Time now to go inside Kentucky politics, and we're going to rehash the primary election results from Tuesday.

And we've got two of our faves with us, Trey Watson and Jared Smith.

And you've seen them around quite a bit.

They were just with us Tuesday night.

And heck, you've been here Trey, more than I have.

This week triple Crown came to you this week.

I don't know for sure.

All right.

So let's start at the top of the ticket.

You know we got a few minutes here.

What's your main takeaway from the U.S.

Senate GOP?

Not much of a surprise.

Once Donald Trump weighed in with his endorsement, Nate Morris got out.

I think it was always trending this direction.

I think President Trump smart politics on his part, came in right at a point where whether Amy Barr was pulling away or President Trump was the one who got him down to pull away.

You'll never be able to distinguish between the two.

But I do think Barr was going to win regardless.

Trump certainly made the night night.

Earlier a wider victory for Andy Barr, perhaps because it was pretty wide there.

So talk about the Democrats and the nominee, Charles Booker.

Well, it was interesting to see because you wanted to see if anybody else but the Booker McGrath could break through.

Booker McGrath, though, started that race with 100% name I.D.

voters very familiar with them.

Unfortunately, with the way the current federal government is trending, you're going to see this, especially the Democratic Party, the swing back to the left.

And I think that's what, had Charles come through, Charles didn't have much money to, run ads on TV.

I know the McGrath and Romans were up, at least.

So.

So to me, it's like the Kentucky Democrats had a choice to maybe stay in the moderate lane with McGrath, or even choose in Rome as a new comer or something like that.

But instead, you know, Booker pulled away pretty handily.

So is he going to get that Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee money like Amy McGrath might have?

I mean, if they're pulling to the.

Left, I mean.

That's either going to Texas.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

All all Democratic money's going to Texas without Rico.

Okay.

Right.

Yeah.

That's an interesting race.

Gosh.

Yeah, I kind of wish I was in Texas.

I try not I moved to Texas, and I just decided that, yeah.

I want to get back.

Oh, yeah.

That makes me.

Yeah.

Okay, so the big race for the ballot in November in Kentucky is the sixth.

Yeah.

Right.

So let's talk about how that shaped up.

And Ralph Alvarado the nominee there.

Getting a pretty pretty sizable win especially after the Trump endorsement.

Although again I think he I thought it was always going to have a pretty large win in that district.

Well known in the district to represent Clark County and a chunk of Fayette and also ran statewide with Matt Bevin on that ticket.

So he's got he was well known in the party.

But, you know, Ralph's a tough, tough candy because he can speak very knowledgeable on health care issues, immigration, obviously being a Latino Republican, when immigration is going to be a big issue on the ballot at the federal level, didn't wasn't this big when he's a state senator, a lot more important issue running for Congress.

And this district is just going to be tough for Democrats.

For him.

McGrath couldn't win it with $1 million in 2018, and they've made it more Republican since then.

Taking Franklin County out, I just I think it's a hard district for Democrats, but it looks like something that national Democrats think they should be able to win.

They still think that.

Jared.

Yeah, they still think.

That Dumbo is a Democratic nominee.

They do still think that that but that's because of the national climate.

And the federal race is our national race.

It's a liberal college.

That you talk to.

So I'm kind of that that's a liberal policy.

It's got liberal colleges around in the UK being the big one, transit midway.

And he has some others.

But also it's brutal though it's very real because they brought in what were then, at the time, Democratic leaning coal counties, which are now, you know, suffering like other coal counties.

And then they took away, Franklin, which was like the second best, bluest, county in the district.

The reason I think that there's, play here is, once again, the left did decide this outcome as well, but was to a different extent, Aaron Peters significantly over for him getting almost 16% of the vote, thus eating away.

Sherilyn Stevenson, who would have been a great female general candidate.

But she has a long track record of voting record.

They could argue that, she has had some trouble fundraising in the past.

Great ground game.

DiMarco had no problems fundraising.

He's a fresh face.

Looks the part.

Got a lot of heavy hitter endorsements through the governor.

I mean, you know, Ben Chandler.

You know, and so, And so Dumbo, I think, can attract a crowd.

If Jimbo Dumbo will run a good campaign.

Alvarado has some baggage in this past, so it'll be interesting.

A fresh face and just the discontent at the national level.

Will that be enough?

And it was a swing district.

Now it's kind of a leans are because of the way they redistricted.

But is that enough to put it back completely and toss up and get the run more?

Could be a big thing in that race.

And well, I'll say this or any of the races.

And TV stations should be very excited because.

Commercial.

Commercials.

But this, this is a very this is stuff that like we think about as political operatives, but the normal people don't.

And then they're like, well, why are there so many ads?

This is a very cost efficient spin in this race.

There's very few congressional districts in America where when you buy an ad at a Lexington TV market, it's like a 95, 98% overlap with the sixth district.

There's nothing outside the sixth district.

Nothing outside Lexington is in the sixth, and there's only a little small pockets of other congressional districts.

So your overlay, the amount of money that you're spending that might be going to other districts is minimal.

