肯塔基州的梦幻农场。-肯塔基共和党人本周末参加了该州的首要政治活动，一心想要获胜选举但是一些渴望成为州长的候选人很难接受这个事实唐纳德·特朗普2020年的失败。

当被问及民主党人乔·拜登(Joe Biden)击败特朗普赢得总统大选是否公平时，他们给出了经过分析或扭曲的回答。他们的小心翼翼表明特朗普继续控制着共和党内的许多人，包括在肯塔基州，他轻松地赢得了两次。

周六，特朗普的支持者举着巨大的“特朗普赢了”的标语，人们聚集在肯塔基州西部的花式农场野餐会上发表政治演讲，这种影响显而易见。这些迹象——宣传特朗普关于2020年被操纵的错误主张选举—赢得了共和党信徒的欢呼。野餐会上的政治演说——在全州电视上播出——是肯塔基州全州候选人的必经之路。

共和党州长候选人将在明年5月争夺该党的提名。

特朗普已经加入了蓝草州2023年的州长竞选，支持共和党司法部长丹尼尔·卡梅伦。寻求连任的民主党州长安迪·贝希尔(Andy Beshear)没有参加野餐，而是在周六慰问了肯塔基州东部的洪水灾民。

卡梅伦在野餐演讲中提到了特朗普的支持。但他在周末对这位前总统关于2020年大规模选举欺诈的无根据说法的问题感到愤怒。

“肯塔基州的选举是公平和安全的，”卡梅伦在回答记者的一个问题时说。“听着，我们必须着眼于未来。这就是这场运动的意义所在。”

然而，卡梅伦与一些铁杆特朗普支持者的观点保持距离，这些人认为2020年的总统选举结果应该被推翻。

“拜登总统是美国总统。作为司法部长，卡梅伦参与了多起挑战拜登政府政策的诉讼。

联邦和州选举官员以及特朗普自己的司法部长表示，没有可信的证据表明选举受到了污染。这位前总统的欺诈指控也遭到法院的全面拒绝，包括特朗普任命的法官。

卡梅伦曾为肯塔基州参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)工作，并将他视为导师，他也拒绝讨论1月6日在美国国会大厦发生的起义。调查袭击的众议院小组将责任归咎于特朗普，称袭击不是自发的，而是一场“未遂政变”，是被击败的总统试图推翻选举的直接结果。

卡梅伦没有讨论国会大厦围攻事件，而是指出了2020年的示威活动，这些示威活动是由乔治·弗洛伊德、布里奥纳·泰勒和其他美国黑人在与警察相遇时死亡引发的。他说，他没有被问及在美国一些城市破坏财产的抗议活动。

身为黑人的卡梅伦甚至在他的野餐演讲中开了一个关于特朗普支持的玩笑——以真正花哨的农场形式，在那里，讽刺和恶搞不仅常见，而且是意料之中的。

“现在人们都在猜测我是如何得到这种认可的。所以今天我要说漏嘴。这其实很简单。...我所要做的就是向特朗普保证，米奇·麦康奈尔不是马肯泽的祖父，”卡梅伦打趣道，他指的是他的妻子。

卡梅伦是唯一一个提到特朗普的州长候选人，特朗普的支持一直是其他共和党州长候选人梦寐以求的，从花式农场阶段开始。

另一位州长候选人、州众议员萨凡纳·马多克斯(Savannah Maddox)在她的野餐演讲中提到，佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)是一位“真正的共和党人”，他将“为你们的宪法权利和自由而斗争”。

卡梅伦不是唯一一个努力回答特朗普相关问题的共和党候选人。

当被问及他是否认为拜登赢得公平时，瑞安·夸尔斯回答说，肯塔基州有一场“安全的选举”，特朗普在蓝草州“赢得非常大”。州农业专员Quarles也是寻求明年春天决定的共和党提名的州长候选人之一。

“我认为，如果特朗普总统今天在任，他会比拜登总统做得更好，”夸尔斯补充说。

另一位州长候选人、州审计员迈克·哈蒙(Mike Harmon)在第一次被问及拜登是否公平获胜时，给出了140多字的回答。哈蒙后来说，一些关键的与选举有关的“控制措施被取消了”，但他说他不能“以这种或那种方式做出评估。”

