a sort of economic populism. i wonder david mentioning again those rural counties, those rural counties in coal country kentucky they are painted blue tonight. does that have something to do, you think, bevin and medicaid expansion. that b was one of the major pois of contention in his governorship. steve, this is a classic. go back to the early history of this state. this is a border state. this is a state you go through the union wars, the harlan county war in southeastern kentucky. now that place is a hugely republican area. even tonight you look at the margins there, you re talking about something like 75/25, republican, but it was the place the strike breakers came in against the coal miners and the union organizers. a state with a hugely volatile political history over the years and definitely one where there s absolutely been a populism running through its veins for many years that was democratic at one point then republican at another, and i think you re
what donald trump has tried to do. donald trump has spent his presidency trying to take health care away from people. trying to repeal completely obamacare. and so the the campaign run against matt bevin in kentucky is the campaign you would run against donald trump nationally. it s so hard to tell sometimes, lawrence, because the president talks about how he s going to preserve various things that his government is trying to tyke away at the very same time. you know, he goes out on the stump and talks about preserving medicare, but you look at his budget and it s undercuts marc. he says he s going to preserve pre-existing condition protections and the government is suing to undermine them. you think that s something that the democratic presidential candidates are going to spend a lot of time on in this primary and eventually a nominee will spend a lot of time on in the general election, much like democratic candidates did in the midterms to great success. trump will have to defend
can see here, we are declaring him he s going to win the popular vote here in mississippi. they do something peculiar in mississippi. to become governor you got to win a majority of the popular vote and you got to win a majority of the state legislativeri districts. it s a strange provision you don t have anywhere else. there are 122 state legislative districts. we think basedgi on the voting patterns and the history reeves is going to get somewhere 70, 80, something like that in terms of the districts, he will end up getting that majority and becoming governor but we re not going to know until tomorrow to make that officially. so officially he s won the popular w vote. we ll see about the state legislative districts. the republicans put up the win there, but the big story of the night, the republican incumbent going down in kentucky. andin joining us now on the pho, phillip bailey, political writer with the louisville currier journal. phil, thank you for joining us. i want to star
across the finish line lost. but on the other hand, as he does point out in his tweet, you got to say, five other republicans were on the ballot in kentucky. they all won. four of them won handily. does this say something about the president s political capital do you think or does it say something more about bevin? well, you know, it s interesting. the special elections always become these big anecdotal points of argument and it can be a bit overstated. bevin had a lot of trouble before this. that said, this is a 30-point trump state and he couldn t drag the governor, the incumbent, who normally has the advantages over the finish line. that is a sign of weakness, but i think the bigger story is the same story we ve seen in 17, 2017 in the specials, in 2018 in the midterms. which is a republican collapse in the suburbs. which is a key part of our winning coalition. so if you re a senator and you re looking at yet another loss, a pattern that s pretty much uninterrupted, a record of
against the senate majority leader in his race next year. don t think this is something that can t happen to him. republicans had a great night. won every other constitutional seat except for bevin. they re even saying this is a very specific referendum onth governor bevin and his behavior and leadership style. iav think you raise an interesting point there. i m curious if you can elaborate onif that. i think a lot of people are looking at this race. obviously this was a state that trump won by 30 points in 2016. it s very pro-trump yet you have the republican losing. to what extent do you have a sense, i - guess, to what exten the result tonight says something about trump versus bevin? right. i think that there was clearly those of us in kentucky understood there was particularly among public educators and teachers who are a key part w of andy beshear s campaign, they have been itching to get a piece of matt bevin for years.in he has made several comments aimed at them in his