LEXINGTON, Ky. – What the Republican Party accomplished in Kentucky this past General Election was nothing short of dominance. The GOP increased its seats in the House of Representatives to 75 out of the 100-member body, where it already held a supermajority, and now hold 30 of the state’s 38 seats in the state Senate.

Kentucky’s deep-red wave follows a trend nationally, where most of the country’s rural states voted overwhelmingly to elect Republican candidates, especially where President Donald Trump is popular. 

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia where Trump received 69% of the vote, said on MSNBC Democrats should have been in the majority after the 2016, 2018, and 2020 elections.

“But that didn’t happen,” he said. “Whatever our message is, it hasn’t worked. And I would hope that our leadership from the top to bottom understands that. It has not worked.”

CNN political commentator and former Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang said his party has people under the impression it caters more to “coastal and urban elites” and “policing various cultural issues” than it does to improve the working class’ way of life.

“This is a fundamental problem with the Democratic Party,” Yang said. “If they don’t figure this out, then this polarization and division will get worse, not better.”

Kentucky Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey, a Democrat from Louisville, talked about the General Election results in the Commonwealth with Spectrum News 1 KY’s Mario Anderson on a recent episode In Focus.  

"We have to go back to the drawing board to some extent and say, ‘OK, what is our message? How are we getting it out to people how are we letting people across the state of Kentucky know that we see them we hear them and care about them, that our fundamental message of getting better jobs, of having better schools, more access to health care is really, truly a message for everybody, as well as hitting on some of the things that we talked about in Kentucky nationally?” he said. “We need to make sure we have a just and equitable system for every Kentucky regardless of what part of Kentucky you live in, that we need to have in Kentucky we can lead to our kids and our grandkids.”

Kentucky Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Marisa McNee acknowledged Democrats have some work to do in the Commonwealth.

“When President Trump wins Kentucky by 30 points, it’s hard to see how Democrats win statewide in that environment,” she said. If Trump only wins Kentucky by 10 points, it seems to me that you start to see some statewide Republicans who might have some trouble. I don't think it's particularly complicated, this sort of discussion about where the party goes from here. There are plenty of red states in the country where Democrats organize all the time, and it's not difficult to look and see what that looks like. There are states, like Texas, that were very, very red for a long time that over time have organized their way back into almost being a blue state this year. I think a lot of people are used to or got used to Democrats dominating everything and that changed four years ago. And the truth is that there has to be a restructuring of a party that is sort of finding its way back into power versus always having power.”

Glenn Martin Hammond, a Pikeville attorney, challenged Republican incumbent Sen. Phillip Wheeler for the seat in Kentucky’s District 31 that represents the deep red and heavily rural counties of Elliott, Lawrence, Martin, Morgan, and Pike. Hammond lost after receiving just 28% of the vote.

“I didn’t lose to Phillip Wheeler, I lost to Donald Trump,” Hammond said. “The party every two-to-four-to-six years is recreating itself and they call it reorganization. You can call what you want, but there's never a baseline. You have this top-down effect instead of a bottom-up effect. If Democrats are ever going to win again in Kentucky, especially in rural Kentucky, we have to be honest; we have to take a hard look in the mirror and be honest with the problems, not sugarcoat it and pretend it doesn't exist.”

The “problem,” Hammond said, is Democrats not talking enough about the good things the party has accomplished and an overall lack of communication.

“If you own a business and what you are doing is not getting results, then you have to change it – adjust your message to stay in business,” Hammond said. “That's the same thing the Democrats are going to have to do and it comes down to communication. Democrats are going to have to do the same thing. Democrats have gotten completely away from what made them the Democratic Party that we knew of growing up, that looked after the working class, that looked after small business owners, that stood up for public education, that stood up for making sure vocational schools were in place to give that individual the opportunity. They weren't elitist, We've not communicated a lot of things that we've done well, and we've not owned up to and adjusted to what we've not done well. Eastern Kentucky was the backbone of the Democratic Party for years, and now the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) supported a candidate that gutted the very existence it fought to protect – black lung benefits, other benefits, and even provide protections – the steelworkers fought me, too. So, there's a basic communication problem in there’s not a systematic, consistent message, both on what we have accomplished and what we have been defined as.”

Perhaps no Democratic politician felt the Republican wave more than Joe Graviss, who chose not to seek re-election to his seat representing District 56 in the Kentucky House of Representatives and ran for Senator in District 7. Graviss’ seat in the House was won by a Republican and he lost the Senate race to GOP newcomer Adrienne Southworth. Both District 56 and District 7 have historically voted for Democrats.

“Democrats just need to tell the truth,” Graviss said. “I outraised and outspent my opponent nine-to-one, and the Trump train smashed me. There's no way to combat that. I mean, there's no amount of money I could have spent. It’s just a bad time to be a Democrat in Kentucky. A lizard with an ‘R’ after its name on the ballot could have won in this election.”