KY Primary Election Results

2024 Primary Election Results

Kentuckians went to the polls today to determine party nominees for November elections for offices ranging from President to state legislators. In some instances, there is no challenger in November, and the outcome of today's election will determine who holds the office. As of this writing, turnout percentages were not available, but it appears voter turnout was low, which likely impacted some races.

Key takeaways from tonight's election results:

- No surprises in the federal races. All Congressional incumbents won, and both President Biden and former President Trump are the respective party nominees for President of the United States.

- In total, three incumbents in the state legislature lost their seats: Two House members (Heath and Timoney) and one Senate member (Southworth).

- "Liberty" caucus candidates' success was mixed. They performed well in Northern Kentucky and knocked off two House incumbents in West and Central KY, but lost by wide margins in other races.

House Results of Note (All House primary election results can be found on this spreadsheet)

House District 2 (Graves & part of McCracken): In a rematch from 2022, incumbent Richard Heath lost his seat to Kim Holloway, a guidance counselor. Heath currently chairs the House Agriculture Committee, which will create an open chairmanship for the next session.

House District 19 (Edmonson & part of Warren): Incumbent Michael Meredith, chairman of the Banking & Insurance Committee, easily fended off a challenge from the right from Kelcey Rock, who was publicly backed by an outside liberty group.

House District 45 (part of Fayette and Jessamine): Incumbent Killian Timoney, a public school administrator, lost his seat to a challenger from his right in Thomas Jefferson, a political newcomer. Democrats think that this seat may now be competitive in November.

House District 64 (part of Kenton): Incumbent Kim Moser, chairwoman of the House Health Services Committee and a nurse by trade, fended off her challenge from Karen Campbell, a political newcomer who is a realtor.

House District 66 (part of Boone): This Northern Kentucky open seat was vacated by current Rep. Steve Rawlings, and pitted former Rep. Ed Massey, an attorney, against T.J. Roberts, a political activist and attorney. Roberts, a liberty candidate, won by a large margin.  

House District 91 (Estill, Powell, part of Madison): Incumbent BIll Wesley, a chaplain, held off a challenge from Darrell Billings, a farmer and small business owner.

Senate Results of Note: (All Senate primary election results can be found on this spreadsheet)

Senate District 1: Incumbent Jason Howell, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, successfully defeated his challenge from former state representative Lynn Bechler. 

Senate District 5: Incumbent Steve Meredith, chairman of the Senate Health Services Committee and a retired hospital administrator, defeated political newcomer Thomas Ballinger. 

Senate District 7: Incumbent Adrienne Southworth lost her seat and came in third to Aaron Reed, who narrowly defeated Ed Gallrein, who came in second.

Senate District 17: A seat left open by the retirement of Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, Matt Nunn, a Toyota employee, won the GOP primary over Julia Jaddock, a small business owner. 

Senate District 29: Senator Johnnie Turner, an attorney, handily defeated two primary challengers to retain this seat that is in the Eastern KY coalfields.

Senate District 33: Longtime incumbent Senator Gerald Neal won a three-way Democratic primary, fending off a challenge by Attica Scott, a former House member and congressional primary candidate.

Please note that these are still considered unofficial, incomplete results until certified by the Secretary of State's office. For exact numbers on each race, please visit the Kentucky Secretary of State's website for official results.

 

Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with questions and stay tuned for our upcoming 2024 Interim Preview.

KY Legislative Update - Sine Die

Sine Die Adjournment

The Kentucky General Assembly adjourned the 2024 Regular Session sine die shortly after 8:30 pm this evening. Day 60 of this 60-day budget session saw significant legislative activity that includes, but is not limited to, the following bills being delivered to the Governor before adjournment:

- SB 91: Amended from its original purpose of a remote KSP driver training program to include cleanup and technical corrections to HB 6 (state budget) & HB 1 (one-time appropriations bill).

- HB 122: Cleanup legislation for HB 8, the revenue bill, which includes language related to PVA's, tax changes impacting pipelines, and exempting some small EV charging stations from the definition of EV power dealer.

- SB 107: A Transportation Cabinet housekeeping bill amended to include the provisions of HB 19 and HB 193. 

- HB 13: Kentucky Product Development Initiative Reauthorization.

- HB 829: Legislation implementing last year's medical marijuana bill that will go live in January 2025.  

- HB 190: Legislation cleaning up SB 188 (PBM reform) that was passed earlier this session.

- HB 162: The Numeracy Counts legislation to improve math instruction in early grades. 

- HB 499: Reform to career technical education and funding.

- HB 580: Elections reform and cleanup legislation.

The Senate also passed several resolutions confirming gubernatorial appointments, including those of Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher, Commissioner of Insurance Sharon Clark, Public Service Commissioner Mary Pat Reagan, and Commissioner of Workers Claims Scott Wilhoit.

