“The one they lost was to a popular incumbent.”
Yes, Bashear (sp?) is VERY popular, like 60% popular in his R state. So, not sure why you’d think you could unseat him, just because some other person stinks.
In KY, Beshear ran a pretty good campaign, and Cameron’s (esp. the TV ads) generally stunk.
In all the other statewide contests, Republicans won easily.
Also, Beshear made a lot of visits during his term to areas hit by natural disasters. Even though those are red areas, I think it helped him quite a bit / bled off some red votes for him.