Kentucky has almost always had a Democrat governor so no surprise there. Maybe the rest has to do with gerrymandering? I don't know...
I think we’re now finally seeing that his rallies are drawing equal numbers of people who want to vote against him. This is a departure from 2016. In Louisiana, African American turnout was noticeably higher than in the first round of voting. Trump might be bringing Republicans to the polls but it seems like he’s inspiring Democrats and swing voters to vote against him. Plus in both cases (Kentucky and Louisiana), the Democrats that were running were known commodities. Beshear and Edwards had won statewide in 2015 and were both relatively popular. The challenge in the South is that its really hard to find quality candidates that fit the character of each state. And now that Democrats aren’t routinely winning statewide in the south anymore, the bench is really thin. Beshear won in 2015 because his last name is Beshear (his dad was the outgoing governor at the time) and Edwards won because he was essentially the perfect Democratic candidate for Louisiana and he was running against one of the worst Republican candidates (David Vitter). And if we’re going to really point out where Trump screwed up, its the fact that he might’ve accidentally broke the Republican gerrymander in Louisiana. Republicans in Louisiana were on the verge of gaining a supermajority in the house and senate which would have allowed them to bypass Edwards in any redistributing legislation. Instead, Republicans lost both seats that were held by independents and lost a suburban seat that they were holding. Now Edwards can veto redistricting bills and there’s a reasonable chance that Democrats will successfully get a second majority-minority Congressional district. Republicans lost full control of redistricting by a few thousand votes and I think the Trump effect ended up hurting them in the suburban runoffs.
I think we need to be careful with these gubernatorial victories in the Kentucky and Louisiana as a harbinger of what will happen in 2020 and even the national mood. As other geeimsobored noted the candidates that won were well known commodities. Also their appeal had a lot to do with local issues which they ran on rather than on national issues. Bevins was perhaps the most unpopular governor in the country and we also have to remember that Republicans won every other statewide office. Edwards is possibly the most conservative Democrat in the country more to the right than even Rep. Colin Petersen. He signed an abortion ban, hasn't been supportive of gun control or impeachment. That said these are still losses for Trump because he made elevated them by expending political capital on them with multiple rallies and even begging his supporters not to deliver him a loss. If he hadn't taken such an interest in these elections I would say there isn't too much to read in them. What can be read in them is that there are enough voters in even Trump heavy states that won't do whatever Trump ask them to do.
It isn't all a statement about Trump that Republicans lost. But Trump did campaign there for the candidates that lost. It does present possibilities especially for down ballot races
