Did Libertarian John Hicks cost Bevin the election?
In this survey, 53.2% of Hicks voters identified as Republican compared to 15.3% who identified as Democrats and 31.5% who identified as Independent. Assuming that the roughly half of Hicks voters who identify as Republican chose to vote for Bevin instead, Bevin would have easily beat Andy Beshear by close to 10,000 votes.
"assuming" is the correct word here ...
The Hicks-voters voted Hicks for a reason: because they did not want to vote for Bevin under any circumstance.
So, the answer to the question is: NO.