FRANKFORT, Ky. — Senate President Robert Stivers says he’s excited about the upcoming election following last week’s filing deadline.
“On behalf of the Republicans in the Senate, we had a very good night,” he said.
Out of the 38 Senate seats, only the even-numbered districts are up for election in 2022: nine seats have only Republicans on the ballot, including a seat currently held by a retiring Democrat, while only one Democrat on the ballot faces an uncontested race. Nine other seats have challengers from both parties.
Stivers said he knows the GOP will keep its 30-8 advantage in the Senate.
“It’s going to be a Republican-driven agenda that is going to set the policies,” he said. “And the governor is going to have to execute on those policies.”
Stivers said the GOP may even gain a Senate seat in Jefferson County. He named the 26th District, which is currently held by Sen. Karen Berg (D-Louisville), as a possibility because it is a moderate district.
“We have a couple good candidates there,” Stivers said. “Senator Berg — and this is, again, being analytical; not personal or political — really hasn’t distinguished herself because she’s only been here for a little less than a year.”
Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey (D-Louisville) said the Republican advantage is skewed by maps that have been drawn by the GOP for three redistricting cycles now.
“I think you’re looking at, easily, a five-seat swing in Democrats and Republicans if these maps are drawn in a more-fair way,” he said.
And McGarvey said they clearly drew the newest map to give Republicans an advantage.
“Bowling Green was split into three Senate districts when it could have just one entire senator in the district. Of course, Gov. Beshear won Bowling Green. It’s an emerging Democratic area,” he said. “Fayette County, where Lexington is, is split into seven districts. (Republican leaders) carved it up like a Christmas turkey.”
The new maps passed the first week of session, and it pushed the filing deadline back to Jan. 25, giving candidates about two weeks to decide based on the new maps.
“They didn’t know what districts they would be in, they didn’t know what the districts looked like, and then they only had a week or two to decide really whether to put their personal and professional lives on hold to try and campaign for an office, so more time would’ve been great,” he said.
Both sides say the other party could’ve done something about the timing issue: Stivers said Gov. Andy Beshear could’ve called a special session months ago, while McGarvey says Republican leaders could have just pushed the filing deadline back last session.
Stivers said the redistricting issue was a “red herring”, meaning it doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things.
“What their problem is they don’t find anybody who wants to run because they don’t think they can win because this is a Republican-trending state,” he said.
McGarvey said he wants a non-partisan group to handle redistricting, but regardless of where that battle goes, Republicans will likely keep control of the legislature heading into 2023.
“For whatever you may think of us or the governor’s office, the governor is going to have to work with us, even though he hasn’t wanted to,” Stivers said. “Because we are the people who set the agenda, and it’s probably going to be incumbent on him to start reaching out more than he has.”
Out of the 100 open seats in the Kentucky House of Representatives, 43 have only GOP candidates running for them, while nine seats have only Democratic candidates.
The Kentucky Democratic Party has sued to try to stop the new maps from taking effect. A court hearing in that case will be held next week.
The primary is May 17.