KY and MS are fairly Republican these days, so no surprises there.
“Matt Bevin, the Republican nominee in the Kentucky governor’s race, wasn’t a very good candidate. By all accounts, he was standoffish and ill at ease on the campaign trail, and inconsistent — to put it nicely — when it came to policy. The Republican Governors Association, frustrated with Bevin and his campaign, pulled its advertising from the state.”
I think the fact that Bevin won the GOP nomination made the difference. Obamacare has proven to be an enormous disaster in KY (in the whole country actually) and I think the Republican candidate was going to win no matter what in KY.
Further, Bevin made a name for himself in his race against McConnell. While he never stood much of a chance against the entrenched and powerful McConnell, I think it gave him enough of a profile to try again. And this time he won.
In MS, I don’t think we have seen the last of McDaniel. I think he, too, will make a comeback.
It is always difficult to unseat entrenched and well financed incumbents-—no matter what party they’re in.
Matt Bevin is a bell whether (His family owns a bell manufacturer in the Bell City of East Hampton, CT.)