Governors on opposite sides of the Ohio River are reading the same election results in completely different ways.
In Indiana, Republicans lost their supermajority in the statehouse after Democrats flipped 16 House seats and five Senate seats. Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Republicans held onto their supermajority despite losing seven House seats and two Senate seats.
The two governors could not see the outcome more differently.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear zeroed in on a milestone that took more than a decade to reach.
“And that’s the first time there’s been a net pickup for Democrats in over 10 years,” Beshear said.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun pointed to the broader frustrations voters carried into the ballot box.
“Here, I think it’s a classic case, number one, of where we had issues at the national level that had people burdened, and I’ve been the loudest voice out of any governor on affordability,” Braun said.
Beyond sharing a state border, Governors Andy Beshear and Mike Braun have little else in common right now. Indiana Republicans lost one congressional seat, the secretary of state, the state comptroller seat, and 21 seats in the state house, along with their supermajority.
“I don’t think the supermajority really had that much advantage to it,” Braun said. “A few technical things. I view anything like this as a wake-up call and an opportunity.”
Across the river in Kentucky, the GOP dropped nine statehouse seats and lost the 6th Congressional District, which Andy Barr had long held before he won the Senate seat previously held by Mitch McConnell.
“Donald Trump had won the state by 30 points,” Beshear said. “He’d won the 6th Congressional District by 15 points. Yet we flipped that 6th Congressional District and elected Zach Denbo.”
On the national stage, Democrats won more governorships than in any election in history.
Beshear, who serves as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, spent considerable time campaigning outside Kentucky. When asked whether he should have focused more energy on Kentucky Democratic candidates, Beshear pushed back, saying it was a fight that was never realistically winnable.
“We weren’t going to break the supermajority here in Kentucky,” Beshear said. “The veto override is just 50 plus one.”
In the coming weeks, lawmakers from both states will settle into their seats in Frankfort and Indianapolis, where the budget will take center stage as the dominant issue for both statehouses heading into the new session.
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