Daniel Cameron (Kentucky politician)


Daniel Jay Cameron is an American politician, former football player, and lawyer who is the 51st Attorney General of Kentucky. Cameron is the first Republican elected to the office since 1944 and is the first African-American Attorney General of Kentucky.

Early life and education

Cameron grew up in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. His mother was a professor at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and his father owned a local coffee shop. A history buff as a boy, Cameron attended John Hardin High School in Elizabethtown and won a prize scholarship named in honor of Senator Mitch McConnell to attend the University of Louisville. At Louisville, Cameron played on the Louisville Cardinals football team in 2005 and 2006. A defensive back, Cameron came off the bench for the first two games of the 2006 season, during which Louisville won the 2007 Orange Bowl.
He graduated from the University of Louisville with a Bachelor of Science in 2008, and then from the university's Brandeis School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 2011.

Legal career

Cameron clerked for Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove in the Eastern District of Kentucky for two years. After the clerkship, Cameron served as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s legal counsel. In 2017, Cameron joined Frost Brown Todd as a senior associate.

Kentucky Attorney General

Elections

2019 Kentucky Attorney General election

Cameron declared that he was running for Attorney General of Kentucky on January 21, 2019. He defeated State Senator Wil Schroder in the Republican primary by a margin of 132,400 votes to 106,950 votes. After the primary, Cameron was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Cameron defeated Democratic former Attorney General Greg Stumbo in the November 2019 general election. He is the first Republican elected to be attorney general of Kentucky since Eldon S. Dummit was elected in 1944; Dummit later left office in 1948. He is also the state's first African-American attorney general in history. Following Republican Lieutenant Governor Jenean Hampton, Cameron became Kentucky's second African-American statewide officer, and the first to be independently elected.
At the time of his election, Cameron was viewed by observers as a rising star in the Republican Party.

Tenure

On December 17, 2019, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order appointing Cameron Attorney General of Kentucky. Immediately after the order was signed, Cameron was officially sworn in as the Attorney General. Cameron succeeded Beshear, who was sworn in as Governor on December 10, 2019, as the state's Attorney General. Under normal circumstances, Cameron would have taken office on January 6, 2020.
On March 27, 2020, Cameron called for halting abortions in Kentucky during the coronavirus pandemic, arguing it was an elective medical procedure that should fall under the statewide ban for the duration of the pandemic.

Breonna Taylor case

Following the police killing of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020, the Louisville Police Department conducted an internal investigation on the case. As of July 15, 2020, Cameron has yet to decide if the officers involved, who had been placed on administrative leave, should be prosecuted. Taylor's case has drawn national and global attention in protests and uprisings surrounding racial injustice in the United States, sparked by the killing of George Floyd and subsequent uprisings.
On July 14, 2020, over 100 protestors organized by the social justice organization Until Freedom marched to Cameron's house and occupied his lawn to demand charges be brought to the officers involved in the killing. Police officers arrested 87 protestors and charged them with several crimes including Intimidating a Participant in the Legal Process, a Class D felony. Cameron accused the protestors of trespassing on private property and claimed the protest's purpose was to "escalate" tension and division in the community.