哈蒙说，他希望国会大厦没有遭到袭击，但他也指出了警方相关抗议活动中的财产损失和破坏，称对此缺乏关注。

“当然，拜登总统是我们的总统，”哈蒙后来说。“我们需要为他祈祷，就像我们为我们的任何一位总统祈祷一样。希望他能提供指导。显然，有些事情我们希望他能有所不同。”

Kentucky candidates struggle when describing 2020 election

FANCY FARM, Ky. --Kentucky Republicans came to the state’s premier political event this weekend intent on winningelections in November and beyond, but some candidates aspiring to become governor had a hard time coming to terms withDonald Trump's defeat in 2020.

They gave parsed or tortured responses when asked if Democrat Joe Biden's victory over Trump for the presidency was fairly decided. Their tiptoeing was a sign of Trump's continued hold on many in the GOP, including in Kentucky, which he easily carried twice.

That influence was evident Saturday as Trump supporters held large “Trump Won” signs as people gathered for the political speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic in western Kentucky. The signs — promoting Trump's false claims of a rigged 2020election— drew cheers from Republican faithful. The stump-style speaking at the picnic — shown on statewide TV — is a rite of passage for statewide candidates in Kentucky.

The GOP gubernatorial hopefuls will face off for the party’s nomination next May.

Trump has already weighed in on the Bluegrass State's 2023 race for governor, endorsing GOP Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is seeking a second term, skipped the picnic and spent Saturday consoling flood victims in eastern Kentucky.

Cameron pointed to the Trump endorsement during his picnic speech. But he bristled at questions during the weekend about the ex-president's unsupported claims of widespread election fraud in 2020.

“The election was fair and secure here in Kentucky," Cameron said to one of the questions from reporters. “Look, we’ve got to focus on the future. And that’s what this campaign’s about.”

Cameron, however, distanced himself from the views of some die-hard Trump supporters, who believe the 2020 presidential election results should be overturned.

“President Biden is the president of the United States. I don’t dispute that,” said Cameron, who as attorney general has joined multiple lawsuits challenging Biden administration policies.

Federal and state election officials and Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence the election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud were also roundly rejected by courts, including by judges Trump appointed.

Cameron, who worked for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and counts him as a mentor, also refused to discuss the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The House panel investigating the attack has laid the blame on Trump, saying the assault wasn't spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the election.

Instead of discussing the Capitol siege, Cameron pointed to 2020 demonstrations spurred by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans in encounters with police. He said he doesn't get asked about protests that destroyed property in some of the nation's cities.

Cameron, who is Black, even cracked a joke about the Trump endorsement in his picnic speech — in true Fancy Farm form, where zingers and spoofs are not only common but expected.

“Now people have speculated about how I got that endorsement. So today I’m going to spill the beans. It was actually pretty easy. ... All I had to do was assure Trump that Mitch McConnell is not Makenze’s grandfather,” Cameron quipped, referring to his wife.

Cameron was the only gubernatorial candidate to mention Trump, whose endorsement had been coveted by other GOP candidates for governor, from the Fancy Farm stage.

In her picnic speech, state Rep. Savannah Maddox, another gubernatorial candidate, mentioned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as an “authentic Republican" who will "fight for your constitutional rights and freedoms.”

Cameron wasn't the only GOP candidate to struggle answering Trump-related questions.

Asked if he thinks Biden won fairly, Ryan Quarles replied that Kentucky had a “secure election” and that Trump “won tremendously” in the Bluegrass State. Quarles, the state agriculture commissioner, is also among the gubernatorial candidates seeking the GOP nomination to be decided next spring.

“I think that President Trump would be doing a lot better job than President Biden if he was in office today," Quarles added.

Another gubernatorial hopeful, state Auditor Mike Harmon, gave a more than 140-word response when first asked if Biden won fairly. Harmon later said some key election-related “controls were taken off" but said he couldn't “make an assessment one way or the other.”

Harmon said he wished there wasn't an attack on the Capitol, but also pointed to the damage and destruction of property during police-related protests, saying there's a lack of attention to that.

“Certainly, President Biden is serving as our president,” Harmon said later. “We need to pray for him just the same as we would pray for any of our presidents. And hopefully he provides guidance. There's some things we wish he would do differently, obviously.”