Pretty much everyone involved with the movement to defeat Amendment 2 thought it would fail.
Kentuckians love their public schools, and it was obvious that changing the constitution to allow public school funding to go to private schools would hurt local schools, and by extension, their local communities.
But watching the maps on election night, as one by one counties said no, was quite a revelation. It lost by a whopping 30 percentage points, 65-35, and failed by double digits in every county but McCreary.
“I certainly didn’t think it would win all 120 counties,” said Kelsey Coots, the organizer behind the opposition.
It was a huge loss for the GOP legislative supermajority’s prize issue in a state where Donald Trump also won by 30 points. It looked a lot like another Amendment 2, which tried to create a constitutional ban on abortion that failed by almost 5 points in 2022 , a loss that was, not coincidentally, helped along by Coots.
In both cases, Coots said, “It’s building a coalition that matters, and ensuring you have the right message and the right messengers, and leaving it at that.”