Here's How Republicans Will Spin Kentucky Election Results.
As for now, Andy Beshear is declared the “apparent winner” of the Kentucky governor’s race. If it holds, which I think it will, THANK GOD! But given how the rest of the voting went for the rest of the Kentucky statewide offices, Republicans will spin their loss of the governorship as “Bevin was an asshole, and Beshear’s victory was a fluke.”
The other Democrats running for statewide offices — Attorney General, Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer, and Agricultural Commissioner, took a beating.
Kentucky
GOVERNOR
Andy Beshear (D)
49.3%
708,967
Matthew Bevin (R)
48.7%
700,820
John Hicks (L)
2.0%
28,307
99% precincts reporting
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Daniel Cameron (R)
57.6%
818,569
Gregory Stumbo (D)
42.4%
602,027
99% precincts reporting
AP has called this race in favor of Daniel Cameron with 83% of precincts reporting
SECRETARY OF STATE
Michael Adams (R)
52.1%
741,210
Heather French Henry (D)
47.9%
681,457
99% precincts reporting
AP has called this race in favor of Michael Adams with 96% of precincts reporting
AUDITOR
Mike Harmon (R)
55.5%
774,936
Sheri Donahue (D)
41.2%
574,891
Kyle Hugenberg (L)
3.3%
46,375
99% precincts reporting
AP has called this race in favor of Mike Harmon with 49% of precincts reporting
TREASURER
Allison Ball (R)
60.5%
850,810
Michael Bowman (D)
39.5%
555,326
99% precincts reporting
AP has called this race in favor of Allison Ball with 39% of precincts reporting
COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE
Ryan Quarles (R)
58.1%
816,545
Robert Conway (D)
38.8%
545,358
Josh Gilpin (L)
3.2%
44,433
99% precincts reporting
AP has called this race in favor of Ryan Quarles with 41% of precincts reporting.
The above results will give some credence to the Republican argument that Bevin blew this race. As Joe Sonka of the Louisville Courier-Journal put it, “Bevin was Trump before Trump ran for president.” Saying Bevin was “abrasive” was being kind. He was an asshole, and he never apologized for the insults and lies he told. In fact, Bevin predicted TODAY that he was going to win the race by 6-10 percentage points.
An arrogant bastard to the end.
However, while Bevin’s assholeness played a role in his defeat, Bevin should have won reelection. As everyone and their brother has pointed out, Kentucky has gone RED, RED, RED. Trump won Kentucky by thirty percentage points. The legislature is controlled by the Republicans. We have two of the worst Republicans as U.S. Senators. And we have only ONE Democratic congressman — John Yarmuth.
And while Bevin was rated as one of the worst governor’s, Bevin was able to close the gap with Beshear with an unrelenting saturation advertisement bombing campaign. I lost count of how many times I saw political ads that blamed Beshear for the opiod crisis, for allowing immigrants to flood Kentucky, pushing for a “radical socialist government takeover” of healthcare, and wanted to impeach Trump! In other words, Bevin nationalized the Kentucky governor’s race. Trump even showed up for Bevin on Monday evening.
And Bevin still lost.
To be honest, I was expecting Bevin to win. I’m still stunned. If this holds, sometimes miracles happen.
