Democrats are turning to a slate of candidates who look nothing like their party in a bid to win three tough Southern governors races in 2019.

President Donald Trump carried Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi with ease in 2016. But Democratic candidates with long personal records or deep family ties in state politics — and policy positions that bear little resemblance to their party’s leading presidential contenders — could produce unusually competitive races in all three states.


Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat elected in 2015, is avowedly anti-abortion, a disappearing position in today’s Democratic Party. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has called himself a “poster child” for gun rights. And like them, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear — the son of popular former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear — is portraying himself as a common-sense technocrat disinterested in partisan politics.

Democrats are banking on the trio’s unique profiles to spur voters in the deep-red states to abandon national party allegiances — even as the presidential primaries and Trump’s reelection campaign push partisans into their corners ahead of 2020. The races will be a key test of whether Democrats in conservative states can create enough daylight with the national party to win races in some of the most Trump-friendly territories nationwide.

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“When you're a poor state like Kentucky then you have real problems to address, and none of them are even ideological,” Beshear said in an interview.

Beshear, the frontrunner in a Democratic primary that also includes state House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, bristled when asked if he identified as a liberal or moderate Democrat. He said public education, jobs and health care would be the major issues of the race, not ideological leanings. And he noted that while Trump is well-liked in Kentucky, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is among the least popular governors in the country.


A recent Mason-Dixon poll found Beshear leading Bevin by 8 points in a head-to-head matchup, while Adkins was neck and neck with the governor in their matchup.

“People are going to judge this race by who their governor is, not their president,” Beshear said. “I mean, this isn't about what's going on in the White House, it's about what's going on in your house.”

While preparing for his run in Mississippi, Hood has kept a close eye on what has worked for Democrats in other red states, forging a friendship with Bel Edwards and going hunting with Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. Hood stressed the importance of localizing elections and said Democrats need to pitch simple plans and slogans to voters. Hood said he recently spoke with Michigan Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer about her viral “fix the damn roads” catchphrase.

“We’re talking about things that really affect people,” Hood told POLITICO. “We’re staying out of all these social issues and bickering and fighting and finger-pointing. We’re talking about roads and education, and those are the two fundamental building blocks of economic development.”

Health care will be another point of emphasis, Hood said.


“We didn’t expand [Medicaid] and we’re the poorest state in the union,” Hood said. “Those are the things I think that Democrats have to talk about to be successful in the South.”

Bel Edwards — whose ancestors include a soldier who fought at the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew Jackson — issued an executive order expanding Medicaid eligibility in Louisiana soon after he took office in 2016. It’s a key part of a heterodox record including signing a 15-week abortion ban, which is tied up in court.

Republicans concede that they can’t ignore the 2019 crop of Democratic candidates, no matter how red the states are. But they also expect to convince voters that those Democrats are only masquerading as moderates.

"Yes, Jim Hood is the best hope, the best bet for the Democratic Party. But he still has an uphill battle against [Lt. Gov.] Tate Reeves," said Mississippi Republican strategist Austin Barbour, who said Hood paints himself as a "Hill Country Democrat." Barbour said by the end of next year, he expects the race to break down more conventionally: “a conservative versus a liberal.”

Reeves hasn’t announced a campaign yet, but he has traveled the state laying the groundwork for a bid ahead of what could become a crowded primary, with state Rep. Robert Foster and Petal Mayor Hal Marx already running. In Louisiana, GOP Rep. Ralph Abraham announced earlier this month that he will seek to take on Bel Edwards, joining a Republican field including Eddie Rispone, a Trump megadonor with a background in business rather than electoral politics. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) recently announced that he would not run.

Whoever Republicans select as their nominees in those states in 2019, Trump’s standing will give a major boost to their campaigns. The same is expected for Bevin in Kentucky, said GOP strategist Ben Hartman, despite a sometimes-rocky first term for the governor.

"The president's popular there, as he should be, because of what he's done for the state,” said Hartman, who advised Bevin in the past. “And the governor is going to be popular there once people see what he's done in tandem with the president on economic issues.”

Democrats know that success in 2019 will hinge on keeping national politics as far out of those states as possible.


The “2019 gubernatorial elections are really taking place in their own political universe,” said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster. “For Democrats to be competitive in those three states, they have to run much different races than Democrats in almost any different part of the country.”