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Republican Matt Bevin’s victory in the Kentucky governor’s race Tuesday highlighted the enduring power of public sentiment about the federal health law to energize GOP voters as the national parties prepare for the 2016 elections. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, played a central role in the contest, which Mr. Bevin won resoundingly, 53% to 44%, against Democrat Jack Conway. The Republican pledged to dismantle the state’s health exchange—which earned praise for its relatively smooth launch—and to roll back or modify the expansion of Medicaid under the law. If he follows through, it would mark the first time a state significantly reversed implementation of the health law. (Campo-Flores and Radnofsky, 11/4)

Republican Matt Bevin’s election Tuesday as governor has placed Kentucky’s widely lauded health insurance expansion under the Affordable Care Act squarely in the crosshairs, with the governor-elect having pledged to eliminate or at least scale back the plan also known as “Obamacare.” More than a half-million Kentuckians now get health coverage through the federal law implemented under executive order of Gov. Steve Beshear. That includes more than 400,000 low-income Kentuckians covered through the Medicaid expansion and another 100,000 who have purchased private plans, many with federal subsidies to offset the costs. (Yetter and Kenning, 11/4)

The election of a conservative outsider as Kentucky governor has given Republicans a laboratory to show the rest of the country how they'd replace President Barack Obama's health care law. Three years into a coverage expansion that has brought the share of uninsured Americans to historically low levels, Matt Bevin's lopsided victory underscores how politically divisive the law remains. But experts say slamming the brakes in a state already deeply entrenched in the Affordable Care Act would cost lots of time and money, testing the new Republican administration's ability to rein in costs. (11/4)

Perhaps the most significant consequence of Republican Matt Bevin's victory in Kentucky's gubernatorial race last night is that it could result in the dismantling of maybe the most extensive (and successful) effort to implement Obamacare in the entire country. (Todd, Murray and Dann, 11/4)

The Republican victories in Kentucky’s gubernatorial race and Virginia’s state legislative elections on Tuesday provided a jarring wakeup call to Democrats that they could be facing a tough slog in the 2016 campaign. ... One important preliminary finding is that the Kentucky and Virginia election results may be a harbinger for Republican efforts to dismantle Obamacare and block a further extension of Medicaid health care benefits to many of the nation’s poorest individuals and families. (Pianin and Matishak, 11/4)

The Democratic Party’s half-century of decline across the South was all but complete Wednesday after Kentucky elected a Republican governor who campaigned against abortion, gay marriage and, for a time, Obamacare. ... He ran television commercials calling Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, “pro-abortion,” “anti-coal” and a champion of President Obama’s “liberal agenda” — reprising themes that swept many Republicans into office in last year’s midterm elections. ... For Bevin, Obama’s unpopularity in culturally conservative states like Kentucky proved a major asset. His advertising leaned heavily on tying Conway to the president. (Finnegan, 11/4)

The incumbent Democrat, Gov. Steve Beshear, used his executive authority to establish state-based health insurance exchange, Kynect, under the measure, and also expanded Medicaid, which now covers an additional 420,000 more Kentuckians — almost 10 percent of the state’s population. Mr. Bevin, who gave a radio interview but made no public appearances on Wednesday, has pledged to end Kentucky’s state exchange, and vows to stop enrolling new people in Medicaid. (Stolberg, 11/4)

Matt Bevin won the Kentucky governorship on a vow to dismantle Obamacare, but the obstacles he faces rolling back a law that covers nearly one in 10 Kentuckians offers a preview of the struggles that a Republican president would face living up to a “repeal and replace” pledge in 2017. Even before the votes were cast, Bevin had started hedging his repeal bet, saying he would not take coverage away from people who have it. He can give the health law in his state a more conservative veneer. But he can’t scrap it completely. (Pradhan and Demko, 11/4)