Fancy Farm Picnic returns to put political spotlight on Western Kentucky | State News

The Western Kentucky tradition has spanned three centuries and attracted politicians seeking some of the highest offices in the country. In more recent years, political speeches were canceled in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic and fewer Democrats have addressed the crowd.

However, with statewide elections on the ballot this year, seven Democrats— including Gov. Andy Beshear — are slated to speak.

On the Republican side, gubernatorial nominee Attorney General Daniel Cameron will speak, along with almost a dozen GOP candidates and elected officials.

Rooted in “old time politics,” the picnic gives Kentucky politicians a chance to show if they can handle “a little bit of a roast” from their opponents a few feet away and in front of an energized crowd, said event political chairman Steven Elder.

Beshear has not participated in the Fancy Farm speaking since 2019. He did not attend in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, nor in 2022, initially because of a trip to Israel, which was later canceled after devastating floods hit Eastern Kentucky.

This year is likely to be highly attended, Elder said. The grounds can hold 10,000 attendees. Over the last few months, Beshear and Cameron have campaigned in Western Kentucky to drum up support, Elder added.

“Politics is a serious business, and you certainly want to have serious conversations dealing with the state’s issues,” Elder said. “But it’s fun to be able to poke a little bit of fun at politicians, and laugh with each other, build friendships, build coalitions, have a little fellowship, eat a barbecue sandwich, drink a Sun Drop.”

In an age when political campaigns engage voters through social media, a tradition like the Fancy Farm Picnic encourages constituents to have direct involvement with their candidates, Elder noted.

Also, the picnic brings state leaders and media attention to a very rural part of the state. Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, said in this election year, “Western Kentucky matters politically because it has typically been up for grabs.”

Historically, the Jackson Purchase area was a Democratic stronghold, Voss continued. During the Reagan administration and the decades to follow, votes in the region shifted.

“We were getting to the point where Democrats might have been willing to write it off and focus elsewhere, but Beshear’s sort of surprising strength in Western, as well as Eastern Kentucky, is what’s making this governor’s race a live one,” Voss said.

To prepare for the Fancy Farm Picnic, politicians must exercise caution because of the state media attention the event gets. It’s a challenge, Voss said, to “balance both the informal and playful nature of the event with the reality that anything they say is likely getting recorded” and will move beyond the picnic through news reports and sound bites, often spotlighted and widely circulated by their political opponents.

As for what messaging to expect, Beshear needs the election to be “about local and state issues, about floods and tornadoes and economic development,” Voss said. He added that in general, Kentucky voters aren’t especially conservative outside of moral and cultural issues.

In this election, Beshear has the advantage as an incumbent, Voss said, adding voters tend to “only shop around when they’re unhappy.” Cameron’s burden is to convince voters to see a need for change.

For Cameron, a good outcome at Fancy Farm would be that he gets headlines that involve something he wants voters to associate him with, such as conservative values or law and order, Voss said.

“A failure for Cameron is if the first thing people are hearing about the event is some kind of gaffe or criticism directed at him,” Voss said.