National Review
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by John Fund
November 3, 2015
11:58 PM @JohnFund
Matt Bevin’s 53
percent to 44 percent victory tonight marks only the second time in 48 years
that Republicans have won the Kentucky
governor’s race.
But Republicans
also made history in another way. Bevin’s lieutenant governor running-mate,
Jenean Hampton, is now the first African American elected to statewide office
ever in the state’s history.
Both Bevin and
Hampton are Tea Party activists who have never held elective office. Hampton ’s path certainly
represents triumph over adversity. Born in Detroit , the 57-year-old Hampton and her
three sisters were raised by a single mom who lacked a high school education
and couldn’t afford a television or a car.
But Hampton was determined to
better herself. She graduated with a degree in industrial engineering and worked
for five years in the automobile industry to pay off her college loans. She
then joined the Air Force, retiring as a Captain. She earned an MBA from the University of Rochester ,
moved to Kentucky
and became a plant manager in a corrugated packaging plant.
Jenean and husbband |
Then she lost her
job in 2012. She used her free time to start a career in politics and becoming
active in the Tea Party. She ran a losing race for state representative in 2014
but won an early endorsement from Senator Rand Paul. She was tapped by Bevin to
be his running-mate earlier this year.
“I’m aware of the
historical significance. People point it out … Really, I just never think about
it,” she says.“We’re different races, different sexes, he grew up in the
country, I grew up in the city. We represent a broad range of the Kentucky demographic.”
Bevin and Hampton
were able to hold Democrat Jack Conway to only 58 percent of the vote in Louisville , Kentucky ’s
largest city and home to one out of five of the state’s voters. Ads featuring
the Bevin-Hampton ticket and its support for school choice apparently enabled
it to improve on the city’s normal Republican showing.
.