Election takeaways: What we learned from Kentucky, Virginia, and Mississippi – By Ledyard King (USA Today) / Nov 6 2019
WASHINGTON – The Democrats swept Virginia. The Republicans swept Mississippi. And Kentucky is still too close to call.
Tuesday’s election might have looked like a draw but Democrats emerged feeling victorious as they head into the 2020 elections since most of Tuesday’s marquee matchups were being played on Republican turf.
Former Virginia Gov.Terry McAuliffe, who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called Tuesday’s results a “humiliation” for President Donald Trump. But Republicans downplayed unfavorable results, particularly in Kentucky, saying Gov. Matt Bevin’s poor performance there would have been worse had Trump not gotten involved.
President Donald Trump’s campaign says he “just about dragged” Gov. Matt Bevin across his election’s finish line and helped him to “run stronger than expected” in what became a very close race.
Here are five key takeaways from Election Day 2019:
The Democrats’ sweep of Virginia is significant
For the first time in nearly a generation, all the levers of power in the Old Dominion are in the hands of Democrats.
The Democrats already occupied the top three statewide offices – governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general – before Tuesday’s election. Now they also run the House of Delegates and the Senate, which they captured by flipping key suburban seats Tuesday.
© Rogelio V. Solis, AP Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and current Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann electronically “casts” his ballot after voting in Jackson, Mississippi on Nov. 5, 2019.
The victory not only means the Democrats will control all the levers of power in Richmond to push through a progressive agenda on gun control and health care, but it also gives the party the ability to redraw more favorable congressional and state legislative district lines based on the 2020 census.
And that could help keep them in power for another decade.
Republicans blew the Kentucky governor’s race
There’s no real reason an incumbent Republican governor who embraces Trump should come close to losing reelection in a state the president won by 30 percentage points in 2016.
But Bevin’s acerbic style made him personally unpopular in the state – especially among teachers whose sickouts he blamed for the shooting of a seven-year-old girl because she was at home instead of school.
Democrat Andy Beshear, whose father was a two-term governor, ran a textbook campaign as a moderate avoiding talk of impeachment or other hot-button issues that could polarize the electorate.
Bevin tried to downplay a potential loss earlier on Election Day by pointing out that Democrats outnumber Republicans on the voting rolls. But Kentucky has long been a Republican state that’s trending redder.
Chief Election Official Sandy Pace wears her patriotic-themed boots while staffing the polling station at Drew Middle School on Election Day in Stafford, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019.
Mike Morones, The Free Lance-Star via AP
Chief Election Official Sandy Pace wears her patriotic-themed boots while staffing the polling station at Drew Middle School on Election Day in Stafford, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019.
It’s not as bad for Donald Trump as it looks
Yes, Trump came down to Kentucky Monday night to stump for Bevin. And, yes, he told the crowd at a Lexington rally that losing the governor’s race would send “a really bad message.”
But every other major GOP candidate seeking statewide office in the Bluegrass State won their race. The governor’s mansion in Mississippi is going to stay red (after Trump also stumped in that state recently). And Virginia isn’t a purple state so the Democrat’s sweep there isn’t as foreshadowing as it might be in other states.
Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, didn’t sound too worried that the results portend bad news about 2020, tweeting that Beshear is a moderate, “who’s dad was a moderate, who didn’t talk about impeachment or Trump, and who acts like a Republican.”
Mississippi stayed Republican
For all the glee from Democrats surrounding Virginia and Kentucky, consider this: Mississippi Republicans soon will hold all eight statewide offices for the first time since Reconstruction.
Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves’ victory over Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, who will be giving up his seat in January, means the Magnolia State will be entirely controlled by the GOP.
With more than 90% of the vote counted, Reeves was leading 52%-47%.
“It has been a long road but it has been a good road,” he told supporters in a victory speech Tuesday.
Could the results boost moderate Democrats in 2020?
Democrats had a lot to crow about Tuesday. But in the marquee gubernatorial races, it was the moderates who showed how to cobble together a coalition in red states.
Beshear appears to have won by steering away from polarizing issues like impeachment and focusing on local issues. Hood didn’t win Mississippi but he had a respectable showing by emphasizing his roots.
“I bait my own hook, carry my own gun and drive my own truck,” Hood boasted in an ad highlighting the culturally conservative persona that used to allow some Democrats to win Republican states.
It’s too early to say whether Democratic presidential candidates touting Medicare for All and the Green New Deal will soften their message to broaden their appeal. But strong showings by middle-of-the-road candidates Tuesday may help more moderate candidates make their case to voters.
