Is KYGOV race an omen for 2024 NCGOV race?

I don’t live in Kentucky.  (I know some folks registered to vote there.)

But, from what I observed, what they went through in their recently concluded gubernatorial race looks a lot like what we could be facing in 2024.  They had two top elected state officials – Gov. Andy Beshear (D) v. Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R).

Beshear is an establishment Democrat, while Cameron is an outspoken conservative who touts his ties to Trump.

Cameron, if you didn’t know, is black.  An awful lot of the coverage and commentary on the race featured a lot of excited talk about Cameron being “the first black elected Republican governor.”

This is the kind of crap you expect from the woke-ists.  Race, gender and sexual orientation are major, major, major things with them.  WHO CARES about the man’s skin tone or where (or if) he goes to church?  What is he going to do to keep my state on (or return it to) the right track?

A lot of people out there use stupid reasons to select candidates.  In my neck of the woods, we had candidates for local office being selected based on how much fun they have been at cocktail parties.  A guy who has been here TWO YEARS got elected mayor.  He must have been a lot of fun at those parties.

The thing I don’t understand is WHY Republicans are buying into identity politics.  In the race to fill Walter Jones‘s  vacant seat a few years back, Elise Stefanik and Kevin McCarthy cheered passionately for Joan Perry because she possessed female anatomy.  We need MORE female anatomy in the Republican caucus, McCarthy and Stefanik told us. (According to US Rep. Nancy Mace, 3rd district voters, despite Perry’s loss, still got some female anatomy to represent them.)

I had one in-state political pro once joke with me:

“I could pick a random black man off the street and take him to a local GOP meeting,  Within a couple of hours, Republican leaders would be making plans to clean him up and sign him up as a candidate in an upcoming election.”

Why not focus on selling the gospel of limited government and freedom and personal responsibility, instead of targeting people based on genetic traits? 

There are plenty of white men I know that I sure as hell do not want governing me in ANY CAPACITY.

Just like Kentucky, we will likely have two senior elected state officials facing off for governor: Lt. Gov Mark Robinson (R) and Attorney General Josh Stein (D).  Either choice will give us an identity politics ‘first’:  the first elected black governor (Robinson), or the first Jewish elected governor (Stein.)

THAT should not matter.  But to the media and their woke brethren on the left, it will matter A LOT.  Josh Stein is a proud Chapel Hill marxist who frets over how insensitive reciting ‘The Pledge of Allegiance’ might be or how racist it might be for us to keep 25 percent of what we earn.

This race COULD be an exciting opportunity to have a serious discussion about marxism v. liberty.  But the presumed GOP frontrunner -Robinson- has a written record, mostly on social issues, that the media and their leftist brethren will harp on. Nor does Robinson have much in the way of a résumé.  If you poke through the fabricated legend produced by his handlers, you’ll see that Mark Robinson‘s life has been little more than a trail of failure and disappointment. According to Robinson’s ethics forms, the only outside income he and the wife have comes from a revenue stream generated by the NC Department of Health and Human Services.  How is that going to work IF he gets elected governor? How is that going to mesh with any upcoming rants he may have about the social welfare state?

WRAL had to point out to Robinson that he hadn’t paid taxes in five years.  That episode, and others, indicates that Robinson has a hard time managing his own financial matters.  How can he be expected to do a competent job with the state’s finances, if he can’t handle HIS?

Oh, he gives great speeches. But what results have they produced?  Gun rights folks have gained nothing new. Those Confederate monuments still got torn down.   What significant legislative triumph  did any of those legendary Robinson speeches lead to?

Robinson has skipped out on a lot of board meetings he’s supposed to attend. But he’s earned a bachelor’s degree in two years and given a lot of speeches. If earning a college degree and a gift for gab were serious indicators of a great governor, the primary for governor would be a hell of a lot more crowded right now. 

(Stein hasn’t exactly been good on showing up for work and doing his job, either. He’s supposed to be the state’s lawyer, but the state sure has had to hire a hell of a lot of outside counsel during his tenure as AG.)

As with Kentucky, are Republicans so excited about the possibility of a black person on their ticket that they’re not vetting their choice(s) as seriously as they should be?

THIS is what a primary is for.  There are currently four choices for governor to mull over.  Carefully consider ALL the options on the table before caving in to peer pressure and going all-in on a real unknown.