It's a very cost efficient spend.

And so for national groups, for them to go to their donors and say, hey, we need to put some money in here, it's going to be a lot easier.

Asked and it would be like the fourth district's not going to be competitive, but there's three media markets there.

This is a this is a good, cheap, efficient spin.

And so I do think you'll see national groups in here spending a lot of money.

And it'll be I think this will be the first time like when McGrath ran back in 18, that I think this will be the kind of race tempo will get people energized in this race, thinking he's got a real shot at it, especially with the way the national trends are trending.

We could have $6 gas.

I think I said this early in the week, $6 gas boots on the ground in Iran.

And that changes every national federal election, you know.

So absolutely, let's talk about some state legislative races, because we had some incumbents who did not rise to the challenge, and they got defeated this time around.

Let's talk about Kim Banta first in the Northern Kentucky District 63, I think that is Kim Banta.

She worked hard in Boone County, Boone County, you know, they also they also threw out Gary Moore, a long time.

And it's just.

Judge executive.

Kind of the the continuation of the love the liberty, kind of libertarian wing of the party taking over that county.

And I think with the high turnout up there, and I don't know that there was anything that could have been done to save Kim Banta in retrospect, just because you it's always good thinking.

It's always been, well, the higher the turnout, the more likely it'll be that you can beat back Liberty candidates up there, because more normal Republicans show up.

And with Banta losing, even with with the turnout numbers doubling, I don't know that anything could have been done to save her in this election.

Well, I think that, I had somebody up there talk to me about it.

It's an elected official in Boone County saying that he didn't think Kenton County people would vote for a Boone County candidate, and apparently they did.

And and his opponent.

So I'm wondering if some of that what's in the water in Boone County is starting to creep over across the border into Kenton.

Mosher held on the bigger part just.

But the good for Kim pulling through Beverly.

Chester Burton, was on.

Jefferson County.

Is county now the biggest on in Jefferson County was something that we thought might not happen just the way the dynamics of the race were playing.

But for Scandal and Daniel Grossberg went down to a smooth finish, third finish, third to, sweaty.

And so, so, you know, you know, he had a lot of money, but he had too much baggage.

Well, we should say, because I think it is noteworthy that there will be a mother, my mother, father, daughter duo and the state legislature named Michael Carney.

And her father, whose first name?

Well, he's he's running.

He's running.

He said he is confirming, which is always kind of a swing seat.

Other Fleming really works his butt off.

And yeah, it's been able to hold on to that seat with increasing.

Because that'll be the district anybody's looking at.

And that's exactly right because that has gone back and forth.

We call that the animus.

By the way.

You call that the.

What the animus.

The name of.

Jason with.

Child a child.

To run for Senate.

Right.

So yeah.

So, Senator, Mike animus is in the Senate and Jason Names is in the House.

So that's why just in case you're falling behind on that.

Okay.

So anything else noteworthy about this particular election cycle?

Oh, the county judge executive, let's talk about that, because this is, I think, the big story of the night.

18 County judge and I said.

Look, a huge loss of magistrates to now the Magistrates Commissioner Association assures me that this is on the high end of normal, that it's definitely a lot, but it's not because they're looking at turnover, which includes retirements, but it feels like it's a lot.

And part of the reason I feel like a lot is the notable names.

You have three of the four longest serving county judges in the state lost.

That's Gary Moore in Boone County, Steve Pendry in Campbell and Abby Brock and Bill Reagan.

Taylor's been there about 20 years.

And Madison County.

Kenny Himes has been kind of judge, legislature back and forth.

Right.

Maurice Lucas has been there, I think, over 20 years in, in Breckinridge County.

It was all over the state, too.

It wasn't just like in a cluster there.

There's not a single thread.

You know, some of them were personal issues, scandal type stuff.

I think some of them were property tax issues.

Some of them were land use.

Issues, and not just around data centers.

And not just round data centers.

And northern Kentucky, for example, Campbell County, that was like a north, the sally north of the county, south of the county, because the the mayor of Alexandria who beat Steve Pendry and Brad Schneider, it was a wind power issue.

There's some solar issues.

So, you know, I don't know if there's a single thread you can draw for it, but what I will say is, if I'm an incumbent, I get to work like I'm ten points behind because I don't I don't want to get to Election Day in the general and figure out, oh, there was something.

Yeah.

I know that if I'm a sitting county judge, regardless of party, you're an endangered species.

Yeah I know, yeah.

You need to work hard.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially since we can't find the thread.

Oh that's right.

Assume there's a problem.

And yeah, I think when you win.

And and so I got asked because somebody said did Amy Wickliffe on Tuesday night say that Andy Barr always runs his race.

Race like he's ten points behind.

And that is true.

Yeah.

So it's the Andy Barr kind of way that you got to.

Oh that's an old saying.

I'm not giving that the Barr ten points down or out of money.

The only way to run a campaign.

That's right.

That's an old saying.

You heard it here folks.

Thank you so much.

Trey Watson Jared Smith's always good to have you.

Good to be here.