Why did Democrats win the Kentucky governor's race but come up short in Mississippi? It was an election cycle of unique contrasts.

• Last week, Democrats enjoyed a wave of success in most of the top electoral contests.
• Gov. Andy Beshear won reelection, but Brandon Presley lost the Mississippi governor's race.
• It's a tale of two states: both are conservative, but one had a stronger Republican tilt.

Democrats last week were victorious in high-stakes elections across the United States, winning the Kentucky gubernatorial election, flipping the Virginia House of Delegates and assuming full control of that state's legislature, and winning a key referendum in Ohio that will now enshrine abortion access into its constitution.