No they took away his power to appoint a replacement, which is still dubious because that’s in the KY constitution. The method he can use is calling a special election.
Exactly. Here’s where democrats really need to take a page out of the GOP playbook. Do the thing anyway, let the Kentucky GOP file a lawsuit, and make the courts determine if it’s within their power to do it without amending the state constitution.
Appointing a new senator would actually end up hurting Democrats more than Republicans.
The way the appointment process would work is that the Republican party would give the governor a short list of 3 candidates and the governor picks from those 3.
So the governor would have to appoint a republican to the senate, which functionally gives the republicans an extra vote (since McConnell hasn't been voting).
And in the long term, the next governor of Kentucky is probably going to be a Republican, having a special election makes it much easier to get a democratic senator in in the rare even that the next senator from Kentucky passes.
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u/No-Discipline-5219 3h ago
The Kentucky legislature took the power to call special elections away from him as soon as he came in to office