On October 4^th, I engaged in a Twitter — I refuse to call it 𝕏 — conversation with Rick Green, the executive editor of what passes for my closest newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, concerning newspaper’s endorsements of candidates. In a response to Daniel Pearson, the primary editorial writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, I wrote:

How much good do you think newspaper endorsements actually do? My ‘local’ newspaper, the Lexington @heraldleader, will endorse every Democrat running in the Sixth District, and every last one of them, other than for small districts, will lose. @EditorRAG

Mr Green responded, with a quoted retweet:

Well, considering our editorial board hasn’t yet interviewed all the candidates, your predictions may be flawed. The endorsement process allows us to ask tough questions + probe deeper on visions + platforms than most voters get to hear. Our report-out in the form of endorsements is designed to inform voters, not direct them for whom to vote.

Was my prediction wrong?

On Tuesday, the newspaper editorialized Herald-Leader endorsement: Voters have a clear choice in 6th District Congressional race. While the Editorial Board complained that Representative Andy Barr (R-KY 6^th District) “once again declined our invitation” to speak directly to the editors, the Board did attempt to “direct (readers) for whom to vote,” endorsing Democrat Randy Cravens.

Is it a surprise that Mr Barr declined the ‘opportunity’ to be interviewed for endorsement by the Herald-Leader? He knew that they would endorse Mr Cravens! In 2022, no serious candidate ran for the Democratic nomination, so a perennial kook candidate won the primary, a candidate so bad that neither Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) nor the state Democratic Party supported him, but, rather than endorse Mr Barr, the newspaper chose to make no endorsement at all for the contest.^[1]Past Herald-Leader endorsements: 2022: Charles Booker for Senate; no endorsement for 6th District Representative 2020: Joe Biden for President, Amy McGrath Henderson for Senate, and Josh … Continue reading

In the 45^th state House of Representative race, the newspaper endorsed Democrat Adam Moore. In the 27^th state Senate District, the newspaper endorsed Democrat Molly Gene Crain, who is challenging incumbent Republican Steve West. In the 88^th state House of Representative race, what my best friend used to call the Herald-Liberal endorsed incumbent Democrat Cherlynn Stevenson, even over liberal Republican Vanessa Rossl, someone who would have an actual voice in the huge majority that the Republicans enjoy in the state House.

There is no United States Senate race in the Bluegrass State this year.

As I said: the newspaper has endorsed all Democrats!^[2]The Urban-County Council races are officially non-partisan, so I did not cover them in this article. And, of course, their big issue is abortion, abortion, abortion!

As of this writing, 12:15 PM EDT on Thursday, October 24^th, the newspaper has yet to make its endorsement in the presidential campaign, but given how thoroughly the newspapers editors and columnists hate former President Donald Trump, they wouldn’t endorse him if the Lord himself tapped them on their shoulders and told them to do so. There may be more endorsements to come, which could be found here, but I went over all that were posted.

Kentucky is a deeply conservative state, and while Democrats can win in Jefferson, Fayette, and Franklin counties, that’s just about it.^[3]I vote for one Democrat locally, Estill County Sheriff Chris Flynn, because I personally know him to be an honest man, and the Sheriff’s office is not one which makes public policy. In 2020, President Trump carried 118 out of Kentucky’s 120 counties, Jefferson (Louisville) and Fayette (Lexington) being the only exceptions. Those are our two most populous counties, but even in those, Joe Biden didn’t reach the 60% mark, nothing like the 81.21% he won in foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia, which tipped the entire state blue. Kentucky’s Sixth District includes Fayette, but that’s only one county out of sixteen. With a total population of 773,857, Fayette County’s 320,154 constitutes only 41.37% of the district, and even Amy McGrath Henderson’s huge spending advantage couldn’t carry her to victory in 2018.

To say that the newspaper’s out-of-touch positions have caused the huge drop in circulation outside of Fayette County — the Herald-Leader covered much of eastern and southeastern Kentucky when I delivered it in Mt Sterling, during the days of quill pens and inkwells — would be an overstatement; there are many factors which have harmed newspaper circulation nationwide. But it certainly hasn’t helped!