Obviously you do not live in this state.
KY is Yellow Dog Democrat through and through. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a LARGE margin.
The governor is Democrat. Most local offices even in the ‘reddest’ of counties are all DEMOCRAT office holders. Republicans do not even bother to RUN candidates in districts and counties around me - yet every one of them voted for the Republican Prez candidate in the last several election cycles.
The rural areas have a solid Yellow Dog population, but Louisville and a good chunk of Lexington is true blue. It takes appealing to both to put a Dem into state office.
For example Besher, the current “Conservative” Dem governor, only won because he put Louisville’s “Mayor for Life”, Liberal Jerry Abramson, on the ticket as Lt Governor. There’s no way that Abramson could win the governorship, so he’s retiring rather than running to succeed.
Grimes, who is running alone, is trying to have it both ways. She’s playing up McConnell’s success at gridlock (a bad thing) with her over the top support for coal and guns - hoping that voters won’t realize that it’s the Washington gridlock that’s preventing Obama and the Dems from going further in damaging both.
Now she’s having Fauxahontas come in and campaign with her. It’ll get good press in Louisville, but be ignored by the media in the rest of the state. And you can bet that they won’t be going to a coal mine, coal powerplant or gun range.
I still see McConnell as having the advantage here. He’ll hammer her on her contradictions for the next five months and there’ll come a tipping point in public awareness that she can’t both represent the interests of KY and function effectively as a Senate Democrat.