1983 Kentucky gubernatorial election

[4] Collins appealed to local Democratic leaders alienated by Governor Brown and his neglectful attitude towards party affairs.

[13] She also faced sustained criticism from Sloane for using taxpayer funds during campaigning, such as having state police drive her to events, and hosting supporters in the Lieutenant Governor's mansion.

[15] A third contender would emerge in the home stretch of the campaign: W. Grady Stumbo, a former state cabinet official and a doctor.

[18] In spite of this, he was merely a third place contender, lagging heavily behind the two frontrunners in fundraising and polling,[19][17] largely being viewed as an underdog.

[6] However, he saw his fortunes turn around in the final days when Governor Brown endorsed his campaign, as a response to what he saw as the other candidates talking "...about going back to the old patronage system...".

One was his decision to run for a second term as Mayor of Louisville, which denied him crucial time to campaign for the job of Governor, in addition to implicating him in controversies.

[18] Stumbo, meanwhile, performed best in Eastern Kentucky and among union voters,[18] but lacked a strong county level organization and struggled with finances.

Bunning refused to commit to not run for U.S. Senate in 1984, drawing the ire of the state's other prominent Republican Mitch McConnell, who had been planning to seek the seat.

[35] He wasn't helped by his cold manner on the campaign trail, for being a Catholic in a Protestant state,[27] and for inconsistent messgaing on his position towards the incumbent Brown administration.

[18] Moreover, despite some Republicans' hopes that Collins' gender would be a liability, little evidence bore this out, and her anti-abortion stance and lukewarm ERA support was thought to have helped insulate her from serious damage from more conservative voters.