The results from this election were completely unexpected.

Nearly every poll going into this election night showed Harris beating Trump or Democrats beating Republicans. As election night continued, it was easy to see that the night would be different than the expected plan.

The elephant in the room is Trump beating Harris. Trump had an unexpected victory going into the night. Not only did he win the Electoral College and all seven battleground states, he won the popular vote for the first time since he first ran in presidential campaigns.

Zooming our lens closer to Kentucky, we see surprising results across the state but unlike federal elections, Kentucky, Calloway County and Murray all voted in favor of many progressive ideas.

Kentucky voted in favor of Trump with an overwhelming majority of 64.6% voting for him. In Congress, Kentucky continued to vote mostly Republicans into the House of Representatives with four out of five seats being held by Republicans. Kentucky Republicans still have a hold on the Kentucky legislature where the numbers for their super majority remain unchanged.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky had two amendments on the ballot. The first amendment was about whether only U.S. citizens were allowed to vote in Kentucky and the other was about tax vouchers for schooling. As expected for the state, Amendment 1 passed with 62.4% voting in its favor, which was not surprising. The unexpected was Kentucky voting “no” on Amendment 2 by an overwhelming 64.8%.

Amendment 2 proposed for tax vouchers to be given to parents, allowing them to use the vouchers on private schools. With Kentucky voting conservatively historically, seeing Kentuckians vote with such prejudice against this amendment was a very unprecedented outcome.

Looking towards Calloway County and Murray, the most surprising vote was over medical cannabis.

Calloway county and the city of Murray voted 63% to 37% in favor of allowing medical cannabis dispensaries in their area. Medical marijuana has  been legal in the state since Gov. Andy Beshear signed Senate Bill 47. Even after that bill was signed, many counties still put the allowance of dispensaries on the ballot.

Considering the re-election of Imes in Calloway county; they also voted very strongly in favor of allowing medical cannabis.

Many results of the election were expected but we did see strong support for many progressive ideas. This vote could signify a shift in ideals held by Kentucky voters over certain issues or it may just be votes over issues people cared strongly for. We won’t see these results in the next election.