Democrats created a rising tide of blue victories on Nov. 7 that swept over two state legislatures, one governor’s mansion, a state supreme court, and a pair of ballot initiatives.
The results of the night, though not entirely one-sided, reveal that the Democratic Party has gained momentum by leveraging abortion and railing against what they describe as right-wing extremism.
The GOP, with some exceptions, appeared to be stuck in neutral.
From the Virginia Legislature to the Kentucky governor’s mansion, and from the school boards of suburban Washington, D.C., to the corner office in Jackson, Mississippi, here’s what you need to know about this week’s election results—and what they mean for 2024.
1. Democrats Can Win in Red States
Former President Donald Trump won Kentucky by 26 percentage points in 2020, yet Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear was elected to a second term embracing a message of unity and distancing himself from President Joe Biden.
That bodes well for moderate Democrats in 2024, not so much for President Biden.
Kentucky has a Republican supermajority in the state Legislature. Republicans have won the state in nine of the past 11 presidential elections and have captured U.S. Senate races in Kentucky since 1998. However, only two Republicans have been elected governor of Kentucky in the past 50 years.
Mr. Beshear owned a 16-percentage point lead in an early October poll released by Emerson College. On Nov. 3, Emerson College published a survey that showed that the race was in a dead heat, with both candidates at 47 percent.
In 2019, Mr. Beshear defeated incumbent Republican Gov. Matt Bevin by about 5,000 votes. He won on Nov. 7 by about 67,000 votes, according to The Associated Press.
The governor consistently told reporters that President Biden wasn’t relevant to what was happening in Kentucky and that the race was solely about the present and future of the state.
Voters apparently believed Mr. Beshear, who also helped himself by being on the spot during recent crises in the Bluegrass State: a mass shooting in Louisville in April and record flooding in the eastern half of the state in the summer of 2022.
Multiple Democrats nationwide have pointed to Mr. Beshear’s winning campaign as a blueprint for 2024, when the parties will contest the White House, one-third of the Senate, the entire House of Representatives, 11 governorships, and more than 6,500 state legislative seats.
By Lawrence Wilson, Samantha Flom, Terri Wu, Jeff Louderback
