Trump pulls away from Cruz in new Kentucky GOP caucuses

Published 7:20 am Sunday, March 6, 2016

By Community News Content

The official caucus tabulation team counts ballots at the first-ever Kentucky Republican presidential nominating caucus along with Mikayla Mitchell of the Rubio campaign who served as tabulation observer.

Donald Trump won the Kentucky Republican caucuses on Saturday amid high voter turnout, but in several counties, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was only a few votes behind him.

Just one vote separated the two in Rowan County, with Cruz winning 318-317 there; Trump edged Cruz 70-67 in Morgan County and 17-15 in Elliott County.

In Madison County, Cruz captured 1,637 votes to Trump’s 1,625.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished a distant third in the state caucuses, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich was fourth.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis assisted voters with signing in at the Morehead Conference Center as a GOP volunteer. Davis became a lightning rod in the gay marriage debate nationally last summer after denying gay couples marriage licenses. She changed her party from Democrat to Republican in September and said she wanted to volunteer because she “always want(s) to make a difference.”

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“I’ve never been a politician and to be in the midst of this, it’s exciting,” she said. “This is the first time in my lifetime that I know of that there’s been a Republican caucus. To be a part of that, you know, we’re experiencing history here.”

Kentucky Republicans were holding their nominating contest in caucuses rather than a primary for the first time, a change made last year in anticipation of helping home state Senator Rand Paul in his presidential bid. However, Paul dropped out of the race a month ago.

“I will confess … when this was proposed to us a year ago I was skeptical,” Doug Morgan, chairman of the Rowan County Republican Executive Committee, said about the caucus.

However, after witnessing the turnout and the “relaxed” atmosphere in the conference center, Morgan hopes it will not be a one-time event. “I’ve been involved in elections for a long, long time and I’ve never seen an election this smooth. I’ve never seen people this comfortable voting,” he said.

Details for this story were provided by the Ashland (Kentucky) Daily Independent and the Richmond (Kentucky) Register.