Kentuckians decided, at least the few who took the time to vote in last Tuesday’s primary election, to send incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin and Democrat challenger Andy Beshear to this fall’s general election for the state’s highest elected office.

Bevin garnered 52 percent of Republican votes Tuesday to outlast a surprisingly close challenge from Robert Goforth, a current member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Bevin earned 136,060 votes compared to Goforth’s 101,343 votes from voters across the state for 39 percent.

Two additional Republican candidates, William Woods and Ike Lawrence, finished Tuesday’s primary with 14,039 votes (5.4 percent) and 8,412 votes (3.24 percent) respectively.

Clinton County voters didn’t follow the trend of Kentucky voters in favoring Bevin however, to say the least.

Locally, Republican voters favored Goforth by more than a 2-1 margin, with 600 votes in Clinton County’s 13 precincts, compared to 293 votes for Bevin.

Clinton County was among a belt of southern and eastern Kentucky counties that favored Goforth in Tuesday’s primary election.

Goforth, who is from London, Kentucky, made a campaign stop in Clinton County in early April. Bevin did not make a personal campaign stop here prior to the primary election.

Bevin did not carry a single precinct in Clinton County Tuesday, with Goforth finishing with a lead in 12 of the 13 voting precincts, all but Seventy Six which saw each candidate receive 25 votes.

That Republican race for the nomination for Governor was the only race on Tuesday’s ballot that Clinton County voters did not follow along with the statewide results.

On the Democrat side for the party’s nomination for this fall’s Governor’s race, it was a close three way race between four candidates.

Andy Beshear, who is currently the state’s Attorney General, finished Tuesday’s primary with 38 percent of the vote for a total of 149,438, ahead of Rocky Adkins, a current member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, who had 125,970 votes, a 32 percent total.

Adam Edelen finished in a close third place with 110,159 votes, a 28 percent total. In fourth place was Geoffrey Young who had 8,923 votes, just over two percent of the vote total

Clinton County Democrat voters, unlike their Republican counterparts, followed along those same lines, with Beshear receiving 98 votes, Adkins 50 votes, Edelen 21 votes and Young with 10 votes.

In the other races on Tuesday’s primary ballot, statewide winners who also won balloting with Clinton County voters included Republicans Michael Adams for Secretary of State, Daniel Cameron for Attorney General and Ryan Quarles for Commissioner of Agriculture.

On the Democrat side of Tuesday’s primary election, the winners were Heather French Henry for Secretary of State, Sheri Donahue for Auditor of Public Accounts, Michael Bowman for State Treasurer and Robert Conway for Commissioner of Agriculture.

Across Kentucky, only 19 percent of registered voters took the time to go to the polls last Tuesday to cast votes on the short ballot.

In Clinton County, only 1,151 registered voters, about 15 percent, took time out of their day to make it to the polls.

Of those who did vote here, 971 were Republicans while 180 were Democrats.

Absentee ballots made for 43 of those voters, with only five absentee votes being cast via mail-in paper ballots, the remaining being cast on the voting machine in the County Clerk’s office prior to election day.