Andy Beshear wins Democratic primary for Kentucky governor

Bevin captured only about 52% of the vote and lost a wide swath of counties in eastern Kentucky to Robert Goforth, a little-known state lawmaker.

In Beshear, the governor will be facing the son of the man he succeeded, in a race that will test whether Kentucky’s turn toward the GOP, and President Donald Trump’s appeal in the state, is enough to offset the incumbent’s deep unpopularity. The general election is Nov. 5.

Beshear survived a scare of his own in Tuesday’s primary. He won with about 38% of the ballots after splitting voters with another mainstream Democrat, former state auditor Adam Edelen, and a conservative Democrat, state Rep. Rocky Adkins.

Bevin was elected governor in 2015 after entering Kentucky politics by unsuccessfully challenging Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014, but he has seen his popularity plummet after clashing with state employees and teachers. He has made several incendiary comments and repeatedly sparred with the state’s news media.

He also has the dubious distinction of being the least popular governor in the country, according to the polling organization Morning Consult.

But Kentucky, which has a long history of electing Democrats to state and local office, has started to embrace Republicans up and down the ballot. Bevin has assiduously courted Trump, making repeated trips to Washington and appearing with him whenever he can.

The question is whether the president can transfer his popularity in a heavily conservative state to an incumbent who has alienated crucial constituencies.

Voters in central Pennsylvania also went to the polls Tuesday, where by a wide margin they elected Fred Keller, a Republican state lawmaker, to fill an open seat in a conservative House district. Trump appeared in the district this week to rally support for Keller.

In Kentucky, Beshear was the best known candidate in the Democratic race, thanks to the prominence of his father, Steve Beshear, who was governor from 2007 to 2015. He focused his campaign on economic issues, including health care and the state’s pension crisis. The abortion rights group NARAL supported him, an important endorsement in a race that featured Adkins, who opposes abortion rights.

Like several other states, Kentucky recently passed a highly restrictive abortion law, known as a “heartbeat bill,” and Bevin has called himself “the most pro-life governor in America.”

Edelen energized some liberal Kentuckians and also received some prominent endorsements, including from the state’s largest newspaper, The Courier-Journal of Louisville. But it was Adkins who proved to be more of a threat, sweeping much of eastern Kentucky and demonstrating the enduring strength of a more conservative brand of Democratic politics in rural areas.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.