With Kentucky governor election days away, new poll has Andy Beshear, Daniel Cameron tied
With early voting open and Election Day coming soon, the Kentucky governor's race has tightened, according to one poll released Friday.
The new poll from Emerson College Polling has found incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear in a dead heat with Daniel Cameron, Kentucky's attorney general and Beshear's Republican challenger in the race. The two candidates each have 47% support, the poll found, with 4% of voters undecided and 2% supporting someone else.
The new poll stands in stark contrast to Emerson's last poll, which was released on Oct. 6 and found Beshear, a Democrat, leading by 16 points.
At the time, Emerson College Polling executive director Spencer Kimball attributed Beshear's lead in part to the candidate's ability to separate himself from President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat who lost Kentucky by about 26 points to Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Now, Kimball said, Cameron "appears to have gained ground by consolidating Republican voters who supported former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election," with a 25-point increase in support from Trump voters in a month's time.
Undecided voters who took part in the new poll gave a slight edge to Cameron, who had 49% support compared to Beshear's 48%.
Beshear's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The governor, who voted Thursday in Frankfort and spoke at a rally later that morning alongside rap superstar Jack Harlow at the University of Louisville, had five campaign stops scheduled Friday to encourage supporters to head to the polls.
Cameron's "Fight for Kentucky Bus Tour" had six stops scheduled Friday. He's campaigned in recent days alongside well-known Republican figures including anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas and Trump's former press secretary.
Sean Southard, a spokesperson for the campaign, said the new poll shows momentum building for the Republican candidate, who was first endorsed by Trump last year. The former president reaffirmed that endorsement earlier this week with a video encouraging voters to support Cameron on Election Day.
Related: Kentucky governor race: Here are the keys to victory for Andy Beshear and Daniel Cameron
The new poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points and came after surveying 1,000 likely voters or individuals who have already voted. It was conducted over four days in late October and early November.
Beshear has led by a significant margin in most polls released before Friday, according to an aggregation at fivethirtyeight.com.
Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Poll has Andy Beshear, Daniel Cameron tied in Kentucky governor race
