Voters at the Rocky Hill Volunteer Fire Department in Edmonson County were greeted by a unifying message hand colored on the white board, Nov. 5, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)
Does Kentucky have a moderate majority that could be harnessed to pull the state’s politics back from the far right? Maybe.
The defeat of Amendment 2, which would have changed Kentucky’s Constitution to allow state funds to go to private schools, makes it three straight years that this very Republican-leaning state has voted in a more liberal direction in a high-profile contest. Two years ago, an amendment to definitively declare the state’s Constitution does not include the right to an abortion was defeated. Last year, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won reelection.
The political map for the first two victories was similar. The more liberal position (for abortion rights, for Beshear) won overwhelmingly in Louisville and Lexington, won narrowly in the suburbs and exurbs outside of Cincinnati and received 30% or more of the vote even in the state’s most conservative areas. The pro abortion-rights side won 52% of the statewide vote in 2022 ; Beshear won 53% in 2023 .