Republicans overtake Democrats in Kentucky voter registration. Here’s why it matters.
Republicans overtook Democrats in Kentucky voter registration for the first time in state history last month, according to the State Board of Elections.
Though not a majority, the GOP became a plurality as of June according to the voter registration figures released on Friday. Republicans now outnumber Democrats 1,612,060 to 1,609,569. Republicans do not, however hold a simple majority since almost 346,000 registered voters did not claim either major party.
A statement from the Republican Party of Kentucky noted that in 1984, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, was first elected, Democrats had a 1.3 million to 525,000 voter registration advantage.
The shift was widely expected as the GOP had been quickly gaining ground on the once-dominant Democratic majority in registered voters for several years.
McConnell said in a statement that he never thought he’d see more registered Republicans than Democrats in the once deep blue state.
“Congratulations to all my fellow Republicans who have worked so hard and so long to make this historic day possible. This is great news for the Commonwealth but it’s just the beginning,” McConnell said.
In federal offices and in the state Capitol, Republicans have already been gaining significant ground. The GOP holds more than three-quarters majorities in both the State House and Senate; five of Kentucky’s six U.S. Representatives are Republicans and both Senators are members of the GOP.
The Kentucky House of Representatives flipped red in 2016, while the Kentucky Senate has been under Republican control since 2000, despite registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans by nearly 693,000 voters at that time.
Though touted as big news by state Republicans, Kentucky political observers have expected the shift for some time given that trends in statewide voting – with the notable and recent exception of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s victory – have swung conservative.
University of Louisville political science professor Adam Enders said that a sense of heritage had inspired voters to stubbornly keep their traditional party registration even though they no longer vote for its candidates
“There were some stronger labor traditions in parts of Kentucky that might have kept people registered as a Democrat,” Enders said. “... But the extent to which ideology and party registration were matching up in Kentucky was just a little bit askew, and it’s been correcting.”
Beshear emphasized on Friday that registered Democrats were still roughly equal in number to Republicans and that he’s “tried to be a good governor for everybody.”
“We ought to stop trying to fight to move the state right or left, but to just move it forward and focus on things that truly impact people’s lives like good jobs, a great public education and access to health care,” Beshear said. “The people out there just want results and that’s what we’re trying to give them.”
One material effect of the change in registration plurality, noted by former state GOP spokesman Tres Watson, is that several boards and commissions would eventually have to become majority-Republican.
“That is the one main difference between yesterday and today,” Watson said.
At least 24 boards and commissions, a majority of them involving postsecondary education, currently require a governor’s appointments to “reflect the proportional representation of the 2 leading political parties” in the state. The University of Kentucky’s Board of Trustees requires the board’s political makeup to reflect the state’s voter registration as of Dec. 31 the year prior.
“As a tactical matter politically, that’s one less patronage slot on all the boards and commissions with that requirement,” Watson said.
This story was originally published July 15, 2022 at 11:50 AM.
