Kentucky 2014 Election Results

Kentucky held its general election on November 4, 2014, deciding 119 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Democrats held the House under Speaker Greg Stumbo (D), leaving it the only Democratic-led chamber across 13 Southern states, while Republicans grew their Senate majority to 26-12. On a night when Mitch McConnell won re-election to the U.S. Senate, a KET panelist predicted headlines reading "Republicans fail to take state House."
• The Senate gains included the defeat of Minority Leader R.J. Palmer II (D), who lost to Ralph Alvarado (R) by about 6 points in a rematch of their 2010 race. Alvarado became the first Latino elected to the General Assembly. Republicans also picked up two open seats: Danny Carroll (R) won one held by an independent in Senate District 2, and C.B. Embry, Jr. (R) took a Democratic seat in Senate District 6.
• In the House, the parties traded seats evenly, and the incumbent defeats ran both ways:
  • Cluster Howard (D) unseated Toby Herald (R) by 14 votes in House District 91.
  • Jim DuPlessis (R) beat Jimmie Lee (D) by about 250 votes in House District 25.
  • David Hale (R) beat Richard Henderson (D) by about 900 in House District 74.
  Democrats offset those losses with open-seat wins such as Dean Schamore (D) in House District 10, previously Republican, and Linda Belcher (D), who won back the House District 49 seat she had lost in 2012.

Legislature

• House (100 seats): 54 D, 46 R before the election, 54 D, 46 R after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (38 seats): 14 D, 23 R, 1 other or vacant before the election, 12 D, 26 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races