Governor’s races in 3 states to measure Trump’s clout

Ashland, Ky. — As Andy Beshear campaigned through eastern Kentucky this weekend, the Democratic candidate for governor seemed well aware that he didn’t have much time to deliver his message before President Donald Trump arrives here to attempt to suffocate it ahead of Tuesday’s election.

In speech after speech, in rural counties where Trump received as much as 80 percent of the vote just two years ago, Beshear delivered his closing message to voters in less than five minutes. He vowed to expand health care, support teachers and public education, and stop the hard-edge, divisive politics that have consumed Kentucky and the nation over the past several years. He did not mention Trump or the impeachment inquiry targeting him.

But for Beshear and Jim Hood, the Democratic candidate for governor in Mississippi, such policy focus is being tested as Trump storms into these two Republican-friendly

states and attempts to turn Tuesday’s governor’s election into a referendum on him and his possible impeachment at the hands of congressional Democrats.

In a brash, hour-long campaign speech Friday night, Trump railed against House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry when he appeared in Mississippi to support Hood’s GOP opponent, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. Trump will campaign for Beshear’s Republican opponent, Gov. Matt Bevin, tonight, just hours before Kentucky voters go to the polls.

In 2016, Trump carried Mississippi by about 17 points while Kentucky voters handed him a 30-point victory. With Trump still relatively popular in both states, the White House believes those two governor’s races, as well as a runoff election for governor in Louisiana on Nov. 16, will give the president a major political boost by proving that he can still mobilize religious conservatives and working-class voters to the polls.