Republican Matt Bevin said Thursday that conservative social issues carried the day on Tuesday in Kentucky, where he scored a surprise victory in the race for governor.

Appearing on the “Laura Ingraham Show,” Bevin said he had intended to run on economic issues, until Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and the topic of gay marriage took the spotlight.

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He noted his “Blueprint for a Better Kentucky,” which he released shortly after launching his campaign, had seven points — all of which dealt with economic issues. But then Davis resisted the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision, and an anti-abortion group started releasing undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s handling and selling of fetal tissue, and Bevin did not avoid the issue.

“I have never been apologetic about what I believe,” he said.

Most pollsters predicted Attorney General Jack Conway would hold the Kentucky governor’s mansion for the Democrats. Instead, Bevin scored a 9-point victory on what turned out to be a great night for conservatives across the country.

“If anything, he (Trump) is stealing my formula, I suppose, which is shoot straight with people. Don’t make promises you’re not going to commit to,” said Bevin.

Bevin noted he also carried 106 out of 120 counties.

“It is unprecedented in this state,” he said. “It speaks to things far greater than myself as a candidate … We gave people something to believe in.”

While some analysts attributed Bevin’s upset victory in the Kentucky governor’s race to the “Trump effect,” the governor-elect said Thursday that they have it backwards.

He said Donald Trump’s beholden-to-nobody outsider campaign is not something he needed to copy.

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“It’s the same thing I’ve been doing since before he was even in the political arena,” Bevin said. “So if anything, he’s stealing my formula, I suppose, which is shoot straight with people. Don’t make promises that you’re not going to commit to. Don’t owe anything to anybody. He and I do share some things in common.”

Bevin said he is “less entertaining” than the reality television star.

“We’re very different on some fronts, and I’m grateful for those differences,” he said. “But neither one of us are owned by anyone, and I think there’s something to be said for that.”