The #WalkAway movement is alive and well in Kentucky

When I was growing up and in school, one of the surest ways to spark an argument was to ask a fellow student if they were a Democrat or a Republican. Never mind that back in our school days, none of us really knew what either party stood for. We were what our families were. If a Republican asked a fellow Republican, all was well. But if a Republican asked a Democrat, some pretty good verbal sparring was likely to ensue.

Over the past several years, the Kentucky Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging registered voters. Each month, the Republican Party of Kentucky releases updated voter registration numbers from the State Board of Elections. Those figures have consistently been showing voters switching parties and new voters registering as Republicans. It's typical for Republicans to show +2,500 voters, Democrats to show -1,500 voters, and independents only around +250 or so. It's clear that Democrats are fleeing their party and becoming Republicans at an amazing rate.

There's a name for the transition. It's called the #WalkAway movement and the "#WalkAway" hashtag pops up from time time to time on social media. That movement is on fire in Kentucky.

I grew up in a Republican county, so I had more friends to agree with than to argue with, but that wasn't the case in most places in Kentucky in the 1970s. Back then, Democrats outnumbered Republicans statewide around 2:1. Voter registration was around 60 percent for the D's, around 30 percent for the R's, with independents making up the remainder. The GOP held power in the state only in the swath of south-central, east-central, and southeastern counties that made up the old Fifth Congressional District that was represented for years by Tim Lee Carter and then Hal Rogers. When Kentucky lost a congressional seat in the 1990s, Democrats controlled both houses of the General Assembly and the governor's office, and thus tried to gerrymander Rogers out of his seat by putting him in a district consisting mostly of old Seventh District counties where the late Carl D. Perkins had been in Congress seemingly since Noah put the animals two-by-two on the Ark. It didn't work. One might look to Rogers holding onto his seat when thrust into politically hostile territory as a sign of what was to come.

Lots has changed on the Bluegrass political landscape since those days. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who got elected in 1984 by upsetting the Democrat incumbent, was building the state GOP. First through party switches and then at the ballot box, Republicans took over the state Senate. Ernie Fletcher broke through in 2003 to become Kentucky's first Republican governor in 32 years, defeating the grandson of legendary Democrat A.B. "Happy" Chandler to do so. After eight years of Steve Beshear, Matt Bevin took the governor's office back for the GOP in 2015. And finally, the following year, after a couple of close calls, the Republicans flipped the House of Representatives and earned a supermajority in the process.

Now, the GOP dominates the federal delegation, with five of six representatives, plus both senators. For the first time, there are more Republican county judges-executive than Democrats. After twice giving Kentucky's electoral votes to Bill Clinton, the Bluegrass State has gone for the Republican in the last five presidential elections. And for the first time, the GOP has a majority of the statewide constitutional offices, with its eye on a complete sweep in next month's election.

What's amazing to me is how so many rock-ribbed Democrats have seen the light. After this state's suffering at the hands of Democrat control for so many years, they've decided they've had enough. It's gratifying to see so many of those hard-core Democrats with whom I argued politics back in high school turning into conservative Republicans. Even children of Democrats who were elected officials are abandoning the party of their parents. My own county judge-executive was a Democrat for years, and his father ran for that job 35 years ago as a Democrat. He changed parties and was elected last year as a Republican.

And it's not just them. One person I came to know years later was the daughter of a very powerful Democrat in her hometown. She, too, was a "yellow dog" for most of her life. But when I connected with her on Facebook and viewed her profile, I was shocked to see her political views listed as "Until Obama, Democrat."

It's obvious these people have seen Kentucky's past and who has been in control of state policies and purse strings for decades. They note our state's failures and know we can do better with the right people and philosophies in charge. Democrats have had the reins for years and have steered us in the wrong direction. They realize it's time for a change. They see Republicans putting new ideas and new energy into their local communities and national and state initiatives, and they want to be a part of the reversal and rebirth.

The national media has started referring to Kentucky as a Republican state -- or, given how they color presidential election maps, a red state. That's not wholly true yet. But we're getting there.

Don't be surprised if Republicans aren't the majority of registered voters in as little as five years, when enough people have finally walked away from the past policies that have held us back.