Democrats lose Kentucky House after a century

Democrats have lost the Kentucky House of Representatives they controlled for some 95 years, boosting Republican control over the Governors office and the Senate in the traditional southern Democratic bastion.

Republicans last controlled the chamber in 1921.

The Kentucky House was the only legislative house in the South still under Democrats with a 53-47 majority in the house of 100 until election day on Tuesday.

With this loss, The Washington Post, said: "Democrats are now basically extinct in the South."

According to election results, the GOP won a supermajority of at least 62 members in the house, beating even the most optimistic predictions of Republicans.

Among Democrats to fall under the Republican onslaught was House Speaker Greg Stumbo, who for more than 30 years has been a Democratic power in Frankfort, according to an online news portal, courier-journal.com.

Stumbo was defeated by Republican challenger Larry Brown.

The GOP wave, according to the Post, was led by Governor Matt Bevin, a businessman whose outside appeal and flare have been likened to Donald Trump - who himself was poised to be the next US President.

The Post said the total control over the executive and legislative branches of government in the southern US state gives Kentucky Republicans "a clear path to pass a range of conservative bills that had been stopped by the Democratic statehouse".

These include restrictions on abortions, limits on transgender individuals' use of bathrooms and limiting the power of unions.

--IANS

sar/mr