2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election
The 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2023, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Kentucky. Incumbent Democratic governor Andy Beshear won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican state attorney general Daniel Cameron. Had Cameron won, he would have become Kentucky's first African American governor.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 38% (4%) | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Beshear: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80-90% >90% Cameron: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Elections in Kentucky |
---|
Government |
This race was one of two Democratic-held governorships up for election in 2023 in a state Donald Trump won in 2020. The other was held in Louisiana, which Republicans successfully flipped.
This was the first gubernational election in the state's history where both major party candidates have previously held the position of Attorney General; Beshear held the position from 2016 to 2019, after which he was succeeded by Cameron.
Beshear's victory has been attributed to his broad popularity among Democrats and Independents as well as approximately half of Kentucky Republicans. Compared to his election in 2019, Beshear most improved his performance in suburban precincts: he increased his margins by nearly 6 percentage points in suburban areas, compared to just 4.5 percentage points in urban and rural precincts.