McPherson: Big GOP Wins in Kentucky and Virginia

Tea Party favorite Matt Bevin trounced his Democratic rival in Kentucky’s gubernatorial election yesterday, by an astounding 9 percentage points. Politico reports that Bevin received 53 percent of the vote, to Democrat Jack Conway’s 44 percent, the remaining 3 percent going to an Independent candidate, Drew Curtis.

Even more impressive is that, before last night, Kentucky had only elected one Republican governor in the last 40 years. The New York Times actually gave Conway the edge, claiming that the GOP feared “losing an opportunity” here; the race provided voters a “stark choice,” with the candidates “disagree[ing] on nearly every issue.” A Herald-Leader Bluegrass Poll also gave the race to Conway, by a significant 5 percentage points. Bevin is an outspoken proponent of the right to keep and bear arms, supports school choice, and wants to abolish the state’s Obamacare exchange, Kynect. Now he’s governor.

Republicans had a pretty impressive night all around in that state, picking up four out of six statewide seats and kicking State Auditor Adam Edelen to the curb. Edelen was being primed to challenge Sen. Rand Paul in 2016, but most likely those plans have now been shelved. Democrats squeaked by in two races, but only just. The Times said political analysts were looking closely at Kentucky, and how results there could reverberate right into next year’s presidential election. FoxNews quipped that these results are a “troubling sign” for Democrats.

Equally clear was the Bloomberg Gang’s utter failure to take control of the state senate in Virginia. The Christian Science Monitor said the attempt would “test” the “clout” of the “gun-control lobby,” since the anti-gun crowd was pouring in millions of dollars. Just as in Colorado’s 2013 recall elections, gun-control was the big issue and Democrats outspent their opponents by a long shot. And just like Colorado, voters rejected the anti-gun candidates. Democrats were really hoping for a win in Virginia, to drive momentum for Hillary Clinton. Instead they’re left with an eviscerated lame duck governor facing a hostile legislature.