Three gubernatorial races are keeping any mention of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in advertisements to a minimum, an indication that candidates may perceive establishment members of their party as a weakness in their campaigns.
Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi are holding elections for governor in November, a year before the presidential election that could feature another Biden-Trump matchup. However, despite the two men dominating national conversations, their presence in state races has remained relatively limited, particularly in the gubernatorial candidates' ads.
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Nearly 150 ads have been broadcast across the three contests; however, only one ad mentioned Trump, and three mentioned Biden, according to the New York Times. The ads feature more of candidates' policies, such as education, public safety, and the economy — three areas that are typically high priorities for voters when they go to the polls.
The one ad that Trump is mentioned in came from Gov. Andy Beshear's (D-KY) reelection campaign. He praised his administration for following in the former president's footsteps in releasing prison inmates early. Despite Trump carrying all three states by double digits in the 2020 election, his absence from ads shows that Republicans may be moving away from the former president's policies and endorsements to reach centrist GOP and independent voters.
Candidates running in 2023 and 2024 are looking to avoid a repeat of the midterm elections, in which several Trump-endorsed candidates defeated their centrist primary opponents but lost to their Democratic challengers. Trump has endorsed Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Louisiana Republican candidate Jeff Landry for the 2023 races. He endorsed Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) in 2019 but has not endorsed him for the 2023 election.
Instead, AdImpact, a media tracking firm, conducted an analysis of the three races' ads and found that attack advertisements about local scandals and controversies are the most frequently used in these three races.
In Kentucky, crime has become the most advertised issue — 25% of ad spending in the state has focused on crime in the past month, according to AdImpact. The School Freedom Fund released an ad in mid-August targeting Beshear's crime policies, particularly his commutation of 646 inmates' sentences in 2020, as part of a $2.9 million ad buy in the Lexington and Louisville markets.
Public safety is a consistent talking point for Cameron's campaign. He has pegged himself as "THE law enforcement candidate" and recently boasted an endorsement from the state's largest police union.
The union endorsed Beshear in 2019. The attorney general said the flip of the Kentucky State Fraternal Order of Police's endorsement was the result of "havoc" caused by Beshear's administration's lack of tough-on-crime policies.
"I support tough prosecution, tough sentencing, and tough enforcement. Kentucky law enforcement knows I have their back. And they have mine. I’m Daniel Cameron. We need a governor who backs the blue, and that’s exactly the kind of governor I’ll be," Cameron said in an ad.
Education is a top priority for candidates in both Kentucky and Louisiana, with nearly 1 in 5 ad dollars spent focusing on education over the past 60 days, according to AdImpact's analysis.
“The radical Left has declared war on parents, and Andy Beshear is with them,” one ad says from Kentucky Values, a group affiliated with the Republican Governors Association.
On the other side, Beshear has praised teachers, calling them "heroes" in one of his ads. He pledged to raise their pay and expand universal preschool in his ad, claiming Cameron "supports voucher programs that send tax dollars to private schools and he wants to cut pensions promised to Kentucky teachers."
"Daniel Cameron's policies would undermine our teachers, our parents, and our public schools," Beshear said.
In Mississippi, Reeves ran an ad claiming he "got us back to school fast" during the coronavirus pandemic. Landry released an ad criticizing the "woke" agenda in schools and pledging to return education "back to basics."
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"Parents, not politicians, deserve control. Teachers should be respected," Landry said. He is the front-runner for the Republican primary, which is scheduled for Oct. 14.
Mississippi and Kentucky will hold the general election on Nov. 7, and Louisiana's will take place on Nov. 18.