He's probably a slight underdog despite his unpopularity due to Kentucky's partisanship and the fact that 2023 is likely to be worse year to run as a Democrat than 2019. Hopefully he does pull it off though.
I’ve also heard that Kentucky is trying to move away from odd years elections after 2023. This won’t be particularly helpful for Democrats as the Gubernatorial race becomes more nationalized and voters vote the same down ballot.
Yeah, but it's probably good policy at least. Off-year elections seem to mean lower turnout, and it's a good thing to have as many people as possible participating in the political process.