KY Primary Election Update

Kentuckians went to the polls on Tuesday to cast votes to select party nominees in the 2014 Primary Election. Despite several high profile elections, in particular the U.S. Senate race that is getting national attention, voters went to the polls in low numbers with turnout being measured at around 24%.

- In the U.S. Senate race, the U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell won the Republican primary against Matt Bevin. On the Democrat side, KY Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes won the primary and thus McConnell and Grimes will square off in November.

Of interest in state legislative races, there were 22 primary races in the State House and 6 in the State Senate. The key highlights from these 28 races are:

- Two Incumbents Lose: Of the 28 state legislative primary races, 14 incumbents (11 in the House and 3 in the Senate) had challengers and all prevailed except for these:  

• Senator Sara Beth Gregory (R-Monticello) lost to Max Wise a Republican political science professor. This was a hard fought race in a district that was augmented significantly through redistricting.

• Representative Keith Hall (D-Pikeville) lost to Chris Harris a Democrat local official. Redistricting may have played a factor in this race also as Martin County was added and apparently Harris ran well their.

- New Legislators: In the event that a candidate doesn’t draw a challenger from the opposite party then some primary races are the final election and determine who will serve the legislative district that was the case in 9 races (3 in the Senate and 6 in the House). These candidates join those legislators running unopposed in the General Election and will join or continue in the ranks of the General Assembly:

• Senate: Incumbent Republicans Sen. Paul Hornback and Sen. Dan Seum. They will be joined by Max Wise who won the 16th District primary.

• House: Incumbent Republicans Rep. Addia Wuchner, Rep. Tim Moore, and Rep. Regina Bunch. Incumbent Democrat Rep. Fitz Steele will be joined by Chris Harris who won the 93rd primary and former Lexington Councilman George Brown who won the open seat to replace retiring legislator Jesse Crenshaw.   

We will focus heavily on media reports of the various election results from across the state in our KY Political News email tomorrow. Further we will have an updated breakdown of candidates for the general election in the days to follow.