Politicians on the campaign trail paused on Monday, and some kept going as tragedy befell the commonwealth.
Monday morning a 25-year-old former employee of Old National Bank killed five, and injured eight others in downtown Louisville, including a police officer just 10 days out of the police academy.
An emotional Gov. Andy Beshear, who was close friends with bank vice president Tommy Elliott and ran his 2015 campaign for attorney general from the building where the shooting took place, called the events “awful.”
“When we talk about praying, I hope people will for those that we are hoping can make it through the surgeries that they are going through. And then we’ve got to do what we have done these last three years after everything, we’ve got to wrap our arms around these families,” Beshear said. “Our bodies and our minds are not meant to go through these types of tragedies.”
Beshear faces re-election this year, and a dozen Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination to replace him, including former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, who kept a campaign stop on her schedule in Louisville on Monday afternoon.
Craft campaigned on an “anti-trans platform” at Impellizeri’s Pizza in the Middletown section of Louisville’s east end on Monday afternoon, according to Louisville Public Media. Craft declined to articulate how she would address gun violence as governor at the campaign stop.
“Devastated by the horrendous news coming out of downtown Louisville this morning,” Craft tweeted Monday morning before her campaign stop. “Praying for the victims, their families, survivors, law enforcement, and the city of Louisville. May God’s grace be with us today.”
Attorney General Daniel Cameron, also seeking the GOP nomination for governor, tweeted that he was deeply saddened by the shooting, and called for unity and support.
Cameron also appeared on Fox News on Tuesday morning talking about the tragedy and lauding Kentucky’s law enforcement.
Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Ryan Quarles also issued a statement on Monday, calling the shooting a “senseless tragedy.”
“I pray for those who lost a loved one and that those who were injured will recover thanks to the miracles performed by the University of Louisville’s excellent doctors and nurses,” Quarles said.
“What we saw from our law enforcement and first responders today was pure bravery as they neutralized the situation in just minutes. Kentuckians are resilient people, and together we will overcome this tragedy.”
