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Gov. Andy Beshear has won the Kentucky governor’s race, beating his Trump-endorsed challenger, Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, to secure a second term. *** The 45-year-old Beshear, son of former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, is the first Democratic governor to win reelection in the commonwealth since 2011, when his father accomplished the same feat. *** In one of the nation’s most expensive political campaigns, where nearly $74 million was raised and spent, Beshear maintained a high level of popularity in his first term as governor despite being a Democrat in Kentucky’s increasingly Republican-leaning political climate. In his re-election pitch to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — When former President Donald Trump was asked to list those he considers the future leaders of the Republican Party, he quickly rattled off names including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Conspicuously absent from the list: Mike Pence. The former vice president is steadily reentering public life as he eyes a potential run for the White House in 2024. He’s joining conservative organizations, writing op-eds, delivering speeches and launching an advocacy group that will focus on promoting the Trump administration’s accomplishments.

Discuss Trump's Coattails.

This month’s election produced great newsfor Republicans but sobering news for Democrats in the Pennsylvania Legislature. The question, however, remains if the GOP will capitalize on its expanded political fortunes to enact sound public policies. Not only did Republicans expand their House majority by three seats, they won a veto-proof majority in the Senate, which, of course, is a very important tool with a a governor of the opposite party. The House will have its largest majority in nearly 60 years. That Senate majority will be the largest in nearly 70 years. And with fewer moderates among the majority party’s...

You know the big stuff already: Donald Trump won the presidency, defeating Hillary Clinton by bursting through her leaky blue firewall.... Meanwhile, here are three lower-profile results that are worth noting: (1) Oregon's Democratic Secretary of State went down to defeat, marking the first GOP victory in a statewide election in 14 years. More significantly, the loser of this race was known to many as the infamous bully who led the charge to fine a Christian-owned bakery $144,000 for declining to provide services to a same-sex wedding... (2) In Colorado, voters absolutely demolished a ballot initiative to create a government-run,...

Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's upset presidential election win has dominated global headlines, but for those against capital punishment, Election Day offered other surprise: three states voted to reinstate or otherwise support the death penalty. The measures voted through in Oklahoma, Nebraska and California via referendum are not expected to spark a sharp rise in the number of executions, but activists say they are a step in the wrong direction. "Those states have chosen a failed, broken policy when they had the chance to move towards a new dawn," said Shari Silberstein, director of the advocacy group Equal Justice USA....

Donald Trump’s presidential victory not only helped preserve the Republican Party’s majority in the Senate, but it also buoyed the GOP’s control of state legislatures. Republicans now hold an all-time high of 68 out of 99 state legislative chambers, The Associated Press reported. Republicans also have control of both chambers in 33 states, up from 31. In Kentucky, Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo was ousted along with 15 other Democratic incumbents, effectively ending 95 years of control of the state house. -

Donald Trump’s presidential victory not only helped preserve the Republican Party’s majority in the Senate, but it also buoyed the GOP’s control of state legislatures. Republicans now hold an all-time high of 68 out of 99 state legislative chambers, The Associated Press reported. Republicans also have control of both chambers in 33 states, up from 31.

The tidal wave of anti-debt, anti-big-government voters that swamped Democrats in the 2010 congressional elections is readying itself again, poised to sweep Mitt Romney into the Oval Office, some political observers say. “It’s very, very likely,” veteran Republican campaign pollster John McLaughlin said, predicting a Romney tsunami Tuesday. “Romney has surged in all the target states,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “The undecided vote is not really undecided. They overwhelmingly disapprove of the job the president has done and will largely vote against the incumbent. It’s a hidden vote that will vote against the president.”

Democrat control of the U.S. Senate is in serious jeopardy this November. Of the 33 seats up for election this Fall, Democrats are defending 22. The GOP needs a net-gain of 4 seats to take control of the chamber (3 if Romney is elected, as the GOP VP would provide a tie-breaking vote.) Of the 8 seats considered "toss up" by RealClearPolitics, Democrats are defending six. Moreover, though, Democrats are defending 8 seats in Presidential battleground states, linking their fates to the Obama/Romney contest. In recent years, contested Senate races have tended to "break" in favor of one party. In...

