two different independent polls project Daniel Cameron as the frontrunner ahead of the GOP gubernatorial primary election.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The projected Republican frontrunner in the race for Kentucky Governor calls himself a fighter in his latest campaign ad, with the GOP Primary election less than a month away.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron drew from a moment in July 2020, when protesters lined his front lawn demanding charges in the death of Breonna Taylor; 87 of them were arrested.

In the ad, Cameron says the protestors "tried to intimidate me and my family. I've stood strong then, and I won't back down now."

WHAS11 talked to Cameron Friday, as he sat in that very same Graymoor-Devondale home where he still lives.

"Even though folks might protest on our front lawn, we're going to do what's right by the laws of Kentucky, and you need a leader who's going to stand firm and push back against some of the radical ideologies that are coming into Kentucky," he said.

Later in the ad, Cameron touts support from 100 law enforcement leaders across the state. And in our interview, he doubled down on his plan as governor, if elected, to put a Kentucky State Police post in Louisville to combat its violent crime.

It's a proposal that's immediately ignited jabs thrown between Cameron and Kentucky's current governor, Andy Beshear.

"I'm offering up an idea, [while] Andy Beshear has sat on his hands the last three years, and said nothing and has done nothing," Cameron said.

Beshear responded in this week's Team Kentucky update.

"Where are you going to take those troopers from?" Beshear said during the media questions period. "It seems to show a lack of confidence by the Attorney General in LMPD to respond to crime."

WHAS11 talked to two different political science professors about the ad, including University of Louisville professor Dewey Clayton. He believed Cameron is responding to those publicly questioning his conservative values.

"He's trying to get that message out that by no means is he soft on crime," Clayton said. "[He's] trying to deflect that as not being a legitimate criticism of what he's done since he's been in office."

Professor Stephen Voss, at the University of Kentucky, says Cameron is "investing in message control."

"[It's about] controlling his own image, rather than having it be controlled by his rivals, which is often how you see the campaign that's in the lead acting," he added.

Whether that leads to the GOP nomination, though, is to be seen.

The Republican gubernatorial primary election is May 16.

Both major independent polls so far project Cameron as the frontrunner in the GOP field, but the latest survey by Emerson College shows the attorney general's margin ahead of former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft shrinking.

Voss believed some of this is natural as candidates get more face time and notoriety through debates and ads, but said it's more than likely the two firms conducting the surveys pulled from different populations within the state -- thus exaggerating the gap in either direction.

Both professors said it's likely Cameron still has the edge, no matter how slight.

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