KET Kentucky Tonight: KY 2024 Primary Election Preview
May 20, 2024
KET’s Kentucky Tonight, hosted by Renee Shaw, brings together an expert panel for in-depth analysis of major issues facing the Commonwealth.
This weekly program features comprehensive discussions with lawmakers, stakeholders and policy leaders that are moderated by award-winning journalist Renee Shaw.
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Panelists Discuss Key Races to Watch in Legislative Districts
By John Gregory
With turnout in today’s primary elections expected to be as low as 10 to 15 percent, key state legislative races could be decided by a few hundred – or even a few dozen – votes. That’s left a number of popular incumbents in both the Republican and Democratic parties facing serious challenges just to make it to the November elections this year.
Kentucky Tonight previewed the more hotly contested primaries for the state Senate and House of Representatives on the ballot today. Host Renee Shaw spoke with Kentucky Democratic Party Executive Director Morgan Eaves, Republican consultant Iris Wilbur Glick, Democratic strategist Jared Smith, and Republican strategist Tres Watson.
A big storyline in this year’s primaries is whether so-called Liberty Republicans can continue to unseat traditional Republicans. Members of the more conservative faction stunned Republican leaders in the 2022 primaries by defeating three popular GOP incumbents who chaired legislative committees in Frankfort.
Watson, who has a political action committee that supports what he calls traditional, pro-business, small-government Republicans, says the Liberty faction is an odd mixture of far-right social conservatives with Libertarian leanings and a streak of populism. They also tend to reject compromise, say Watson and Glick,
“We have some candidates and some incumbents that… they’d rather prove a point than get something done,” says Glick.
“There’s room for discontent and there’s room for debate,” says Watson. “But when you’re opposing some of the signature pieces of legislation from your party in a given session, you’re going to make enemies in leadership.”
Some voters may cheer an iconoclastic lawmaker who wants shake things up in Frankfort, but Smith says they also need to evaluate what those Liberty representatives and senators have actually accomplished for their constituents.
“How much blacktop did they get for their districts? What economic development did they do?” asks Smith. “They don’t do anything because they don’t stand for anything. They just go there and rant and rave.”
While several Liberty candidates are on the ballot today, Watson doesn’t think enough will be elected to cause a change in Republican leadership in the House and Senate. But Eaves says even in small numbers, Liberty legislators can cause headaches for House Speaker David Osborne and Senate President Robert Stivers.
“The more Liberty folks win (today), the more you will see that disruption for the sake of disruption,” says Eaves. “They just want to be angry about something.”
