If I may be permitted to agree with Dominic’s post agreeing with my post, I’d like to add a note on Kentucky. Dominic writes:

In Kentucky, voters really like Beshears. The first Beshear, Steve, was elected attorney general in 1979, lieutenant governor in 1983, and governor in 2007 and 2011. The only statewide general election he lost was against Mitch McConnell for Senate in 1996. His son, Andy, was elected attorney general in 2015 and governor in 2019 and now again in 2023. The 2023 elections for attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, and agriculture commissioner were all blowout Republican wins, but none of the Democratic candidates in those races was named “Beshear.” Holding gubernatorial elections in odd-number years probably helps Kentucky voters separate the governor’s office from federal elections in even-number years. The state has only elected two Republican governors, each only for one term, since 1972, despite consistently voting for Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul (and Jim Bunning before him), and GOP presidential tickets for most of that span.

This is true. The state has, indeed, only elected two Republican governors, each only for one term, since 1972. One reason that this has persisted in spite of our partisan polarization is that, thanks to the overwhelming Republican advantage in the state legislature, the people of Kentucky are able to get Republican policy while having a Democratic governor. There are 38 members of Kentucky’s state senate; 31 of them are Republicans. There are 100 members of Kentucky’s House; 80 of them are Republicans. That’s not just supermajority control; that’s super-supermajority control. In Kentucky, the legislature can override a veto with a simple majority of the total number of elected members in each chamber. There is, as a result, no universe in which the Republican will lose a fight.

Why does that matter? Well, it matters because it made sure that the election in Kentucky was about nothing much at all. Often, gubernatorial contests involve one party saying to the public, “get rid of these guys, and we’ll be able to do X or Y.” In Kentucky, that wasn’t possible. Beshear or no Beshear, the outcome was going to be exactly the same. During this year’s session, the state legislature overrode every single veto that Beshear offered up. As Dominic suggests, voters in Kentucky “really like Beshears” and they’re also pretty conservative, and under Kentucky’s current arrangement, they get to have it both ways: They get the Beshear family in charge of the executive branch, and the Republican party in control of the state. As a policy guy, I know which I’d rather have.