Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is projected to win reelection to a second term in office Tuesday, defeating Republican challenger Daniel Cameron, the state’s attorney general, according to the NBC News Decision Desk.
Beshear, 45, led the Trump-backed Cameron, 37, for most the campaign, but late polling showed the candidates in a dead heat.
Beshear is broadly popular with voters, with a 60% approval rating, despite governing as a Democrat in a socially conservative state where voters overwhelmingly backed former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
As a Kentuckian, I’m very (pleasantly) surprised by this result. Sure, we’ve historically preferred a democratic governor, but I thought in the post Trump era that wouldn’t matter. I was sure that the only reason Beshear beat Bevin in 2019 was because of all the shit Bevin pulled with teacher’s pensions. Anyways, exciting stuff!
It honestly shocks me that KY keeps on electing R senators while putting in D governors. Is it a turnout thing?
I think it’s primarily education. Public education is a big issue in eastern Kentucky in part because it’s a big employer and in part because our grandparents pushed it as a way to escape the mines. In contrast with most of the rest of the South churches in eastern Kentucky, especially the Old Regular Baptists, have a strong history of supporting public education. The elementary school I went to was donated by my grandparent’s congregation. Both of the Republican governors elected in my lifetime had their political careers ended by attacking education and educators.
I also think pandemic politics was at best a wash in this election. Our older and middle aged voters remember or grew up being told about family members that were severely affected or killed by diseases we vaccinate against now. Eastern Kentucky still has serious issues accessing medical care and takes childhood vaccination seriously. Vaccine denial didn’t land here like it did elsewhere. On top of that Kentucky did much better under Beshear than the surrounding states that had more conservative governors and more conservative pandemic policies. The pandemic policies and his Team Kentucky updates are what originally made Beshear one of the most popular governors in the US. He went into the election with an in-state approval rating of about 60%.
I don’t think so, the state leans red in everything else. In this same election, every other statewide election (including secretary of state and attorney general) went to the republican candidate by a ratio of like 60-40. I think Beshear’s just popular.
MA has done the same shit, and they lean ever further to the left. I’m not entirely convinced it’s a turnout thing, maybe more of a “balancing things out” kind of deal.