All the polls predicting the results of the Republican gubernatorial primary race have one thing in common — they show Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the lead.

Friday evening, at a meet and greet event at the Embassy Suites, Cameron’s confidence showed.

He moved around the room, chatting with new and familiar faces, shaking hands and posing for photos. About 50 people were in attendance, including Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott, Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower and Rep. Kevin Jackson, R-Bowling Green.

Before giving a speech, Cameron told the crowd his voice was a little hoarse from his recent travels across the state, including visits to four counties in the past two days.

Cameron said that Warren County was key in determining Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s win against former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin in the last gubernatorial election in 2019, and will likely be again.

“Make no mistake about it,” he said. “You all are going to be the difference between a Democrat governor and a Republican governor come the end of this year.”

Cameron touted his record as a “fighter” during his last three years as Kentucky’s attorney general.

During the pandemic, he sued Beshear to reopen churches that were shut down and led a lawsuit against the Biden administration to block vaccine mandates.

He’s also successfully fought to close abortion clinics, effectively ending the procedure that is now illegal in Kentucky.

And in 2020, he oversaw his office’s investigation into Breonna Taylor’s death, which decided not to charge two of the three officers who shot Taylor and charged the third with wanton endangerment. This led to protests across the city and in Cameron’s backyard, a scene featured in his most recent television ad.

In the ad, Cameron says he will back law enforcement. He has received endorsements from over 100 law enforcement officers, including Hightower.

Cameron said that if he’s elected, he will put a Kentucky State Police post in Jefferson County to collaborate with local Louisville law enforcement to “get the violent crime issue under control.”

“We’ve been talking about it for a long time,” he said. “I want to be a governor that takes action.”

Cameron said he does not plan to stop fighting any time soon. He said he will do what’s right without fear “regardless of what the folks on CNN or MSNBC might say about (him), regardless of whether folks protests on (his) front lawn.”

“We need to make sure that we have a Kentucky that keeps at its core the understanding and the recognition that family, faith and community are important to the fabric of our communities,” he said.

One of Cameron’s key initiatives as attorney general has been fighting the opioid crisis, particularly fentanyl. He holds fentanyl forums regularly to hear Kentuckians’ concerns and has overseen the first opioid settlement payments to the Commonwealth.

If he’s elected, he said he would continue to hold similar town halls.

“I think a governor should be doing this regularly,” he said.

During the forums, Cameron said people sometimes learn about resources available to them that they hadn’t previously known were accessible to them.

“Because of these forums, those conversations are happening organically,” he said. “Silos are being breaking broken down. Communication and collaboration is happening. I want to make sure we take that good work to the governor’s office.”