Commonwealth Policy Center endorsements fared well in yesterday's elections. Five of six state Senate candidates endorsed or recommended by CPC won their election. The biggest surprise of the night was when Ralph Alvarado (R-Winchester) defeated Senate Minority Leader RJ Palmer. Alvarado is a family doctor of Hispanic heritage. But he also ran as an unabashed social conservative. Danny Carroll (R-Paducah) and CB Embry (R-Morgantown) both picked up open seats to give Senate Republicans a 26-12 margin.
Five new conservatives will join House Republicans: Phil Moffett (R-Louisville), Jerry Miller (R-Louisville), David Hale (R-Wellington), Jim DuPlessis (R-Elizabethtown) and James Alan Tipton (R-Taylorsville)–all endorsed by CPC, won their races. Hale ousted Democrat Richard Henderson while DuPlessis ousted 10 term incumbent Jimmie Lee. CPC produced voter guides and directly mailed them to voters in three of the five races. Altogether 28 of 46 state House candidates endorsed or recommend by CPC won their races. Nonetheless, Democrats retain control of the Kentucky House with a 54-46 margin–the same margin as before the election.
On the national level, Senator Mitch McConnell's 15 percentage point win over Alison Grimes signaled a strong repudiation of Barack Obama's policies. It also revealed how strongly Kentuckians wanted to leverage greater influence in Washington politics. Senate Republicans picked up enough seats to put them in control of the upper chamber. This makes Senator McConnell the next majority leader of the U.S. Senate.