As noted previously, we will send a full session wrap-up report later this week.

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. We appreciate your partnership in Frankfort this legislative session.

2023 Kentucky Election Results

2023 Kentucky Election Results

All eyes were on Kentucky today as Democratic incumbent Governor Andy Beshear fought to keep his seat against sitting GOP Attorney General Daniel Cameron in what was the most expensive Governor's race in the state's history. 

Up until the week before the election, most polls showed Governor Beshear holding the lead. However, last week, a poll came out showing the race neck-and-neck headed into election day. Ultimately, Governor Beshear was able to hold the Governor's Mansion by a 53%-47% margin (based on unofficial results). Most notably Beshear won several key counties including: Boyle, Bourbon, Scott, Madison, Henderson, Warren, and Daviess. 

In terms of the election's outcome on the 2024 General Assembly, we'll likely continue to see the Republican-led legislature face off with the Governor, which will likely include differing opinions about many budget and legislative priorities. This means the Legislature will continue to do their most important work before the veto recess period in order to preserve their veto override power.

Additionally, the down-ticket races held few surprises as Republicans continue to control all seats (all results unofficial as of 10pm):

Attorney General: Republican Russell Coleman, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, beat sitting Democratic Kentucky House member Pamela Stevenson, a retired Air Force colonel, by a 58%-42% margin.

 

Secretary of State: Sitting Republican incumbent Secretary Michael Adams held off a challenge from Democratic State House member Buddy Wheatley by a 61%-39% margin. Adams was also the leading vote-getter of any candidate based on unofficial results.

 

Auditor of Public Accounts: Term-limited Republican State Treasurer Allison Ball won her race against Democrat Kim Reeder, a tax attorney, by a 61%-39% margin.

 

Commissioner of Agriculture: Former Republican State House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell, a farmer, handily won his race against Democrat Sierra Enlow, an economic development advisor, by a 59%-41% margin.

 

State Treasurer: Republican Mark Metcalfe, the sitting Garrard County attorney, won his challenge against Democrat Michael Bowman, who was the 2019 Democratic nominee for State Treasurer, by a 57%-43% margin.

 

HOUSE SPECIAL ELECTION

Earlier this summer, Representative Lamin Swann of the 93rd District in Fayette County passed away unexpectedly. Democrat Adrielle Camuel, a school administrator, came out ahead with a 58%-42% margin in the fight against Republican Kyle Whalen, a home builder.

LOOKING AHEAD

Stay tuned for an upcoming session preview from Government Strategies in which we'll delve a little deeper into the nuances of the election results and their implications for Kentucky.

2023 KY PRIMARY RESULTS

2023 KY PRIMARY RESULTS

Kentuckians went to the polls today to vote in the 2023 Primary, casting ballots for party nominees ahead of the November General Election. This year's ballot consisted of the state-wide constitutional officers, including the Governor, and an open State Senate seat in the 28th District. 

In the Commonwealth's top race, Governor Andy Beshear easily defeated token opposition pulling more than 90% of the vote. This fall, he will face Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who came out on top in a competitive race for the GOP nomination.

For more information on each candidate listed below, please refer to our Primary Election Preview. Just a reminder that the election results reported below are unofficial, with 95% reporting as of this writing.

Governor

Democrats

Governor Andy Beshear  91%

Geoff Young  5%

Peppy Martin  4%

Republicans

Daniel Cameron 48%

Ryan Quarles  22%

Kelly Craft  17%

Eric Deters  6%

Mike Harmon  2%

Alan Keck  2%

6 others combined for 3%

Secretary of State

Republicans

Michael Adams  64% 

Steve Knipper  26%

Allan Maricle  10%

Democrats

Buddy Wheatley (unopposed)  

Auditor of Public Accountants

Republicans

Allison Ball  72%

Derek Petteys  28%

Democrats

Kim Reeder (unopposed)

Commissioner of Agriculture

Republicans

Jonathan Shell  57%

Richard Heath  43%

Democrats

Sierra Enlow 59%

Mikael Malone  41%

State Treasurer

Republicans

Mark Metcalf  51%

Andrew Cooperrider  29%

OJ Oleka  20%

Democrats

Michael Bowman (unopposed)

Attorney General

Republicans

Russell Coleman (unopposed)

Democrats

Pamela Stevenson (unopposed) 

28th State Senate District

Republican candidate, Greg Elkins, defeated the Democratic nominee Robert Sainte and independent Richard Henderson. Elkins won the race with 50 percent of the votes. This seat was vacated by Ralph Alvarado, who resigned earlier this year after an appointment by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.

