Tri-County Republican Women host Cameron

The Tri-County Republican Women hosted Elizabethtown native Daniel Cameron who is seeking to become the first Republican attorney general in Kentucky since 1948.

Republican Kentucky Attorney General candidate Daniel Cameron met Monday with the Tri-County Republican Women at Santa Fe Mexican Restaurant.

“It is going well,” Cameron said of the primary campaign.

“I feel like people have been receptive to the message of returning the office to its proper role, which is to be the state’s chief law enforcement office.”

Cameron was invited to speak to the group during its regular meeting Monday night.

Cameron admitted that as an African-American, it is difficult to picture him running for office as a Republican.

Cameron said that his parents are long-standing Republicans noting that his mother jokes that the last Democrat she voted for was Jimmy Carter in 1976.

“She will tell you she hasn’t made a mistake since,” Cameron said.

Cameron said the Republican values of hard work, perseverance, determination and self reliance, along with the belief in smaller government, are the things he grew up with.

“Those are the values that are consistent with my own personal values,” Cameron said.

“I’m proud to be a member of the Republican Party,” he said.

Cameron told the members that after earning is undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Louisville, he served as a clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove.

Cameron then went to work for Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY, at his office in Washington, D.C.

“I helped Senator McConnell in the effort to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Cameron said.

Cameron became the liaison at McConnell’s office with Kentucky law enforcement, working with multiple local, state and federal agencies.

“I am familiar with the challenges they face, day in and day out,” Cameron said.

Upon returning to Kentucky in 2017, Cameron said he wanted to continue to do his part to fight the drug epidemic in Kentucky.

“From my judgment, the best way to do that is in the attorney general’s office,” Cameron said. “That is the best platform and the ultimate source of action as it relates to confronting the drug challenge.”

While the attorney general’s office is most well known for providing legal opinions, Cameron said there is a criminal investigations department within the office.

Currently, the department has eight criminal investigators. Cameron said he would like to increase that to 10.

“I am very passionate about law enforcement, and I see this job in terms of the skill set I have, this is the job most in line with that skill set,” Cameron said.

Cameron said as attorney general, he will stand up for everyone’s First and Second Amendment rights, which guarantee freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and the right to keep and bear arms.

In addition, Cameron said he would support and defend the rights of the unborn and those who can’t stand up for themselves.

With Attorney General Andy Beshear running for governor, Cameron is one of three people vying for the position.

State Senator Wil Schroeder is challenging Cameron in the Republican primary.

The winner will face off against former state legislator and attorney general Greg Stumbo in the general election.

“We can’t afford another four years of democratic reign in the attorney general’s office,” Cameron said.