Kentucky Senate

2020 Election Update

Heading into the 2020 election, Republicans controlled the Kentucky Senate 28 to 10. Democrats lost two seats (SDs 7 and 29) for a net loss of two seats. Republicans now control the chamber 30 to 8.

The below table shows 2020 and 2018 election results for the Kentucky Senate. The LDI scores are for the 2020 cycle. EveryDistrict will release new scores and district rankings after the redistricting process.

2018 Election Update

After the 2016 election, Republicans controlled the Kentucky State Senate 27-11.

In the 2018 election, Republicans flipped one seat to grow their majority to 28-10.

Republicans flipped SD 4.

In March 2019, Republicans flipped a formerly Democratic-held district (SD 31), giving Republicans a 29-9 majority. In June 2020, Democrats flipped formerly Republican held SD 26, returning control of the chamber to 28-10.

Understanding the Map

EveryDistrict’s Legislative District Index (LDI) is the gold standard of state legislative competitiveness. Our LDI ranks state legislative districts on a scale from 100 to -100, using statewide elections data. Districts with a score of 100 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Democratic candidate receiving 100% of the vote); districts with a score of -100 would vote for statewide Republican candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Republican candidate receiving 100% of the vote). For a more realistic example, a district with a score of 10 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 10 points (meaning we would expect the Democratic state legislative candidate to win with 55% of the vote compared to the Republican winning 45% of the vote).

After the 2018 election, EveryDistrict reviewed and enhanced our LDI system, improving the accuracy of the metric with new methodologies and the most recent electoral data.

For more information about EveryDistrict’s LDI, please click here.