We will have more election analysis in the days ahead.

2022 Kentucky Election Results

2022 ELECTION RESULTS

Kentuckians went to the polls today to vote on a lengthy ballot for a midterm election that saw a few surprising developments:

1. Constitutional Amendments BOTH (Appear to Be) Voted Down

2. 5 State House Incumbents Beaten (All Democrats)

3. GOP supermajorities GROW in State House by 5 seats & State Senate by 1 seat

4. TWO New Faces on State Supreme Court

5. GOP sweeps Federal Races; Except for McGarvey

See below for the unofficial election results available at the time of this writing.      

Constitutional Amendments

Both constitutional amendment proposals approved during the 2022 Regular Session were on the ballot today and both appear to be narrowly defeated with 80% of the vote in as of 11:00pm EST.

 

Amendment 1 (NO 54%-YES 46%)

Would have changed the legislative session's meeting dates and allowed the General Assembly to call themselves into a special session. This ballot question was very long and may have confused voters as there was a campaign in opposition to the amendment that linked it to higher pay for legislators.

 

Amendment 2 (NO 53%- YES 47%)

Would have provided that nothing in the state constitution protects or secures a right to abortion. There were active media and initiative GOTV campaigns on both sides of this issue. 

 

State Legislative Elections

Going into tonight's election results, most were predicting the GOP to grow their supermajorities in the State House and Senate, but the size and the number of incumbents that might lose were the big unknowns. 

Pre-election, Republicans controlled the House (75-25) and the Senate (30-8). Those margins increased today, with Republicans gaining 5 Seats in the House, giving them an 80-20 supermajority, and gaining 1 Seat in the Senate, giving them a 31-7 supermajority.

Republicans managed their gain in House seats by beating 5 Democratic incumbents and winning one open seat previously controlled by a Democrat. On the other side Democrats flipped one seat, a GOP open seat that was newly redistricted to Lexington. This Senate spreadsheet and House spreadsheet has a full list of winners in bold, but a few of those key House races to bring to your attention:

20th - Jackson (R) flip over Minter

28th - Bauman (R) flip over C. Miller

31st - Witten (R) flip in (D) open seat

37th - Callaway (R) flip over Donahue

65th - Dietz (R) flip over Wheatley

93rd - Swann (D) flip in open seat

94th - Justice (R) flip over Hatton

TAKEAWAYS: After the incumbent losses in the primary and a large number of legislative retirements this year we have 31 new members of the 138-member General Assembly (25 in House & 6 in Senate). We all have a lot of new people to get to know.      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

After this election, more than 80 percent of the House and over 70 percent of the Senate are members with less than 10 years of experience in the Kentucky General Assembly. A major loss of institutional knowledge comes with young blood, and while we'll see many new ideas come with the new members, much groundwork will need to be done to educate the caucuses.

 

Now that elections are over, the House and Senate caucuses will meet in the next few weeks to elect their new leadership teams. The House Republicans will be electing a new Majority Whip with the retirement of Rep. Chad McCoy; the House Democrats will need to fill two vacancies left by retiring Minority Floor Leader Joni Jenkins and Minority Whip Angie Hatton, who lost her election; and the Senate Democrats are losing leaders with Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey's election to Congress and the retirement of their Minority Whip Dennis Parrett. 

 

Supreme Court Races 

Kentucky has a seven-member Supreme Court elected in individual districts so a majority–four of the districts–were up for election tonight and there will be some new faces on the court.

 

- 1st District: Justice Nickell was unopposed.

- 2nd District: Thompson defeated Alcott; open seat

- 4th District: Bisig defeated Bowman; open seat 

- 6th District: Incumbent Keller defeated Fischer

We would encourage you to review this spreadsheet for more information but wanted to highlight this as the Supreme Court can often have a huge impact on issues affecting your business or organization.

 

Federal Races

In most states, a U.S. Senate race and an open Congressional seat would lead the headlines on election night, but an anticipated strong win for U.S. Senator Rand Paul and easy win in the 3rd Congressional District for Morgan McGarvey, Kentucky's newest congressman didn't make for much drama. Here are the Federal race unofficial winners:

U.S. Senate: Republican incumbent Rand Paul

U.S. House District 1: Republican incumbent James Comer

U.S. House District 2: Republican incumbent Brett Guthrie

U.S. House District 3: Former state senator Democrat Morgan McGarvey; won open seat 

U.S. House District 4: Republican incumbent Thomas Massie

U.S. House District 5: Republican incumbent Hal Rogers

U.S. House District 6: Republican incumbent Andy Barr

Looking Ahead

Stay tuned for additional updates from Government Strategies about the results of caucus leadership elections, 2023 committee makeup, and more in our 2023 Session Preview.