By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
A year ago, I might have been upset at my longtime friend, State Sen. Robin Webb, for giving up the Democratic Party to join the super majority Republicans in the upper chamber of the Kentucky General Assembly.
But, to my surprise, I didn’t find it difficult to identify her in print as Sen. Robin Webb, R-Grayson, instead of D-Grayson. Like me and many other lifelong Democrats here, statewide and nationally, she sensed her party was losing touch with rural, basically conservative voters.
And the party’s dismal showing in last year’s presidential election and subsequent, unanswered questions about a possible coverup of former President Biden’s health issues have raised serious trust issues.
In fact, rural and minority Democrats abandoned their party in such numbers that they became a major factor in President Trump’s victorious sweep of the so-called swing states in the South and Midwest.
I chuckled to myself when I read her quote to the news media, a paraphrased resurrection of Ronald Reagan’s historic explanation for joining the GOP, that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the party left him.
As expected, Sen. Webb was warmly welcomed by the Republicans in the Kentucky Senate and criticized by Democratic party leaders as a turncoat. No one in Frankfort should have been completely surprised by her decision because her voting record during 10 years in the House and 16 years in the Senate clearly reflects her commitment to putting the best interests of her rural constituents ahead of her old party’s position on various issues.
These two sentences from her news release perhaps say it best:
“First and foremost, I’m a mother, a rancher, and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentucky’s coal country. As the Democratic party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values.”
I have no doubt that Senator Webb will continue to fight effectively for the people of Carter, Boyd, Lewis and Greenup counties. After all, a woman with the courage to work as an underground coal miner is not afraid of anything.
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
