LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Twelve Republican candidates have the same goal: winning their party's primary to beat Gov. Andy Beshear in the race for Kentucky governor.

With 70 days to go until the May primary, only four of the 12 GOP candidates vying to be Kentucky's next governor participated in the first GOP debate in Louisville Tuesday evening at The Henry Clay building downtown, hosted by the Jefferson County Republican Party.

Those candidates include three current statewide officeholders looking to move up — Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and State Auditor Mike Harmon. The fourth, Alan Keck, the second-term mayor of Somerset, in Pulaski County.

One GOP candidate missing from Tuesday's debate, former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft, who declined the invitation. The Jefferson County Republican Party said it reached out to the top five candidates based on their own research.

The debate covered a lot of ground, from violent crime to battling inflation, to medical marijuana and abortion in Kentucky.

Each of the candidates started the debate by answering the question of what their most important issue is.

Daniel Cameron: "I think just making sure that our values are represented going forward ... Having a governor that respects the values of men, women and children in all 120 counties ... I don't think we've had that over the last three years."

Ryan Quarles: "It's your issues about affordability and the economy. Inflation is hammering Kentucky right now. I've been out in the rural parts of Kentucky, and we have people that have never had to go to a food pantry in their life, have go to buy food ... or to pick it up at food pantries across Kentucky."

Alan Keck: "Stronger families will produce better workers, it'll help our schools, help our public safety crisis. We just gotta get more people to work. We boast about low unemployment, we boast about new announcements, but until people are off the sidelines filling those jobs, it doesn't matter as much."

Mike Harmon: "To make Andy Beshear a one-term governor. That's got to be our goal. It's been Andy Beshear that's taken away our liberties. It's Andy Beshear that caused people to lose their businesses. It's Andy Beshear who has put kids behind in school for a year, year-and-a-half."

The city of Louisville has budgeted more than $200 million for the Louisville Metro Police Department to combat violent crime. Each candidate spoke on how they would work with the city and its leaders to make it safer.

Harmon: "It's important when the small things occur, that people are held accountable for the small things. Enforce on the front end, grace on the back end. Because if you don't enforce it, then, 'well if I can get away with that, then maybe I can get away with something more.'"

Quarles: "You need a governor that's gonna stand up for the police. One thing that has not happened over the past few years, and what's not happening right now, is collaboration between the governor's office and the mayor's office here in Louisville."

Keck: "We've innovated in the jail where folks are getting training while they're in jail, and we tell them when they go in there that we love you, but we don't want to ever see you back here. So I think we need to take the programs that have been successful in Somerset in Pulaski County and a few other areas and mirror them across the state."

Cameron: "I think we've obviously got to make sure that, as governor, the Kentucky State Police are also involved in policing here in Louisville to help them get this (crime) under wraps."

On the issue of abortion, which is currently banned in Kentucky, all proclaimed they're anti-abortion. But Keck said he would support exceptions to the ban, including abortions in cases of rape and incest, in consideration of the woman. 

One of the last questions in the debate had to do with sports gambling in Kentucky . There have been pushes in the statehouse to pass a bill allowing it, pointing to the fact that anyone in Louisville can cross the river to place a bet in Indiana. It's something Beshear wants to legalize in Kentucky. The candidates' opinions vary.

Harmon: "I've always been against expanding gaming. Of course, from the standpoint of the governor, actually the General Assembly will make the decision on that."

Quarles: "You can go on your phone right now and do a sports betting wager on Bovado, an international company. And so, I think it's so important to look, especially in Louisville where you can drive across the river and do this right now, that we regulate and get it under control."

Cameron: "I think if we can put tight constraints around it, making sure that it's properly regulated, then I could see myself supporting it if it were to come to my desk as governor."

Keck: "The answer's yes. To me, it's hypocritical, at best, and egregious, at worse, that we can celebrate the Derby, which I do, that we can fund education through the library which I think is tremendous, and you can't put $5 on UK-Louisville?"

Each candidate also answered how they stand apart from their fellow Republican candidates.

Cameron: "I'm the only candidate that beat Andy Beshear when he tried to shut down churches here. I'm the only candidate that has brought in nearly $900 million to fight the opioid epidemic. I'm the only candidate that has taken daily to preserve the coal industry here in Kentucky."

Quarles: "So what sets me apart is that I'm the ideas candidate, but also the grassroots candidate, which I think in a crowded primary, with low voter turnout, the campaign that has the best base that shows up will win the primary."

Harmon: "I'm conservative by nature, but I also treat everybody with respect. We do our best to work through, listen, to people. And so that's why I think I am the best prepared in that regard."

Keck: "You're gonna get real answers. I don't duck and study. We've got a gameplan, we've got a platform out there. I think Kentuckians deserve to know where we stand on all the issues. Not just the ones we think are important."

The hourlong debate covered a number of other issues, including why each candidate thinks they're the best not just to beat Beshear, but win a crowded primary.

Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.