Republican Matt Bevin elected Governor of Kentucky

Kentucky Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin addresses supporters at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, May 19, 2015. Bevin is locked in a tight race with Republican James Comer. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan)
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republican Matt Bevin has defeated Democrat Jack Conway to become only the second Republican governor in the state in four decades.

Independent Drew Curtis was a distant third in Tuesday’s election.

Republicans have dominated federal elections in Kentucky, but moderate Democrats have maintained control of state government. Bevin’s election gives Republicans control of the executive branch along with a commanding majority in the state Senate. Democrats still have an eight-seat majority in the state House of Representatives.

Focus will almost immediately shift to the state House elections in 2016, where U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has vowed to flex his powerful fundraising muscle to help Republicans to take over the only Southern state legislative body controlled by Democrats.

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  1. They’re gonna be sorry! (And real soon.)

  2. Avatar for buzz buzz says:

    The very smart people of Kentucky just shot themselves in the foot.

  3. Two words: stunned, devastated.

  4. Avatar for chammy chammy says:

    Voting against their own self-interests, So those polls were wrong saying the dem was ahead or close?

  5. Yep, all the polling, what little there was, way overestimated Democrats. It was a bloodletting. But guess who was safe? The person so many Democrats thought lost her last race because she wouldn’t admit she voted for Obama.

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