Republican statewide candidates speak at Lincoln Day Dinner

Feb. 13--CAVE CITY -- Community members listened to various Republican candidates during the annual Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday night at the Cave City Convention Center.

Ralph Alvarado, who is running for lieutenant governor on the same ticket as incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin, said the Bevin administration has helped make Kentucky more business-friendly, improved the state's education and workforce training capabilities and has pushed back on federal government overreach.

"I have a unique appreciation of how the Bevin agenda flows from the founding principles of what has made America the greatest nation on Earth," he said. "Principles like smaller government, the right to self-determination, the rule of law, the inherent worth of the individual -- and the power of what that individual (can do) to elevate their communities when they are empowered with the opportunity to meaningful work and the fruits of their honest labor."

Alvarado said these are not outdated concepts, and "these are the foundational principles of who we are as Americans and as Kentuckians," adding that his life experience is "the epitome of the American dream."

"My parents immigrated here legally as highly skilled professionals," he said. "They recognized at a very young age that America and the American ideal could provide them with opportunities that they could only dream of in their native lands."

Alvarado said he thinks life begins at conception.

"We must face the stark and daunting reality that many who oppose us have no regard for life, and no respect for the truth that humans are made in the image of God," he said. "We have to stand together to defend our freedom and our right to practice our faith unimpeded by government.

"We must fight for those self-evident truths that made us great as a country and as a society."

Daniel Cameron, who is running for attorney general, said "we need someone in that office that will protect the rights of the unborn."

"I'm sure some of you all have seen some of the commentary that we've seen out of New York, the cheering for a late-term abortion bill," he said. "Those sorts of values will not creep into Kentucky if I'm the attorney general."

Wil Schroder, who is also running for attorney general, said his platform is based on three things -- faith, family and freedom. He said that Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear has refused to stand up for the "good, pro-life measures that we continue to pass out of the general assembly."

"What we're seeing out of Virginia and New York is disgusting," he said. "It's unfathomable, and I thank God that I work with good men like (Sen. David Givens) and the general assembly to pass good, pro-life legislation.

"We must have an attorney general who's willing to stand up and fight for that."

Four candidates for secretary of state spoke at the event -- Michael Adams, Andrew English, Stephen Nipper and Carl "Trump" Nett.

Adams said his No. 1 priority is requiring a photo ID to vote in Kentucky elections.

English said if he was elected as secretary of state, "there will not be election fraud in the commonwealth of Kentucky."

Nipper said when he ran for secretary of state in 2015, he found many irregularities in the data from the SOS's office -- there were 18 Kentucky counties with more registered voters than citizens -- and that he would work toward cleaning up those voter roles.

Nett said he is running for secretary of state "because I think I have the right skill set at the right time in history," as he is a trained criminal investigator and a trained intelligence and counterintelligence officer. "I can safeguard our elections."

Incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles spoke at the event as well as Bill Polyniak, who is also running for ag commissioner.

Polyniak said he would promote an ethical dairy industry, "and we need to get some processing for beef going on here in Kentucky. We're shipping a lot of beef west and we're losing value."

Quarles said they have accomplished a lot in his term as ag commissioner.

"We have 8,000 businesses using Kentucky Proud (products) across our state," he said. "And we have 27 beef processing units in our state."

Kentucky also has 85 Kroger stores that buy "100-percent Kentucky Proud, Kentucky-born, Kentucky-bred, Kentucky-processed ground beef product, disrupting the beef market industry like Uber did the taxi businesses," Quarles said. "And we're keeping that money in the pockets of our beef cattle farmers here in Kentucky."

Two more incumbent candidates who are running unopposed in the Republican primary spoke at the dinner -- Mark Harmon, who is the incumbent auditor of public accounts, and Allison Ball, who is the incumbent state treasurer.

"I don't have a primary, but please keep me in mind," Harmon said.

Ball said "please remember me in the fall."

"Don't forget," she said. "Tell people that the state treasurer's office is an important office because it is the watchdog on our taxpayer dollars -- and I have been committed to doing that while I've been in office."

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