Kentucky 2016 Election Results

Kentucky held its general election on November 8, 2016, deciding 119 legislative seats. Control shifted: the House moved from a 53-47 Democratic majority to a 64-36 Republican majority.

Highlights

• Republicans won the House for the first time since 1921, adding it to the Senate and the governor's office they already held under Matt Bevin (R); it had been the last Democratic-controlled legislative chamber in the South. The new majority chose Jeff Hoover (R) as its Speaker, then sent Bevin a right-to-work bill and a prevailing-wage repeal on the fifth day of the 2017 session.
• House Speaker Gregory D. Stumbo (D) lost House District 95 to Larry Brown (R) by about 6 points. Bevin greeted the result with "Good riddance".
• Voters ousted 18 House incumbents, all but one of them Democrats, including Speaker Stumbo. Three lost by razor-thin margins:
  • Rita Smart (D) lost House District 81 to C. Wesley Morgan (R) by 76 votes.
  • Linda Belcher (D) lost House District 49 to Dan Johnson (R) by 156 votes.
  • James Glenn, Jr. (D) lost House District 13 to D.J. Johnson (R) by 264 votes.
  The other Democratic incumbents who lost were Fitz Steele (D) (House District 84), John W. Short (D) (House District 92), Jeff Taylor (D) (House District 8), David Allen Watkins (D) (House District 11), Tommy Thompson (D) (House District 14), Brent Yonts (D) (House District 15), Martha Jane King (D) (House District 16), Terry Mills (D) (House District 24), Chuck Tackett (D) (House District 62), Thomas McKee (D) (House District 78), Cluster Howard (D) (House District 91), Hubert Collins (D) (House District 97), and Lew Nicholls (D) (House District 98). The lone Republican casualty was Denver "Denny" Butler (R), who had switched parties in 2015; McKenzie Cantrell (D) took back House District 38 by 259 votes.
• The Senate's Republican majority was unchanged. In the House, two Democrats survived narrowly: Kevin Sinnette (D) held House District 100 by 160 votes, and Angie Hatton (D) kept the open House District 94 by 240. Statewide, 48 legislative races had only one candidate on the ballot.

Legislature

• House (100 seats): 53 D, 47 R before the election, 36 D, 64 R after; control moved from Democrats to Republicans.
• Senate (38 seats): 11 D, 27 R before the election, 11 D, 27 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races