Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidates made their first appearance together at Saturday’s Fancy Farm Picnic. Kentucky’s lone statewide Democratic officeholders – Grimes, the secretary of state, and Attorney General Andy Beshear – are both skipping Fancy Farm this year.
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WCPO Insiders can find out why organizers hope this year’s event will make Democrats and Republicans hate each other a little less. Ralph Alvarado will speak in support of Republican Donald Trump while former U.S. Sen.
“When you pick someone like Scott Jennings, who is a paid political consultant for the Republican Party, that goes way beyond the issue of fairness for the emcee, and I don’t think the Democrats should go down there as a protest vote”, said Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. Rand Paul in November. Speaking to the Marshall County Bean Supper on Friday night, Gray said that Paul knows more about “the cornfields of Iowa and the coffee shops of New Hampshire than he does about Kentucky and Kentucky’s problems”.
Paul did not mention Gray during his speech to the Graves County Republican breakfast Saturday morning, instead focusing most of his attention on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“You send me a House that matches our Senate, you don’t make me sit there with one arm tied behind my back for the next three and a half years, then we will do the things that you want done”, he said.
Eight years ago, when gas prices hovered around $4 a gallon and the Republican battle cry from Sen. Stan Humphries telling a joke about Hillary Clinton roaming the halls of the White House, seeking advice from the bust of Abraham Lincoln.
The political speaking at Fancy Farm is not scheduled to begin until 2:30 p.m. local time. But Stumbo, the House speaker, will not be there.
This year, Republican operative Scott Jennings will emcee the event and will – just like every other emcee – likely throw in his own jabs, too, sometimes fueling the fire.
“It can’t necessarily help you, but if you make a gaffe, I mean, it could hurt you, we’ve had that happen”, Wilson says.
“If they want to have a Republican rally, let ’em have a Republican rally”.
“I think it shows some guts, and I think voters, even when they’re not at Fancy Farm, appreciate when politicians show the guts to show up”, Jennings says.
Democratic speakers will be outnumbered by more than two-to-one at this year’s Fancy Farm.
Fancy Farm emcees have varied, from reporters such as Ferrell Wellman and Al Cross to politicians including former Supreme Court Justice Bill Cunningham and former Republican Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.
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“I think that the filly in that race will be running a whole lot stronger at the end than she is at the beginning”, he said.
