It's no secret that Secretary of State Michael Adams and Attorney General Daniel Cameron are Mitch McConnell's men in Frankfort. McConnell's intervention pushed them to victories in the 2019 Republican primaries, shoving aside candidates who had proven their worth four years prior.
In 2015, two relatively unknown Republican candidates with limited funding came within whiskers of defeating members of two iconic Democrat families in races for those two offices. Stephen Knipper narrowly lost to Jerry Lundergan's daughter, Alison Lundergan Grimes, for secretary of state. And state Sen. Whitney Westerfield fell in a close contest to Gov. Steve Beshear's son, Andy Beshear.
The fact that these two underdog candidates came so close to toppling Democrats from dynastic families in 2015 automatically made them the front-runners for the 2019 races. And indeed, both Knipper and Westerfield launched campaigns for a second shot at the positions that had barely eluded them.
That's when McConnell got involved. He backed Cameron and Adams for their positions. It was generally an unspoken truth among Kentucky Republicans that the GOP leader in the United States Senate was throwing his support and his clout behind those two. Westerfield eventually dropped out of the AG's race, but Knipper stayed in the race, finishing third out of four candidates.
Adams has come under fire from a number of Kentucky Republicans for his work with Gov. Andy Beshear, who served one term as attorney general before winning the gubernatorial race, to change election procedures for the 2020 primary and general elections. They believe Adams was too eager to work with Beshear to implement changes with which they didn't agree. They've also been critical of the way Adams has used his official trappings to attack critics.
Republicans hold all statewide offices except the governorship; Adams and Cameron are the only officials eligible to seek re-election next year due to term limits. Cameron has long thought to be McConnell's favored replacement when he leaves office, but there's been talk recently that Cameron may run for governor instead; preferring to keep his young family in Kentucky instead of making the move to DC. Adams, though, is thought to be planning to run for re-election as secretary of state, and he's sure to draw a primary opponent from the conservative/tea party/MAGA wing of Kentucky Republicans.
But Adams may get caught up in the middle of a feud between two of his closest associates.
Eric Greitens is the former governor of Missouri, who resigned in 2018 in the midst of personal and legal issues. He's now running for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Roy Blunt. Greitens has been especially critical of McConnell while campaigning, saying he won't back McConnell's bid to be re-elected GOP Senate leader. McConnell, in his trademark way, has publicly denounced Greitens without explicitly doing so. He hasn't taken sides or made an endorsement in the crowded race, but his comments leave little doubt he's not a Greitens fan.
Adams was a board member and secretary/treasurer of the "dark money" nonprofit at the center of Greitens' campaign finance issues. He's also represented Greitens as his attorney in legal matters relating to Greitens' gubernatorial campaign. The Adams-Greitens association came up during Adams' 2019 secretary of state campaign, but never made huge headlines. The issue never got traction during the primary, nor was it a factor in the general election.
Some Republicans have referred to Adams as "slimy" or "slippery," so it's interesting to see how he might wiggle out of this one. No one in Kentucky media has asked him to address Greitens' current campaign, or to discuss the friction between Greitens and McConnell.
It's not just Adams who is caught in the middle of the Greitens campaign. When new domestic violence allegations were made against Greitens recently, one of the Republicans who called on him to drop out of the race was Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. Hawley is one of the best-known Donald Trump supporters in Congress. Greitens has been courting Trump's endorsement and already has the support of a number of Trumpworld figures. Greitens' opposition to McConnell is said to be very appealing to Trump, who also has little use for him. Should Trump endorse Greitens, and Hawley in turn criticize Trump, the former president might turn on Hawley.
It's not often that political drama from another state spills over into Kentucky, but in this case it may. Adams is already the least-favorite GOP statewide officeholder. The party base runs hot and cold on Cameron, but if polled, the voters would probably give him higher marks than Adams. It will be interesting to see if Adams gets pushed into taking a side in the Greitens-McConnell feud. McConnell remains deeply unpopular in Kentucky, even with Republicans, while Trump is still widely liked. It may be that Adams has to decide where to hitch his wagon to remain politically viable. Does he stay with McConnell, the man who used his influence to get him onto office in the first place but who is extremely disliked in the state and is in the sunset of his political career? Or does he align with Trump's team and the anti-establishment warriors? Adams is establishment through and through, so it would likely be hard to break with them, but if he wants a political future in Kentucky, he may have to.
Either way, it's good to know that he has to be a little uncomfortable with two of his associates at odds. Adams has made Kentucky conservatives uncomfortable since he has been in office. It's time someone returned the favor.
