The Kentucky governor's race is the most competitive of the trio of 2019 governor's races — and Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has no one to blame but himself for being in peril.
Bevin has feuded with and insulted public school teachers in the state, alienated many state lawmakers, and even GOP voters so much he only got 52% of the vote in May's GOP primary over lesser-known challengers. Those are major alarm bells for any incumbent.
"He would be bulletproof if he had just been friendly to people," as one Bluegrass politico put it. A Kentucky Republican said that the governor's "core weakness is just making everything a lot harder than it has to be."
But that doesn't necessarily mean that Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear is poised to topple the polarizing and unpopular incumbent in a state that President Trump carried by 30 points.
"Bevin can lose, but Beshear can't win," as another Kentucky political analyst put it.
National Democrats push back against that characterization, arguing that the attorney general has built a strong
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