FANCY FARM, Ky. — The “Super Bowl of Kentucky politics” returned to full force Saturday, Aug. 6 at the 142nd annual St. Jerome Fancy Farm Picnic in Graves County, Kentucky, as politicians traded zingers back and forth and promoted their platforms.
Saturday’s hot and humid weather reflected on simmering tensions between Republicans and Democrats evidenced in various speakers’ remarks and jabs at each other.
With the 2020 and 2021 Fancy Farm Picnics impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fancy Farm Picnic Political Director Steven Elder said the picnic returning to full form is an important step in returning to a sense of normalcy.
The heavily watched political speaking event is a big draw to the annual St. Jerome Picnic. Saturday’s speaking was filled with less of the light-hearted jabs the picnic is known for as officials and candidates used the opportunity to take aim at their opponents’ platforms and campaign for future offices.
Some of the notable speakers included Kelley Paul, standing in for her husband Sen. Rand Paul, U.S. Senate Candidate Charles Booker, Congressman James Comer, Congressional Candidate Jimmy Ausbrooks, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Auditor Mike Harmon and State Rep. Savannah Maddox. Quarles, Cameron, Harmon and Maddox are all running for the Republican nomination for governor in 2023.
For the second year in a row, Gov. Andy Beshear, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul missed the annual Fancy Farm Picnic. Beshear had originally planned to be in Israel, but canceled the trip abroad to focus on flood relief efforts in eastern Kentucky. McConnell and Paul were originally scheduled to speak, but an extended Senate session and pending votes on bills kept the two in Washington D.C.
Beshear’s absence was a ripe topic for jeers and criticisms from Republican speakers. Treasurer Allison Ball joked that a possible strategy to get Beshear to attend the 2023 Fancy Farm Picnic is to change the format to a press conference. Emcee House Speaker David Osborne (R), while commending Beshear for canceling his trip to Israel and staying to deal with emergency response to flooding in eastern Kentucky, said Beshear originally would have rather been out of the country than at Fancy Farm.
Booker critiqued Sen. Paul for missing the picnic, stating that Paul was in the nation’s capital Saturday “trying to screw [Kentuckians] as we speak.” Booker added that he does not think Paul keeps Kentuckians’ needs in mind when he votes on legislation, and also called Paul a conspiracy theorist and a liar.
“As terrible as a senator he is, he is the best clown there is,” Booker said, referencing the upcoming International Clown Week.
Booker also advocated for an improved health care system, and said he would stand for everyone, even those who do not agree with his platform.
Kelley Paul, speaking on behalf of her husband, blamed President Joe Biden and the Democratic party for high inflation rates and rising prices. Paul also spoke on the topic of transgender athletes, stating that transgender women and girls should not be allowed to compete in sports with cisgender women and girls.
“We all know Democrat policies are killing the middle class,” Paul said, citing record inflation and high gas prices. “The economy is tanking, and every American knows it.”
Paul also addressed Sen. Paul’s criticisms and investigations of Dr. Anthony Fauci, also claiming Fauci lied about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.
When Cameron spoke onstage, a section of the crowd began chanting Breonna Taylor’s name during Cameron’s speech. Four officers involved in the 2020 raid that ended with Taylor being killed were indicted last Thursday with federal charges from the Justice Department. Booker began chanting Taylor’s name from the stage after Cameron’s speech.
Comer echoed many of Paul’s sentiments, including about the Democratic Party and Biden for inflation rates and rising prices and being against transgender girls and women competing with cisgender girls and women. He also advocated for energy independence, funding the police and securing the nation’s borders.
“Democrats inherited the strongest economy in my adult lifetime, and they’ve wasted so much of our hard-earned tax dollars that we now have inflation for the first time in my adult lifetime,” Comer said.
Comer said the solution to solving the “disastrous policies of Democrats in Washington” is to vote for Republicans in the general election. If reelected, Comer said he would become chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Ausbrooks, who is challenging Comer for his congressional seat, said as the first openly gay candidate who will be on the general election ballots for a statewide office, he was hurt by the transphobic rhetoric several politicians shared during their remarks. Several speakers, including State Rep. Richard Heath, Paul, Quarles and Ausbrook’s opponent Comer, said those who are not “biologically women,” a term some speakers used to describe those who are assigned female at birth, should not be able to compete in girls’ or womens’ sports.
“I am glad that Ms. Paul left [after her speech] because that was an insult to me, and to many of my friends. We are human beings. We are people,” Ausbrooks said.
Calling Beshear the “shutdown governor,” Quarles called Beshear out for closing businesses, schools and churches in 2020 during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quarles said he wants parents to have a say in what their children learn in schools and said he does not want to pay people to “sit at home, watch Netflix and not work.”
Cameron said he is the only gubernatorial candidate who has challenged the Biden administration in court and won, and also highlighted his work on getting a ban on abortion enforced in Kentucky.
Harmon, who was the first to declare he was running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, criticized state-mandated shutdowns in 2020, stating Beshear let fear of the virus and its health impacts drive his decisions. He also told a series of jokes entitled “You may be a Beshear/Biden Democrat if …” taking aim at Democratic policies and talking points.
Maddox also harped on COVID shutdowns, stating that she was the only candidate to oppose mandates and shutdowns since the beginning of the pandemic. Maddox said she is also against “red flag” laws, or laws that would allow judges to take away a person’s gun if the judge thinks the person may use the gun to harm themselves or others.
Other speakers included State Sen. Jason Howell, Heath, Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Eldridge, Ball and Secretary of State Michael Adams.
Howell and Heath both thanked the state’s emergency response officials for their work in helping western Kentucky recover from devastating tornado damage last December.
Gubernatorial candidates Eric Deters and David Cooper were in the audience, but were not on the speaker list.
