that approval rating no longer means anything.
I would modify this to say that perhaps *high* approval ratings don’t mean anything anymore. If Kentucky and Louisiana flip despite having popular Democratic incumbents, it would show that being popular isn’t always enough to defy a state’s partisan lean. In Mississippi, Tate Reeves has a low approval rating, so in his case, if Mississippi flipped, it would likely be because Reeves is unpopular (and because Democrats fielded a strong candidate in Brandon Presley).
