In a Close Governor's Race (Kentucky 2019), a GOP Incumbent Resorts to Racism

[Celerity]

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/09/18/in-a-close-governors-race-bevin-resorts-to-racism/

Exactly one year before Kentuckians will decide whether to reelect Mitch McConnell, they face a governor’s election in which the incumbent, Republican Matt Bevin, faces a challenge from Democratic state Attorney General Andy Beshear. According to Morning Consult, Bevin is the most unpopular governor in the nation. Campbell Robertson explained why.

He has tangled with journalists, union representatives and Democrats, but he has been startlingly harsh on less typical targets — like public school teachers. After thousands of educators walked out last year in protest of budget cuts and proposed changes to teacher pensions, Mr. Bevin accused some who picketed a state senator’s business of having a “thug mentality” and called others “selfish” and “ignorant.” He blamed those involved in the walkouts for hypothetical poisonings and sexual assaults as well as a very real shooting.

Quite the charmer, isn’t he?

The state of Kentucky shares some things in common with its neighbor, West Virginia. The population is more than 80 percent white, and the Republicanization of southern states that followed the passage of civil rights legislation is not quite complete.

The current era of all-or-nothing partisanship is an awkward fit for Kentucky. It would be easy to take the state these days for an unquestioned stronghold for Republicans, given their supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature and the fact that Republicans hold all but one of the state’s seats in Congress. But the thoroughness of the Republican takeover was recent; registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans in the state and in even some of the strongest pro-Trump counties, the rural county courthouses remain all-Democrat shops. As in many Southern, or at least Southern-adjacent, states, the Democratic label is fine for the county clerk but quickly loses its luster the higher the elected office.

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[Meadowoak]

1. Everybody around here (central KY) hates Beavin due to his teacher/state employee pension reform pla

[Bayard]

2. Toss him and McConnell

The best thing that can happen for this state.

I am a little troubled by Beshear's choice for Lt. Governor though, Ms. Coleman. No experience for the job except school board. I would also like to see him lose the, "clean coal", idea. Otherwise, he has a pretty good record.

[Celerity]

3. Jacqueline Coleman got crushed the last time she ran for elected office, but it is KY, maybe it was

a hard Red District.

https://ballotpedia.org/Jacqueline_Coleman





So who is Andy Beshear's running mate, Jacqueline Coleman?

https://eu.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/08/who-jacqueline-coleman-attorney-general-andy-beshear-running-mate-governor/766538002/

In 2014, Jacqueline Coleman lost her race for the state representative of Kentucky’s 55th district by more than 30 points to incumbent Kimberly King. So why did Attorney General Andy Beshear pick her as his running mate for the 2019 governor's race?

Coleman comes from a family of politicians — her father, Jack Coleman, served as a state representative in the 55th district for nearly 15 years from 1991 to 2004. She is a 5th generation Mercer Countian, according to Beshear’s website.

Coleman is currently an assistant principal at Nelson County High School and pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership from the University of Kentucky. She also used to coach high school girls' basketball.

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[Meadowoak]

4. She might help bring in the teachers vote. I think there's about 50,000 teachers and support staff.

[Bayard]

5. That's the point

She, herself, is not bringing much to the table. I don't see how she helps Beshear.

[Blue_true]

6. I think that she helps him a lot.

She brings in the teachers, she had administration experience in teaching and she is telegenic. Given how bitter the fight was and how wrong and corrupt Blevin was during that fight, I don't think teachers and pensioners (and future pensioners) will be that excited about Bleven.

I would not make much of her legislative race, the republican was also a female and may have been a softer republican, given that she represented a previously democratic district. Plus, the republican was the incumbent, a hard test for her democratic opponent of the republican was mostly sane and competent.