WWTBAM Bored

The Democrat won a special election today for a legislative seat in Kentucky. Donny won that district with 72% of the vote in 2016. The Republican candidate today won a little under 32% of the vote.

I'm not expecting a 40-point swing across the board come November, of course. I'd cheerfully settle for half of that. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote:The Democrat won a special election today for a legislative seat in Kentucky. Donny won that district with 72% of the vote in 2016. The Republican candidate today won a little under 32% of the vote.

I'm not expecting a 40-point swing across the board come November, of course. I'd cheerfully settle for half of that. --Bob

This was somewhat of an unusual election. The Republican incumbent committed suicide in December after being accused of assaulting a 17-year-old girl at a church where he was the pastor. His widow announced the next day she was running for his seat in a special election and claimed all the allegations against her husband weren't true. So, there were undoubtedly some factors here you won't find in most legislative races.

silverscreenselect wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:The Democrat won a special election today for a legislative seat in Kentucky. Donny won that district with 72% of the vote in 2016. The Republican candidate today won a little under 32% of the vote.

I'm not expecting a 40-point swing across the board come November, of course. I'd cheerfully settle for half of that. --Bob

This was somewhat of an unusual election. The Republican incumbent committed suicide in December after being accused of assaulting a 17-year-old girl at a church where he was the pastor. His widow announced the next day she was running for his seat in a special election and claimed all the allegations against her husband weren't true. So, there were undoubtedly some factors here you won't find in most legislative races.

No such thing as an unusual election in Kentucky. The guy who killed himself referred to himself as "the Pope." His widow not only claimed the allegations weren't true, but that they were part of an organized smear campaign by her Democratic opponent. The victorious Democrat is herself a widow, and her husband represented the district for many years. She took over and won several elections after his death in a car crash, until the 2016 election. There are lots of people in Kentucky who like Trump, but that number is positively dwarfed by the number who hate Hillary Clinton with the fire of a thousand suns. So the Republicans were a less than 2 year blip in the electoral history of Bullitt County.

Not that this isn't heartening for Democrats. But any local could have told you Belcher was going to win months ago. The margin might be a little surprising.