Republican incumbent Matt Bevin lost reelection in Kentucky yesterday. It’s close enough that he might be justified in seeking a recount, but at some point he’s going to have to face the facts.
Kentucky’s gubernatorial race was one of the closest in the state’s history. Democratic candidate Andy Beshear narrowly took the lead in a late-night surge in the count. Bevin refused to concede, citing unspecified “irregularities,” and now Republicans are demanding a recount of totals that ended up being within half a percentage point of one another.
Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes has made it clear that even if her office does hold a recount, the outcome is unlikely to change in Bevin’s favor. In response, the Republican-controlled Senate suggested it could take matters into its own hands and decide the winner itself, citing a provision in the state constitution that hasn’t been used in 120 years. That would be the worst possible outcome, and it isn’t something Bevin should even consider.
Given how close this race was — Bevin lost by less than 5,000 votes — it’s understandable he’d want a recount, or a recanvass at the very least, to ensure that all the tallies were conducted correctly. But as soon as that process is complete, Bevin should put an end to this chaos and concede. If he doesn’t, he risks becoming the next Stacey Abrams, the failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, who to this day pretends she was robbed of the governorship despite losing to Gov. Brian Kemp by over 50,000 votes — a much wider margin than Bevin’s loss.
Instead of admitting her loss, Abrams vilified Kemp and encouraged the creation of a myth that voter suppression somehow caused her narrow defeat.
Republicans rightly criticized Abrams for playing the victim and abandoning individual responsibility. They should now demand the same from Bevin, who is crying foul play without evidence, just like Abrams. Bevin lost the Kentucky race not because Democrats skewed the results, but because he was so deeply unpopular among his own red-leaning electorate that they chose a Democrat instead.
It’s really a miracle the race was close. According to some polls, Bevin was the least popular governor in the United States. His plan to cut government services and reduce the state’s pension program pitted him against blue-collar workers, teachers, and the labor unions that represent them. The way he dealt with opposition didn’t help either. Even state Republicans admitted that Bevin was a hot-head whose demeaning manner hurt more than it helped.
Bevin might have walked into the governorship with the right intentions, hoping to address the state’s long-neglected spending problems, but it was a fight he couldn’t win. And Gov. Andy Beshear will be the result.
This is not a race worth relitigating — or even worse overturning — the result through arcane processes. Once it’s clear that the numbers are in and Bevin’s recount won’t change the result, Republicans should call on Bevin to do the right thing and respectfully concede before he takes a page from Abrams’s book and further undermines the legitimacy of American elections.
