2024 Election Results: West earns another term in Kentucky’s 27th Senate District
Republican Steve West won the Kentucky Senate’s 27th District Seat Tuesday, knocking off Molly Gene Crain, a first-time Democratic candidate.
West was winning handily, according to unofficial results. With all except one precinct reporting results, he took 63% of the vote.
The 27th Senate District stretches from the northern part of Fayette County and seven other counties: Bourbon, Harrison, Nicholas, Fleming, Robertson, Mason and Rowan.
West has held the seat since 2015. He won a special election that year to replace Walter Blevins, a Democrat who resigned to become Rowan County judge-executive.
West won full four-year terms in 2016 and 2020.
His reelection keeps another Republican voice in Kentucky’s legislature who opposes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion measures, which were a hot-button topic last session.
The American Psychological Association defines DEI as a “conceptual framework that promotes the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially populations that have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination because of their background, identity, disability, etc.”
West is also opposed to measures that create a way for authorities to remove guns from people who might be a danger to themselves or others.
Crain, a Fleming County native, is a fourth-generation co-owner of the Crain Family Farm in Flemingsburg.
She ran on a “Four F’s platform,” focusing on families, farms, funding and fixing Frankfort.
West told the Herald-Leader earlier this year that one of his proudest accomplishments from his near decade in the legislature was successfully sponsoring a measure in 2022 called the Read to Succeed bill, aimed at trying to make sure all Kentucky students could read by the end of third grade.
West said Republican state lawmakers increased funding for public schools by hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two budgets.
The Paris, Ky., native earned a communications degree from Eastern Kentucky University and his law degree in 1996 from Northern Kentucky University.
Headed into Election Day, West expressed support for Amendment 2, a school choice matter that appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. Kentuckians shot that down, voting against it with 65% of the vote.
It would have allowed Kentucky lawmakers to give taxpayer money to private schools, religious schools and charter schools. The state constitution currently bars spending public money on non-public schools.
Supporters of the amendment argued it would give parents more choices on where to send their children to school, including helping get kids out of failing schools.
Opponents feared the measure would hurt state funding for public schools that serve most of the students in Kentucky, resulting in layoffs in schools.
“I kind of bristle at this idea that the evil Republicans are out to destroy public education,” West said.