yeah. he wasn t very popular as has been said all along here on cnn. what he did with the teachers and medicaid expansion, and his father actually passed medicaid expansion. the governor that bevin was i should say andy beshear. andy beshear s father was the one from 2007 to 2015. he was big on medicaid. it s interesting when you have a state that is that red. mm-hmm. as kentucky. used to be a swing state has john king said. now you have a state that is this red. are republicans going to bank on, well, you know, he was just matt bevin was just really unpopular and that s why the republicans lost in this state. but around the country, we have a stronghold and we won just about everything else, except in virginia they re not doing so well as well. virginia, a very different picture, i think, in terms of the analysis there and the organizing by the dnc. they saw a window of opportunity here. i think they put more money into that state than they ever have
republican governor and apparently may not have been able to do that. that s where the trump linkage comes in. it s not that bevin was not an unpopular governor. he was. he was behind in this race. the other republicans on the ballot did do better. but republicans who are going to be so eager to try to delink donald trump from this, there should be some concern there in doing that too quickly because what we are seeing what john just went through, the inroads democrats have made in the suburbs, that is real. that is a real sign of what s happening in american politics in the trump era. and republicans are very aware of that. they saw, as they went from the majority to the minority in the house, based on that trump era trend, and that is still continuing tonight. so if they just sort of look past this and say, oh, it s just bevin, republicans may be missing an important lesson here tonight. i m glad you said that. go ahead, dana. i was just going to say i just want to add to that,
teachers, he went out. this part here, look at the red there. i want to go back four years ago. it s not a ton. it s not a ton, but it s a lot more red here. you come back now, he went out and competed in what we would now call trump country, in rural, small counties that are becoming increasingly republican. he ran a complete race if you will. governor bevin tried to nationalize it at the end, trying to make it about impeachment, trying to link andy beshear to the quote, unquote, liberals liberals washington. again, let s not overread this. this is a very, very close race, but it s a democratic victory in a state that has been trending more and more red. john king at the magic wall. stand by, we have a lot more to get to. we re watching some other races around the country. i want to bring in now david chalian, dana bash, and david gregory. here we go, another election night, the gang s all here. david chalian, i m going to start with you. it s so close. i don t think bevin is going
came out of fayette county, indicating a strong straight-party ticket voting. but importantly i think what has propelled attorney general beshear to be governor-elect beshear that will be sworn in come the end of this year is what happened in jefferson county. the lead coming out of louisville, the most urban area in our state, much too large for governor bevin to overcome in the western part of the commonwealth. all right. we ll see if the prediction holds. an interesting night because you had republican candidates replacing in the a.g. in other positions, they did very well. but according to you and we ll see you may have a new governor in your state. thank you so much. it s such an important moment delivering us such big news. secretary of state alison lunnder began grimes, thank you very much. thank you, chris. take care. all right. be well. all right. this is big night coverage. kentucky, you just heard that. we are not calling it at cnn, but the secretary of state of ke
texts and emails from republicans from kentucky to here in washington who were focused on working on this campaign, saying that this is bevin. he s a terrible candidate. he s disliked. he s the most unpopular governor in the country. so on and so forth. but i did get a very candid text as well to back up what david was just saying. somebody who works very hard in fund-raising and strategy broadly in the republican party saying that this if bevin does lose, it s a massive blow because the president went down there. the vice president, fund-raisers, the republican governors association, the republican national committee, and this person said, let s face it. a republican president having to do rescue missions in louisiana, kentucky, and mississippi means something is happening for the republicans and donald trump, and it s not good. well david gregory, i want to bring you in because to their point, republicans are going to say this was a referendum, right, on bevin. but the president