The off-year elections were not a rejection of Donald Trump

ON THE EVE of the election, President Donald Trump stood in a basketball stadium in Lexington, Kentucky, trying to salvage the candidacy of Matt Bevin, the incumbent Republican governor who has one of the lowest approval ratings in the country. “He’s such a pain in the ass, but that’s what you want,” said Mr Trump, who in 2016 carried the state by 30 points. “If you lose,” he added, “they’re going to say, Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world.” In the end, the Bluegrass state let the president down. Though Mr Bevin refused to concede, it looks as though he narrowly lost (by 5,189 votes, or 0.36% of those cast) to Andy Beshear, the Democratic candidate.

Whether that was in fact a world-historic defeat is another matter. All the other statewide contests in Kentucky saw hefty Republican victories. The defeat at the top of the ticket was more a reflection on Mr Bevin (who insisted, for example, that a teachers’ strike had led to the sexual assault of children) than a sign that Mr Trump’s influence among Republicans is waning. Kentucky is unlikely to be a battleground state in 2020.

In another closely watched gubernatorial race in Mississippi, the Republican Tate Reeves won by a six-point margin over Jim Hood, the moderate Democrat who had been serving as attorney-general. Though this might look...