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    • Conclusions from the 2024 elections in Kentucky
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    Conclusions from the 2024 elections in Kentucky

    Sakege Posted on

    Another election day has ended, with many surprising results across the country and in the Commonwealth.

    “School choice” suffered a critical defeat. Former President Donald Trump won a resounding victory. AND several other notable local races will help shape Kentucky for years to come.

    From Louisville Metro Council to Washington, D.C., here are five notable results from Tuesday’s election:

    Kentuckians give resounding ‘no’ to school choice measure

    In this year’s election, Kentuckians supported a ban on non-citizen voting but gave a resounding “no” to a controversial ballot measure related to “school choice.”

    Amendment 2, which would have allowed the state legislature to allocate tax money to non-public educational opportunities, was defeated in the Kentucky vote, receiving about 65% of “no” votes. As of Tuesday night, nearly every county in the Commonwealth voted against the measure, starkly contrasting the results of Amendment 1.

    Amendment 1 asked voters if they wanted to explicitly state in Kentucky’s constitution that noncitizens cannot vote in state and federal elections. About 62% voted “yes” to approval of the proposal, and not a single county voted “no” to the proposal as of Tuesday night.

    Both measures passed during this year’s legislative session and were supported by a majority of Republicans. However, Amendment 2 generated controversy across the state before Election Day. While campaigns spent millions of dollars for and against the measure and a lot of time, it is clear that many voters did not want their tax dollars allocated outside of the public school system.

    GOP wins Louisville Metro Council

    Republicans are set to take 12 of the Louisville Metro Council’s 26 seats for the first time after likely flipping three seats and retaining four others, certainly bolstering the party’s influence.

    Party members are already looking forward to the push, and Councilman Scott Reed said Republicans “can really go on the offensive for change” Tuesday night at the Louisville GOP Victory Party.

    Newcomers Jonathan “JJ’ Joseph and Crystal Bast appear to have defeated two Democratic incumbents in Louisville’s South End: Rick Blackwell and Cindi Fowler.

    Blackwell has served on the council since the city-county merger, chairing the budget committee and previously as president of the Louisville Metro Council. According to unofficial election results, he lost by just 91 votes.

    “It’s disappointing, of course,” he told The Courier Journal. “I think I have served the district well and I would have loved to have served the district for four more years.”

    Bast, who is about to take over District 14 from Fowler, said he wanted to “make South End great again,” echoing former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

    District 24, previously held by Democratic Councilwoman Madonna Flood, also flipped red. Flood decided not to run this year, leaving room for Republican and Democratic party newcomers to compete for his seat.

    Ginny Mulvey-Woolridge claimed the seat over Tyra Thomas-Walker.

    The Jefferson County Democratic Party hoped to flip seats in Louisville’s East End, but their efforts failed this year: All Republican incumbents kept their seats.

    The Trump effect

    There was There are no surprises in the races for Kentucky’s six U.S. House seats. – two candidates ran unopposed and the other four won large majorities in their districts. All six starters return to Washington, DC

    Former President Donald Trump also had no problems winning again in Kentucky. And their margin of victory was even greater this year.

    In his surprising 2016 victory, Trump won 62.5% of the vote. Four years later, he won with 62.1% of the votes cast in his favor. This year, Trump won 64.6% of the vote with 96% of all votes counted.

    It shouldn’t be all that surprising that Trump has been able to widen his lead. In an interview last monthAs former Kentucky Secretary of State Bob Babbage noted, over the past four years, Republicans have had a 15-to-1 advantage over Democrats in new voter registrations, and in that four-year period, total voter registration voters was approximately three times higher than the previous four years.

    However, an interesting note: While Trump eked out a victory with more than 64% of the vote, not all Republicans lined up behind the party-backed Amendment 2, which would have allowed the legislature to spend tax funds in non-public education. He obtained only 35% of the votes.

    What’s next for Kentucky House Democratic leadership?

    Democrats in the Kentucky House of Representatives are considering a complete overhaul of their leadership team heading into 2025.

    Rep. Rachel Roberts of Northern Kentucky did not seek re-election to her seat in District 67. Frankfort Rep. Derrick Graham, who represented District 57, is also retiring.

    And Lexington Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, who represents District 88, appeared poised to lose to Republican rival Vanessa Grossl by a narrow margin. Although The Associated Press did not call the race Tuesday night, Grossl maintained his lead in results from the secretary of state’s office and declared victory. reported the Lexington Herald-Leader.

    Graham had served as minority leader. Roberts was the minority leader and Stevenson was the minority caucus chairman. It appears none of those three will return to Frankfort when the General Assembly returns in January.

    Democrat Erika Hancock won the race to replace Graham, while fellow Democrat Matthew Lehman narrowly won the election to replace Roberts. Republicans did not flip those seats.

    But questions remain about who will lead the minority party in the House next year; although faced with a Republican supermajority, Democrats have little power to pass their own legislation.

    A first for the Kentucky Supreme Court

    For the first time in state history, a Black woman will serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court.

    With a huge fundraising lead and the backing of several high-profile Democrats, Pamela Goodwine walked past Erin Izzo to win the race for the 5th District Supreme Court seat, being vacated by retiring Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter.

    Goodwine was endorsed by Gov. Andy Beshear (the governor congratulated her Tuesday night on social media, calling her “fair and impartial”), and former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg donated $150,000 to a PAC that supported her in the race.

    No other black woman has served on the Supreme Court. Only one black man, former Justice William McAnulty Jr., has ever held a seat on the court. McAnulty died in 2007, a little more than a year after the veteran Louisville judge was appointed to the bench.

    For the first time, state Rep. Keturah Herron, D-Louisville, will become the first LGBTQ+ woman to serve in the state Senate. according to the Justice Campaign.

    Herron ran unopposed to represent Senate District 35, a Louisville seat left vacant by the retirement of fellow Democrat Denise Harper Angel. Herron will be replaced in the House by Joshua Watkins, a Democrat who ran unopposed to represent House District 42.

    Contact The Courier Journal’s political team at [email protected].

    Sakege
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