Fellow Kentuckian. If I may offer a counter point, Beshear beat a white male republican incumbent in 2019 to obtain his office in the first place. So, while I agree that him winning probably isn’t the landslide victory democrats are making it out to be, I do think your view is a bit more cynical than reality.
Two reasons I’m not convinced of this idea that it’s some template for democrats
your point about republicans winning everything else
Kentucky isn’t as “deep red” at the local level as media would have you believe. We’ve flipped from democratic to republican governors basically every election since 1995 (possibly earlier, but I stopped looking)
Maybe their point is a dem might win ky only if the opponent is a black man or someone so unbelievably assholeish like bevin. Ie. It’s saying more about the competition than anything beshear has done or said and offers no real lessons for Democrats otherwise.
Fellow Kentuckian. If I may offer a counter point, Beshear beat a white male republican incumbent in 2019 to obtain his office in the first place. So, while I agree that him winning probably isn’t the landslide victory democrats are making it out to be, I do think your view is a bit more cynical than reality.
Two reasons I’m not convinced of this idea that it’s some template for democrats
Tennessee used to be somewhat of a swing state too, and has a pretty similar culture.
Then a black man became president.
Not really buying that race wasn’t a primary factor anymore tbh.
Do you not remember how much everyone hated Bevin? He only beat him by around 5,000ish votes
I’m acutely aware that Bevin was massively unpopular. So?
Maybe their point is a dem might win ky only if the opponent is a black man or someone so unbelievably assholeish like bevin. Ie. It’s saying more about the competition than anything beshear has done or said and offers no real lessons for Democrats otherwise.