Sen. Chris McDaniel is on the road this week, crossing Kentucky to urge voters to support a constitutional amendment aimed at curbing governors’ pardon powers around elections.

The Ryland Heights Republican repeatedly proposed the amendment in the Kentucky General Assembly for seven years following a flurry of controversial pardons issued by former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin after he lost the 2019 election to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Earlier this year, the legislation finally made it through the Senate and House.

No issue committees have filed to campaign on the issue, but at least one banner says “Paid for by Chris McDaniel,” he said in a Tuesday phone interview. He had upcoming stops in Corbin, Somerset and Bowling Green to discuss the amendment.

“This is just a fundamental issue of justice. It’s one that I’ve been honored to champion for a long time,” McDaniel said.

If enacted during the Nov. 3 election, the amendment would limit Kentucky governors’ power to grant pardons and sentence commutations around elections by blocking them 60 days before their election through their successor’s inauguration in December. McDaniel’s bill this year had support from both Republicans and Democrats, and he said he’s continued to see bipartisan backing on the campaign trail. 

The “basic amendment” is about allowing voters to have more accountability to candidates using the power, McDaniel said.

“Once I go through it, across party lines, people realize what’s gone wrong in the past, and they realize the need for a fix,” he added.

Pardon controversy

In recent state history, Bevin’s pardons were widely criticized. He issued pardons to people convicted of crimes including rape, murder and child abuse. One was for a Northern Kentucky man who had been convicted of raping a nine-year-old the year before. Another was for a convicted killer whose family raised money for Bevin’s campaign.

McDaniel said one example that sticks out for its egregiousness is Bevin reducing the sentence of Gregory Wilson, who was sentenced to death after being convicted in 1988 for kidnapping, raping and killing Deborah Pooley of Covington. Wilson had been eligible for parole in 2024, but the Kentucky Parole Board decided he must serve out the remainder of his life in prison.

The senator said he became aware of the situation because of Joe Heil, who employed Pooley at Barleycorn’s sports bar in Newport.

“Joe went to the parole hearing and stood there and said he should never walk free again,” McDaniel said. “And he’s a passionate advocate for the amendment and for the idea that these pardons shouldn’t exist.”

However, some are wary of changing the state’s constitution, which has been in place for over a century.

“There is no question that Gov. Bevin abused the pardon authority and let violent criminals out of prison, some of whom then committed additional crimes,” said Scottie Ellis, a spokesperson for Beshear, told the Lantern in June. “The solution should not be to limit a governor’s pardon powers but to ensure we elect good governors.”

McDaniel said that while many hope “they will find the better angels amongst us,” governors of both parties have issued “these pardons that occur in the darkness.”

“While that is an excellent talking point, the practical reality is that governors still issue these pardons, and the power has got to be reined in,” McDaniel added. “It’s not about people; it’s about systems, and the system that’s in place is broken, and the system needs to be fixed.”

Within the last few years, constitutional amendments from the General Assembly have had trouble getting passed by voters. They include a 2022 amendment that would have allowed the legislature to call itself into special session without the governor’s say and another that said the state constitution did not protect abortion rights. A 2024 effort to allow the Kentucky General Assembly to fund private schools also failed.

However, a 2024 amendment further prohibiting people who are not U.S. citizens from voting in Kentucky election did pass with 64% of the vote.

McDaniel hopes the amendment’s simplicity will gain support from voters in about three weeks as it is “a basic issue of how does power flow.”

“There is no check on the power to pardon, and so we’ve got to get ourselves to the point where there is a check,” he said.