One question asked Craft how she’d “combat the transgender agenda” in classrooms. Craft noted that [running mate state Sen. Max Wise] sponsored the measure dealing with, among other things, school bathroom policies, curriculum and which pronouns are used to refer to transgender students.
Craft added: “Under a Craft-Wise administration, we will not have transgenders in our school system.”
She later doubled down in answering the same question, saying: “Under a Craft-Wise administration, we will not have transgender.”
Her campaign staff quickly scrambled to explain—but not really explain—that Craft did not mean the words she said and repeated but was referring to “woke ideologies being pushed” in state schools, which is not at all what she said. Either they’re lying (very likely), or their candidate cannot properly use her word-hole (equally likely), or both.
Of course she meant what she said; vowing that “we will not have transgenders in our school system” is exactly what the rabid pro-coup Republican base wants to hear. The campaign staff was sent out afterward to shovel some manure about it to the media and non-Republicans, who recoiled in horror at a promise to somehow vanish children who don’t adhere to party-issued rules on how they identify themselves.
Whether Craft gets the nomination will probably depend on her aforementioned ability to flood the race with her own money in order to deflect against her own sometimes-bizarre campaign behavior. She has the support of the worst man in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Ted Cruz, who burped up some random drivel about the “Chinese Communist Party” in his weird endorsement. Seditious conspirator Donald Trump is backing an opponent, so apparently, she didn’t impress him during her ambassadorial stint.
Craft’s history of using her family’s cash to buy influence, even though she’s about as articulate as a can of spray cheese, is not new. After being nominated by Trump for the position of U.N. ambassador (Trump’s previous nominee was forced out of consideration due to scandals and racism, go figure), Craft proved to be Not Too Good At This Politics Stuff with a cringeworthy attempt to word salad her way through a climate change question posed to her.
Whether Craft is a good public speaker is, of course, among the least important considerations Republican primary voters will have in deciding if she will be the challenger to incumbent Gov. Beshear. Her vow to somehow eliminate “transgenders” in Kentucky’s public schools is both terrifying and likely just what the party’s hate-riddled base most wants to hear. Whether she can—or even will try to—backpedal from such a monstrous statement in the general election is another question.
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How do you make a campaign ad that voters actually want to watch? We’re discussing that critical question on this week’s episode of “The Downballot” with leading Democratic ad-maker Mark Putnam, who’s been responsible for some of the most memorable spots in recent years. Putnam details his creative process, which always starts with spending time with candidates to truly learn their story—and scouting locations in-depth. He then walks us through the production of the famous Jason Kander-assembles-a-gun-blindfolded ad that went viral and explains why, believe it or not, you always want footnotes in your attack ads.
