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Democratic Presidential Candidates Focus on Kentucky

ket.org

    Kentucky will experience a Primary Election slightly different than others Tuesday.  More eyes will likely be on Democratic races.

Republicans in the state conducted their primary caucus in March with Donald Trump taking the presidential nod.  On the Democratic side, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have been visibly campaigning for the backing of the Bluegrass state. 

University of Kentucky political scientist Stephen Voss says Sanders’ win in neighboring West Virginia may not mean the same results in Kentucky,  “We have a closed primary which means only registered Democrats are gonna be able to weigh in on this contest." "Sanders has been doing better in the states where independents can raid the Democratic Primary and take the nomination away from Clinton,” noted Voss.

Voss says the university community in Lexington seemed to be pretty solid behind Sanders’ candidacy.  But, with UK wrapping up classes last week, many students went home for the summer.  “The sort of reinforcement effect of ‘we need to vote’ was probably more powerful than it is now that they’re off in the communities and imbedded in their families rather than their peer groups,” Voss noted.

Late last week, a huge tent on the front lawn of UK welcomed aspiring students and their parents for a look around.  But, there were also some students of voting-age still on campus.  Junior engineering student Mary Martin of Hopkinsville was a bit surprised at who was being talked up.  

"I was surprised at how much support Donald Trump has on campus here.  I’ve heard a lot of friends talk about him,” Martin said.  “Everyone hopes that he’ll bring jobs back to the United States.”  Martin says it’s particularly the case regarding industrial jobs. 

Stan Brun has been a part of UK’s geography department since 1980.  He perceives a theme in both Republican and Democratic races, “The underlying denominator that’s the primaries is anti-establishment and that’s always a healthy sign for a society that basically has a democratic election."

The Secretary of State’s Office is predicting about a 20 percent voter turnout.   There are seven Democrats vying for the U.S. Senate nomination.  While a smaller number of voters could help to equalize chances. 

Centre College political scientist Benjamin Knoll says that contention works when all the competitors are equally recognized.  “It’s also entirely possible that simply because of the low name recognition for so many of the other candidates in the race that either Gray or Leach may still end up with a decent plurality, if not a majority.  It will be interesting to see what happens there.”

Whatever the results in Tuesday's primary, it’s not likely the political focus will fade very much.  Knoll says there are lots of other campaign-related matters to catch the attention of voters and reporters.  “There’ll still be a vice presidential pick for both of them and that will generate a good week or so of headlines and coverage.  They’ll start running ads to an even greater degree and then the conventions will happen in July and those will be covered a good two or three weeks,” Knoll explained

But for at least the next 24 hours or so, most all the political attention in Kentucky will center on primary results as they come in Tuesday night. ?

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