One of our regulars here at the Pdog has expressed an interest them….
Donald Trump era votes in the states gave Republicans strong wins last time….
Even under criminal charges Trump still seems to sway voters in Red states from Democrats….
(Remember Southern Democrats?)
We’ll see if that hold’s next week in these two state’s…..
Tuesday’s races will test the durability of Democrats’ brand in the modern-day South — and how much President Joe Biden’s dismal approval ratings are a drag on the party at the ballot box. A victory for either Democrat in such red terrain could signal that Biden’s unpopularity may not sink the party electorally.
“Politics is a matter of pendulum swings,” said Ronnie Musgrove, the last Democrat to serve as Mississippi governor, in the early-2000s. “And right now, when you got a gerrymandered legislature and when you got the major voices talking about culture wars to the exclusion of all the other things, then [Republicans] got a tailwind. However, over time, I think what this is going to show is that people want more than that.”
In Kentucky, Beshear, the incumbent, is facing Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. And in Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is trying to hold off a challenge from Presley, a state public service commissioner and distant cousin of the famous late singer with the same last name.
Governorships are seen as perhaps the last refuge of ticket-splitters — there are more governors than senators serving in states their party didn’t carry in the 2020 presidential election — and defeating an incumbent governor is widely seen as one of the toughest tasks in politics. But even these races have increasingly been nationalized in recent years, making it hard for Democrats to establish their own brands in deeply red states.
And while neither state will be competitive in 2024, the races could offer early signs of the political environment, giving clues on everything from the saliency of abortion at the ballot box to which way swing suburban voters are leaning….