As we mentioned, Kentucky Edition is on the road again.

In June, we visited Pikeville, but this week we're on the other end of the state in Paducah and McCracken County.

Renee Shaw is there now.

Hey again, Renee.

Thank you.

KC We're here in western Kentucky all this week getting ready for the annual Fancy Farm picnic this Saturday, which you'll see exclusively live here on CD.

We're expecting a large crowd and several speakers, including both candidates for governor, Democrat Andy Beshear and Republican Daniel Cameron.

As we take a closer look at the fir, this western portion of Kentucky, we want to give you a better understanding of some of the region's challenges and successes.

Our Kacey Parker Ballard spoke to Derek Oprah, news director for the WKMG public radio station in Murray about the region of the state he calls home.

West Kentucky is a region in recovery.

It's recovering from storms.

It's trying to figure out who it is politically.

You've seen a region shift from, you know, really blue in the seventies and eighties to also in this deep, dark red.

And it's trying to grapple with the changing time.

Western Kentucky is changing, but it seems like things are changing quicker for the towns still adjusting to life after the December 2021 tornadoes.

Those tornadoes killed dozens and destroyed central parts of Mayfield and Dawson Springs.

I think that that is a real scar that's going to you know, that that's going to be a historical mark on this region.

You know, when we talk about disasters here, you think of the 37 flood.

And I think that you're going to also start to think about the 2021 tornado in that light where it's something that just produced such a great impact.

Recovery work is still underway over a year and a half later.

For Mayfield, planning is still in the works on how to rebuild their decimated downtown.

Mayfield has been exploring options with what are they going to do with downtown, what are they going to put there?

And they've been talking with residents about potential things that they would like to see.

You know, some of those are fairly far afield and some of them that make perfect sense, like adding greenspace or adding like, you know, adding more urban residency or adding transitional housing.

Mayfield was also recently hit with flooding, receiving over ten inches of rain in a ten hour period, according to the National Weather Service.

The flooding brought a new natural disaster to a place still recovering from another.

But even as recovery continues in Graves County, the entire region is looking to make progress on the economy.

Officials say Magno will create about 1300 new jobs at two plants in Stanton.

WKMG news director Derek Opaline says Western Kentucky's geographic location could present new opportunities, including in the electric vehicle sector.

The Beshear administration has been talking a lot about electric vehicle economic development in the region.

Obviously, you have Battery Park in Glendale and you also have blue oval in western Tennessee.

So western Kentucky is kind of surrounded by this EV boom.

There are a lot of groups trying to get in on that.

There's a group called Kentucky Cornerstone that's basically like an alliance of Western Kentucky Economic development groups.

They're just trying to like, get their arms around this electric vehicle boom and try to figure out how they can get a piece of this pie.

Hopefully also discussed new opportunities for Paducah, including the new terminal at Barkley Regional Airport.

Feels like a big kid terminal.

And the potential for new development at the old Paducah gaseous diffusion plant site.

And that's something I think a lot of people have hope for.

You know, people have hope for cleaner energy.

People have hope for these big energy investments in this part of the state.

For the most rural parts of western Kentucky, economic development has been a challenge.

But the communities are working to change that.

Places like Fulton, where they are starting to build homes and where they're actively like hunting for places, trying to get in these sites.

Selection talks for big projects.

I think that's the biggest hope that places like that have, is can we figure out something that will bring people in?

Because a lot of these counties, they've had either stagnant or shrinking populations for for some years now.

This comes as the political landscape for western Kentucky has nearly completely changed.

The area, once considered the cornerstone for Democrat politics, is now controlled by Republicans.

Every single elected state official in the Western time zone is now Republican.

I think one of the biggest things that's stopping Democrats from recovering any part of these regions that they once dominated is in so many of them, they're not even fielding candidates.

That's something that, you know, you see in pretty much all levels of government.

I mean, there's been state Senate races without somebody on the other side.

And that's certainly something that's disheartening for the people that are in the party locally when you can't even get on the ballot.

The lack of Democrat candidates shows how dominant the area has become for Republicans and openly says it could impact this year's governor's race.

In 2019.

Beshear didn't carry a county west of Henderson, so I think that he's going to have a pretty good amount of support in the more like urban areas of western Kentucky.

You know, in in your Paducah, in Murray or in Hopkinsville.

But outside of these like cities, I don't know if he's going to be taking the counties that already didn't vote for him in 2019.

We're only days away from Western Kentucky's political Super Bowl at the fancy farm picnic.

It's when all of the like people that matter come to western Kentucky to talk about the things that matter and people actually listen.

We'll see what impact it has across the state, but particularly for the most western portion.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm K.C.

Parker, Belle.

Thank you, KC.

Oprah says some of the furthest west counties are working hard to bring in new industry and new people to the area.

He used Fulton as an example, noting earlier this year that Fulton constructed its first home not built by Habitat for Humanity in 15 years.

You know, parts of western Kentucky were devastated by a historic tornado outbreak in December of 2021, just 25 miles south of here.

Mayfield was one of the areas hardest hit.

Now the city is getting millions in federal funds to help with debris removal.

FEMA approved more than five and a half million dollars for the city earlier this week.

The agency will be reimbursing the city for the costs of removing thousands of loads of debris following a deadly tornado outbreak that killed 80 people.

And December of 2021.