On Tuesday, Kentuckians will head to the polls. If you are reading this, that is not news to you – you’ve probably been in the weeds of this election for many months. In the MOKP newsletter, you could see that I’m pretty optimistic about Democrats’ chances this year. Matt Bevin is unpopular, and not very good at his job. Andy Beshear has a recognizable name and has been running a very professional campaign consistent with best practices that have led Democrats to success in the past.
While I think it’s still very possible that Kentuckians will re-elect Matt Bevin next week, I think Democrats have done what is needed to win this year. However, whether or not Democrats are successful, Democrats have a tough future ahead of them. In order for Democrats in Kentucky to be successful on a consistent basis, we need to do a lot of work.
For a long time, Kentucky Democrats survived by separating their identity from national Democrats. Using this strategy, Kentucky held the state House of Representatives until 2016 – far longer than Democrats held chambers in similar states in the South where Democrats used to dominate.
However, the past few elections have shown that this strategy has an expiring shelf life. Kentucky Democrats lost the gubernatorial election in a landslide in 2015, and the House finally fell to the Republicans (and they earned a supermajority!) in 2016. Differentiating between “Kentucky Democrats” and “national Democrats” is something that fewer and fewer people are doing.
If Democrats in Kentucky want to win on a consistent basis, we (elected officials, the party structure, and party members) need to do the hard work of deeply organizing our communities to advocate for progressive solutions to our commonwealth’s problems. Economist Paul Krugman once said “the truth has a well-documented liberal bias.” If we can find a way to effectively communicate our message to our friends and neighbors, I think we can win consistently.
Finding a way to do this communication is the hardest part. It’s been clearly documented that rural voters across the country have abandoned the Democratic primary in droves. Popular imagination sees Democrats as cosmopolitan urban elites who care about issues of gender and racial equality at the expense of all other issues.
I believe in a justice which sees so many of these issues: the gap between the rich and the poor, the opioid crisis, failing family farms, lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, plus gender inequality and racial inequity as part of the same overarching problem.
Democratic solutions to these problems means listening to all Kentuckians and building an economy and a government that works for all people. We must find a way to communicate our message in a way that it resonates with all people. I don’t know how to do this, but I’m committed to seeking that path with all the other people who are willing to walk with me.
But first, we have to win on Tuesday. Building political changes is hard and takes a lot of time. The election next week will determine whether we are doing that work from a position of strength or weakness.
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