Kentucky Governor-elect Matt Bevin (R)
Despite running the worst campaign imaginable, Republican businessman Matt Bevin has recaptured the Kentucky governor's mansion for the GOP, defeating state Attorney General Jack Conway. With 76 percent of the vote reporting, Bevin leads Conway by an insurmountable 52-44 margin.
Given the sharp rightward trend in the Bluegrass State in recent years, Republicans had an excellent chance to pick up this seat with Gov. Steve Beshear forced out by term limits, but Bevin did everything he could to piss away his chances. A lazy fundraiser with a thin skin, even the Republican Governors Association temporarily abandoned him an effort to whip him into shape with some "tough love." Perhaps it worked, or perhaps Kentucky's long march toward the GOP was just too much for Conway to overcome—and enough to help carry Bevin over the top.
Detractors also criticized Conway for running a weak campaign, and he's often been viewed as too-slick candidate who doesn't connect well with voters. But his failings were never as obvious as those of Bevin, who excelled at pissing off members of his own party in dramatic fashion. Conway may also have been hurt by the left-leaning independent candidacy of Drew Curtis, founder of the humor website Fark.com, who is currently taking 4 percent of the vote, though that's not enough to be a difference-maker.
Still, the final results were nevertheless at least somewhat surprising, since not a single recent poll had found Bevin with the lead. Was this yet another polling fail, or did Bevin simply surge too late for surveys (the last of which was conducted a week ago) to detect? It's something we'll have to ponder.