With Stunning Win, Republican Matt Bevin Becomes Kentucky Governor-Elect

With only days left to go before Tuesday’s elections, Democrat Jack Conway seemed to have a solid lead against upstart Republican challenger Matt Bevin in the race to replace out-going Governor Steve Beshear. After all, a Bluegrass Poll published on September 30 firmly put Conway’s lead at 5 percentage points.

However, by the end of the day Tuesday it was the sometimes-contentious Bevin flanked by his large family who smiled as Kentucky’s Governor-Elect. The founder of Fark.com Drew Curtis — who we reported on as an Independent third-party candidate for the position — fell to a distant third when the votes were tallied.

Bevin painted himself during his candidacy as the true outsider candidate, having never served public office. The 48-year-old father of nine has worked in investment banking, and showed temperament challenges with members of the media. Late into the night, the vote tally favored Bevin at 53% compared to Conway’s 44%.

And here in the heart of Kentucky of course, even a gubernatorial race could not escape a peppering of Donald Trump. Elisabeth Pearson of the Democratic Governor’s Association offered the following statement to explain where Conway fell short, attributing the Donald’s national surge:

“Attorney General Jack Conway ran a strong campaign focused on the issues that matter to Kentuckians: good schools, good-paying jobs and economic opportunity… Unfortunately, he ran into the unexpected headwinds of Trump-mania, losing to an outsider candidate in the year of the outsider. While Jack Conway came up just short tonight, his presence in this race strengthened the issues debate in Kentucky.”

Conway went on to say regarding his 9 p.m. concession phone call to Bevin, “It was a cordial phone call. I told him I remain positive about moving this state forward, and if he ever needed any assistance, this Democrat was at his disposal.”

[featured images via Wikipedia Commons]

—

>> Follow J.D. Durkin on Twitter (@MediaiteJD)