Special elections: Dems hold one seat, lose other due to one county’s turnout

In two special elections held Tuesday, Democrats held one blue seat, but lost the other due to Dem turnout in one county.

These elections were only to fill the seats for the rest of this year, due to the unexpired terms caused by the previous office-holders taking positions in the Beshear administration. The seats will be up again in the November election, so the winners from Tuesday will have to run again in that election to hold the seats, as well as possibly win a primary in May if they have a challenger.

House 67 – Dennis Keane seat

In the House 67 district, Rachel Roberts (D) defeated Mary Jo Wedding (R) by over 1,000 votes. The final totals were 2,955 to 1,649.

The seat had been held by Dennis Keane since 2005. Keane now works as the commissioner of the Department of Local Government in the Beshear administration. Before Keane took the seat in 2005, it was held by a Democrat, Jim Callahan, for 18 years.

The turnout for this special election was 37% of the turnout in 2018 (4,604 to 12,192). Roberts got 64% of that vote.

House 99 – Rocky Adkins seat

In the House 99 district, Richard White (R) defeated Bill Redwine (D), also by about 1,000 votes. The final totals were 4,750 to 3,731.

This seat was held by Rocky Adkins since 1986, who served in Democrat leadership in the House during the final years of his service. He is now a senior adviser to Governor Beshear.

The turnout for this special election was 86% of the turnout in 2018. White got 56% of that vote.

Secretary of State Michael Adams noted the high turnout for a special election, and said that was due to the “novelty” of a new person filling the seat. The turnout was 50% of the turnout in 2016 (a presidential year), which is very high for a special election.

An interesting factor in this race was the Democratic turnout in one of the three counties involved. In that 2016 election, Adkins won two of the three counties handily, and barely lost the third (Lewis).

In this special election, the Democrat still won Rowan and Elliott counties. Lewis County was the game-changer.

If the Democratic vote in Lewis County had followed the turnout patterns of the other counties, the Democrat would have won.

Statement by the House Democratic Caucus

After the results were in, the following statement was sent out by Brian Wilkerson, communications director for the House Democratic Caucus:

Congratulations to Rachel Roberts on her hard-fought victory and we look forward to her joining our caucus. We also want to thank Bill Redwine for running a strong campaign during a special election that was especially tough during these winter months. With these elections now behind us, our caucus is once again focused on fighting for a vision that benefits all of us and not just some of us, both in the remaining days of the legislative session and in the months ahead.

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