LOUISVILLE, Ky. — While every other statewide race went to the Republican candidate, Kentuckians reelected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear Tuesday.
Just over 694,000 voters picked the Democratic incumbent over Republican challenger Daniel Cameron. While that number is lower than the number of Kentuckians who voted for Beshear in 2019, he won with 53% of the vote compared to just 49.2% last election.
In 2019, Beshear won blue counties like Jefferson and Fayette with 67% and 65.5% of the vote, respectively. This time around, 70% of Jefferson County residents and 71.8% of Fayette County residents voted for Beshear.
Only two Northern Kentucky counties voted for Beshear in both 2019 and 2023. Campbell and Boone counties both selected the incumbent, but the percentage by which Beshear won went up this time around.
Just under 53% of Kenton County residents picked Beshear compared to 49.5% in 2019. In Campbell County, Beshear won with 54.2% this year compared to 51.8% in 2019.
Boone County remained the same, with 56% of voters picking the Republican candidate.
Bracken, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Mason, Owen and Pendleton counties all voted for Cameron as well.
Though the latest approval ratings found Beshear "enormously popular" with Kentuckians, polling released just days before the election had him and Cameron in a dead heat after earlier polls showed the governor with a sizeable lead over his opponent.
Republicans won every other statewide office, showing Beshear's win wasn't a given. No other Democratic candidate got more than 43% of the vote.
Still, Beshear was able to carry 29 of Kentucky's counties — all but two of them being counties Donald Trump won in 2020. He said after his win the election was "a choice not to move to the right or move to the left, but to move forward for every single family."