Democratic Sen. Edd Houck announced Thursday he will not request a recount and conceded his race to Republican challenger Bryce Reeves, giving the GOP complete control of government in Richmond. Houck, a seven-term incumbent from Spotsylvania, was 86 votes behind Reeves on election night Tuesday, but the gap grew to 222 after localities tallied provisional ballots. The 0.5 percent difference in 45,077 votes was still close enough for Houck to ask for a recount, but he said he would decline that opportunity during a press conference Thursday. Reeves' victory gives the GOP a two-seat gain in the Senate and forces...

A Barrington businessman and influential conservative donor hopes a Thursday breakfast fundraiser in Carpentersville for Texas Gov. Rick Perry will not only strengthen a top-tier GOP presidential hopeful’s war chest but energize Illinois Republicans in the quest to “reclaim” the statehouse. Jack Roeser, founder of Otto Engineering and the Family Taxpayers United Foundation, says he traveled to Austin, Texas, in late August to hear Perry talk about initiating his run for president. Perry entered the race as a favorite, alongside former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but has seen numbers slip a bit after shaky debate performances in recent weeks. Roeser...

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

As Congress begins picking through President Obama's vast election year budget, many Democratic incumbents and candidates seem to be finding something they love — to campaign against. A Democratic Senate candidate in Missouri denounced the budget's sky-high deficit. A Florida Democrat whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center hit the roof over NASA budget cuts. And an endangered Senate Democrat denounced proposed cuts in farm subsidies. A headline on the 2010 campaign website of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), blares her opposition to Obama's farm budget: ``Blanche stands up for Arkansas farm families,'' it says. Heading into an election season in...

Reporting from Kennett Square, Pa. - As he is quick to point out, President Obama is presiding over two wars, a sour economy and an epic fight to rework the nation's healthcare system. Now tack on a trio of state and local political races. With an off-year election fast approaching, Obama is stepping up his commitment to Democratic candidates in hopes that an infusion of campaign charisma might pump up turnout. What the party is finding, though, is that the electricity of 2008 is tough to recapture. Some Democratic candidates running for local office around the country call the phenomenon...

Michael Barone compares turnout numbers on November 4 with the turnout in Tuesday’s Georgia Senate Runoff. It seems that The One has rapidly diminishing coattails and 2008 could be a tough repeat in 2010. More . . .

Political Upside Down Cake With Republicans taking control of both the House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction, things will not just be changing in Nashville, things will be “upside down” from the way they were. The word is that current Republican House leaders, Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol) and Rep. Glen Casada (R-Franklin) have moved quickly and lined up the votes for Rep. Mumpower to become the Speaker, supplanting long-time Speaker, Rep. Jimmy Naifeh (D- Covington). This is welcome news for those who support pro-life and pro-family legislation and desire to see the grip of the Tennessee Education...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Democrats across California looking to leverage President-elect Barack Obama's popularity into historic gains in Congress and the state Legislature seemed likely to fall well short of their goals. Democrats had targeted six congressional seats throughout the state held by Republicans. Winning those races would have given Democrats 40 of the state's 53 seats in Congress - unprecedented success since redistricting in 2000 virtually guaranteed both parties safety in districts they held. But partial returns late Tuesday showed Republicans with commanding leads in five of those races, with the sixth contest nearly a dead heat separated by less...

AUSTIN — Barack Obama would have the coattails to carry down-ballot Texas Democrats to victory in November and could be crucial to Democratic efforts to take Harris County away from Republicans, Obama's state congressional supporters say. And two of them — U.S. Reps. Chet Edwards of Waco and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas — said Hillary Rodham Clinton would inspire an increased Republican voter turnout this fall. "In some ways, Hillary Clinton would unify Republicans in a way that John McCain cannot," said Edwards, referring to the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, often...

WASHINGTON -- Many of the Democratic congressmen who ousted Republicans in marginal House districts last year privately express concern about the impact on their re-election prospects if Hillary Clinton is nominated for president. Because of the strong possibility that Sen. Clinton indeed will be the party's candidate, these congressmen will not openly express their fears. But they dread her impact from the top of the ticket. Clinton's opponents don't raise the question in public. But there is such underground talk in Iowa, the state opening the battle for convention delegates, questioning her "electability."