Kentucky Republicans expanded their dominant 62-seat supermajority in the state House on Tuesday, flipping at least eight seats currently occupied by Democrats and defending several targeted incumbents.
By Wednesday morning, Republicans had picked up at least eight of these seats from Democrats and led in five more races in Democratic-held districts where most of the votes were counted.
This would give Republicans a 70 to 30 supermajority in the House chamber, with the possibility of expanding to 75 seats once the other races are called.
Republican House candidates were boosted throughout the state by President Donald Trump at the top of the ballot, who won a blowout victory over Joe Biden by 27 points. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also won reelection to a seventh term by more than 20 points over Democrat Amy McGrath.
Democrats had hoped to counteract potential losses in rural parts of the state by defeating several Republican incumbents in suburban districts where Trump’s popularity has dipped but appear to have fallen short in several high-spending races in Louisville and Lexington.
Republicans won all six rural seats where a Democratic incumbent decided not to run for reelection in the face of Trump at the top of the ballot, in addition to knocking off several more Democratic incumbents who had won narrow victories in 2018.