Michael Adams once again Republicans' pick for secretary of state

Kentucky Republicans chose Secretary of State Michael Adams to once again be their party’s nominee for the office, in yet another defeat for GOP candidates pushing 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories.

Decision Desk HQ, an election results reporting platform partnering with The Courier Journal, called the race for Adams based on an analysis of current and previous primary returns at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday. At the time, Adams had 63.8% of the vote, followed by Stephen Knipper's 26.4% and Allen Maricle 9.7%.

Like many of the secretary of state races across the country in 2022, the Kentucky primary turned into a referendum on whether the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump via "rigged" voting machines and fraud, with Adams being the only candidate who strongly disputed such theories.

Knipper, on the other hand, has over the past two years vocally touted such claims of 2020 election fraud, also claiming that voting machines stole the 2019 election from former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, without any solid evidence.

In the closing weeks of the campaign, Adams posted on social media that "we must keep the cranks, kooks and RINOs out of this office" and "close the curtain on this clown show by voting Adams."

Once the race was called, Adams celebrated his victory on Twitter, tweeting that "Kentucky Republicans rejected those who malign our county clerks and poll workers with conspiratorial nonsense."

"This didn't happen magically, and neither did election reform; they required strong leadership in the face of political and personal risk," he continued. "I'm proud to have led Kentucky in a different direction. If reelected in the fall, I'll continue to lead the country in making it easy to vote and hard to cheat."

Adams’ victory comes despite a recent poll showing 79% of likely GOP primary voters in Kentucky indicating they believe President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump was illegitimate.

Adams will face Democrat Buddy Wheatley in the general election, a former state legislator from Covington who did not face a primary opponent Tuesday. If Adams wins the election, it will be his second term in the office.

Adams received bipartisan praise in his first term for his handling of elections during the pandemic, working with Gov. Andy Beshear to expand early and mail-in voting during the 2020 elections, and then supporting a bill passed in 2021 that added three days of early voting.

More: Kentucky's secretary of state primary pits GOP incumbent against Trump conspiracies

Adams also supported legislation requiring photo identification to vote and has touted his office's purging of 300,000 people from the voting rolls who have either died or moved out of state.

While Adams says the state was able to clean its voter rolls so effectively by participating in the Election Registration Information Center (ERIC) national database with other states, Knipper and Maricle called for withdrawing from ERIC, claiming it is part of a left-wing network.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KY Primary Election Results 2023: Adams wins GOP secretary of state nod