LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Michael Adams, Kentucky’s incumbent secretary of state, easily won the Republican primary on Tuesday against two challengers.
Adams had garnered 63.9% percent of the vote by 7:02 p.m. The Associated Press called the race at that point.
He will face Democratic opponent Buddy Wheatley, a former state House member from Covington, in the November election.
As the state’s chief elections official, Adams ran for reelection on accomplishments ranging from increased early voting to removing dead voters from voting lists.
But he attracted two primary challengers -- Steve Knipper, who campaigned on unproven claims about Kentucky election security, and former state House member Allen Maricle of Bullitt County.
"Today, Kentucky Republicans rejected those who malign our county clerks and poll workers with conspiratorial nonsense," Adams said in a statement. "This didn't happen magically, and neither did election reform; they required strong leadership in the face of political and personal risk."
He said if reelected this year he'll continue making it "easy to vote and hard to cheat."
Adams singled out Knipper in the weeks leading up to the election, tweeting last Friday that Knipper “has spent years tearing down our election officials with spurious rumor-mongering and false accusations.”
First elected in 2019, Adams was thrust into pandemic-related changes to voting early in his tenure. He and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear brokered a deal in 2020 to allow mail-in voting in that year’s general election and more in-person voting before election day.
Adams is a former general counsel for the Republican Governors Association who worked for U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and in the administration of former President George W. Bush.
This story may be updated.
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