How do Kentucky Democrats win Senate seats going forward?

[Suburbia]

We all know that Democratic challenger Amy McGrath is likely to lose to Mitch McConnell in 2020, probably by 10-20 points.

Rand Paul is up for reelection in 2022, he'll probably win reelection.

If McConnell retires in 2026, how do Democrats win his seat? KY AG Daniel Cameron already looks like a bust, his handling of the Breonna Taylor case is not good, can Democrats make a comeback here?

Democrats haven't won since 1992.

[TML]

Stop following the old consultant-driven playbook of running Republicans in Democratic clothing. While this may not pay off immediately, it could pay dividends over time.

[Orwell]

Stop following the old consultant-driven playbook of running Republicans in Democratic clothing. While this may not pay off immediately, it could pay dividends over time.

Huh? Can you point to any examples of this? Like maybe Chris Koster in Missouri or Barbara Bollier but those are stretches. A socially conservative Democrat is not a Republican, Mario Cuomo was opposed to abortion and he was heralded as the savior of American liberalism.

[anthonyjg]

Don’t nominate a caricature

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Obligatory "Amy McGrath is a centrist".

[The Arizonan]

For now? The best solution right now is to wait for demographic changes.

[Ferguson97]

Wait 20 years for demographics to catch up or hope the Republicans accidentally nominate a child molester or Martha MsSally.

[Roll Roons]

Hope Rocky Adkins runs against a terrible Republican while getting high enough turnout from Jefferson and Fayette, flipping Campbell and Kenton, making inroads in Boone and Oldham, and doing well in his native coal country. Basically Beshear's path to victory on steroids.

[vileplume]

Wait 20 years for demographics to catch up or hope the Republicans accidentally nominate a child molester or Martha MsSally.

But in 20 years time it's basically inevitable that the Republicans (or whatever right-of-centre party that replaces them should the GOP collapse, which is very unlikely IMO) will be doing much better with minority voters than they are now. The 'white grievance' strategy is nearly at the stage that it very much struggles to win them the presidency (the popular vote being near impossible) . This prospect of irrelevance will basically force the GOP to eventually jettison the most loony part of their base try to appeal to minority groups as well as suburban moderates.

The argument that every state will become Democratic eventually because of 'meh... demographics' is probably the most awful political argument trotted out on this forum. Sure, the Democrats have and will continue to have a significant advantage in American politics in the short term but their coalition will eventually break apart, likely due to the GOP managing to win over conservative/moderate minority voters. By the time Kentucky reaches the demographic makeup that it would require flip based on today's political alignment, the national political climate and voter coalitions of both major parties will have changed significantly enough to make this an irrelevant political indicator.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

1. Run Beshear
2. Run Adkins
3. Clandestinely get Matt Jones fired so a future political career is not prevented by his desire to continue with his radio show
4. Run people who win statewide with extremely strong reputations (probably only recent or incumbent governors)
5. Run some kind of bizarre rural populist who makes Adkins-style compromises on social issues but also manages to fire up the base with economic promises. They also need to be a once-in-a-generation candidate with a ridiculous level of charisma and they probably don't exist in KY, but strong candidates can come out of nowhere occasionally

Some benefits:
- Probably run the candidate as an independent who'd caucus with Dems rather than an official Democrat
- Run the strongest candidates against McConnell. Rand Paul (or any ordinary R running for Senate in KY) is too strong at this point

[CookieDamage]

Wait

[Oryxslayer]

Reality Check:

They Don't, unless the Republican is Moore/Akin clone. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something like the OP.

[Hope For A New Era]

Run Beshear and have him do his best to ignore social issues entirely. He's in pretty much a one-of-a-kind position for a red-state Democrat right now.

Alternatively, wait for a very establishment Republican candidate to run, then find a progressive from somewhere in coal country and have them go max populist.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Buy Cincinnati from Ohio