Takeaways from the 2024 elections in Kentucky

Another election day has come and gone, with many eyebrow-raising results across the country and across 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, DC, here are five notable results from Tuesday’s elections:

Kentuckians are saying a resounding ‘no’ to the school choice measure

Kentuckians supported banning non-citizen voting in this year’s election, but gave a resounding “no” to a controversial ballot measure tied to “school choice.”

Amendment 2, which would have allowed the state legislature to allocate taxpayer dollars to non-public education options, was defeated on the ballot in Kentucky, receiving about 65% of the “no” votes. As of Tuesday evening, nearly all Commonwealth counties voted against the measure, in stark contrast to the results for Amendment 1.

Amendment 1 asked voters if they wanted to explicitly state in the Kentucky Constitution that noncitizens cannot vote in state and federal elections. About 62% voted “yes” in passing the proposal, and no counties voted “no” on the proposal Tuesday night.

Both measures passed during this year’s legislative session and received the support of a majority of Republicans. However, Amendment 2 sparked controversy in the state leading up to 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 spent outside the public school system.

GOP wins in Louisville Metro Council

Republicans are poised to keep 12 of the Louisville Metro Council’s 26 seats for the first time, after likely flipping three seats and keeping four others, which will undoubtedly strengthen the party’s influence.

Party members are already looking forward to the momentum, with Councilman Scott Reed saying at the Louisville GOP Victory Party on Tuesday night that Republicans can “actually go on the offensive for change.”

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, chaired the budget committee and previously chaired the Louisville Metro Council. According to unofficial election results, he lost by just 91 votes.

“It’s obviously disappointing,” he told The Courier Journal. “I think I have served the district well and I would have liked to have done that for another four years.”

Bast, who is poised to take over District 14 from Fowler, said she wanted to “make the 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 turned red. Flood has opted not to run this year, leaving room for newcomers from both the Republican and Democratic parties to compete for her seat.

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

The Democratic Party of Jefferson County hoped to flip seats in Louisville’s East End, but their efforts failed this year — with all Republican incumbents keeping their seats.

The Trump effect

There were no surprises in the races for the six seats in the US House of Representatives in Kentucky – two candidates were unopposed, and the other four all won large majorities in their districts. All six incumbents return to Washington, DC

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

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

It should come as no surprise that Trump has managed to extend his lead. In an interview last monthFormer Kentucky Secretary of State Bob Babbage noted that 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 was about three times as high as the Democrats. previous four years.

One interesting note, though: While Trump cruised to victory with more than 64% of the vote, not all Republicans supported the party-backed Amendment 2, which would have allowed the Legislature to spend taxpayer money on non-public education . It yielded only 35% of the votes.

What’s next for Kentucky House Democratic leadership?

Democrats in the Kentucky House of Representatives are looking at a total 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 District 88 representative Cherlynn Stevenson appeared on track to lose by a narrow margin to Republican challenger Vanessa Grossl. While The Associated Press did not call the race late Tuesday night, Grossl had a lead in the Secretary of State’s results and declared victory. the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Graham had served as minority group leader. Roberts was the minority whip and Stevenson was the minority group chairman. It appears none of these three will be back in 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. The Republicans did not flip those seats.

But questions remain about who will lead the minority party in the House of Representatives next year — even though Democrats face a Republican supermajority, they have little power to pass their own legislation anyway.

A first for the Kentucky Supreme Court

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

With a huge fundraising advantage and the support of several leading Democrats, Pamela Goodwine rolled past Erin Izzo to win the race for the fifth Supreme Court seat, which will be vacated by retiring Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter.

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

No other black woman has served on the Supreme Court. Only one black man, former Judge William McAnulty Jr., has held a seat on the court. McAnulty died in 2007, just over a year after the longtime Louisville judge was appointed to the position.

In another first, state Rep. Keturah Herron, a Democrat from Louisville, will become the first LGBTQ+ woman to serve in the Senate. according to the Honesty Campaign.

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

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