U.S. Senator Rand Paul predicts Saturday’s Republican presidential caucus will help his party in Tuesday’s special state House elections.
Four vacant House seats will be decided. A clean sweep by Republicans would create an even 50-50 split in the chamber.
Democrats have controlled the Kentucky House since 1921.
Sen. Paul says Saturday’s caucus gave GOP House candidates an easy way to meet a lot of Republican voters, something the Bowling Green lawmaker believes will pay dividends Tuesday.
"Those candidates stood there and greeted thousands of Republicans. Think how hard it is to go door-to-door and meet Republicans. But what if 2,000 show up and you can sit there and shake their hands, and remind them to turn out three days later?”
Two of the open seats became vacant when Republicans Ryan Quarles and Mike Harmon were elected agriculture commissioner and state auditor, respectively.
The other two open seats are the result of Democrat John Tilley being appointed Governor Bevin’s justice secretary, and Democrat Tanya Pullin becoming an administrative law judge.
House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, a Jamestown Republican, told the Kentucky News Network
“Tuesday night the people of Kentucky will know where we stand, and where we are headed into November, which obviously will be the most consequential election in our lifetimes, as far as control of the Kentucky House of Representatives.”
Momentum is on the GOP’s side. In November, Matt Bevin became just the second Republican governor in more than 40 years. Republicans also won the state auditor and treasurer posts from Democratic hands.
Plus, along with Bevin’s strategic appointments of Democratic lawmakers, two other representatives switched their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican earlier this year.
But there’s no guarantee that Republicans will be able to cash in on the apparent conservative swell in Kentucky. Democrats still have a large majority of voters registered in the districts held by former Democratic representatives.
