Why are so many Harrison County voters Registering Republican…now? Guest post by Charles Garnett

Why are so many Harrison County voters registering Republican…now?

As is the case with many philosophical questions, I don’t think there is one answer. When I turned 18, it was commonly known in Harrison County that if you wanted to vote, you had to register Democrat. If there was an election, it was in the Democrat primary. If by chance a Republican actually ran for office, there was little chance to win because there were so few Republican voters. That stayed true in local elections until recently but the trend of Republicans winning Harrison County in national elections seemed to start in the 1970’s and state elections soon after.

When I turned 18 my views were considered center or slightly center right. I pretty much have the same core values today but would be considered very conservative. I can remember stating on WCYN Coffee break in the 1980’s that The National Democrat party had moved away and left the average Kentuckian. Then the state party did the same. From my perspective this all started with Lyndon Johnson’s “The Great Society” in 1964. After that, Democrat candidates like Hubert Humphrey, a major leader of modern liberalism in the United States, and Mike Dukakis, resulted in Republican won elections nationally! State races followed the trend and now local elections.

Even though I was voting Republican mainly because of my top 4 or 5 political issues, I still did not change my voter registration. I did not have incentive to do so. A few years ago, I finally had enough and people like Mike Fisher were starting to say out loud that enough is enough and started conversations, started recruiting candidates, and then started winning.

I think the average Harrison County resident believes;
1) I already pay enough taxes.
2) I believe in the 1st amendment
3) I believe in the 2nd amendment
4) I believe in the right to life.

These are issues that the national and state platform of the Democrat party do not support. There was a time you could be fiscally conservative, pro-life, in favor of the second amendment, and be a Democrat but those times are long passed.  By staying registered as a Democrat, I was remaining associated with their policies, and endorsing those far left ideas.

I truly believe if JFK were running for President today, he would be running as a Republican. 

In short, the Democrat party moved left and made a lot of Harrison County Democrats…Republican. It began slowly at first but now with lightening speed we are publicly associating with the party whose platform best represents us. 128 Harrison County voters registered Republican in November, it’s just a matter of time until actual registration catches up with reality.