Jon Bel Edwards and Beshear...
Beshear came from a popular political family in the state and initially won against one of the most unlikeable elected politicians ever (Matt Bevin).
Jon Bel Edwards was up against David "DC Madam" Vitter and also instituted a 6 week abortion ban as governor, definitely a conserva-dem. You can run conserva-dems and win some places, Howard Dean figured that out. But it really only works during wave elections in terms of the House and Senate.
Texas isn't a red state, its a voter suppressed state. I hope Talarico wins but he is up against an entire state apparatus determined to prevent that and its been successful in preventing Dems from winning for awhile. Beto came very close. Biden probably could've won the state if they hadn't screwed over Harris county. Texas doesn't qualify. Its urban centers offset the "culturally Republican" factor by a lot but they have to fight hard to get their votes in and they've made is as impossible as they can make it.
The same could be said about Georgia, its a swing state when the voting rights are there (Stacey Abrams did a ton of work) to make that happen. When the urbans centers of Georgia don't have their votes suppressed, Georgia can lean blue, we've seen that happen already. Half of Georgia is not culturally Republican.
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