Kentucky is ten points redder than California is blue.
Posted by Real Time with Bill Maher, Checked
- Sources
- 1 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 30%
Real Time with Bill MaherOct 24, 2026
The sources establish Kentucky's red lean (Cook PVI R+16; Trump won the state by 30.7 points in 2024) but give no figure for California's partisan lean, so the ten-point comparison cannot be graded. The sources say only that California is a safely Democratic state with Biden/Harris margins of 10+ points, which is a lower bound.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… As long as Trump is the president, Kentucky, he has an R by his name, and you have an R by your name. You have to go way further than you have in distancing yourself from a guy who's not even popular with his own party right now. Kentucky is ten points redder than California is blue. Really? Yes, and so when I ran, it was all about representing my people. I would stand up against a president of any party if they were doing something that would harm the Commonwealth of Kentucky. …
Real Time with Bill Maher · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Kentucky is a solidly Republican state: Cook PVI rates it R+16, and Trump carried it by 30.7 points in 2024, per the electionodds.com page.[1]
Context. California is described as safely Democratic with Biden/Harris winning margins of 10+ points, but no source gives its exact partisan lean or margin, so the ten-point comparison is not testable.[2]
Context. Kentucky's lean is given as R+29.9 in margin points (about R+15 in vote share) in a forecast tracker, which differs from the Cook PVI and 2024 margin figures and does not resolve the comparison with California.[3]
Sources
3 sources: 3 not rated
- 1Kentucky Election Odds For 2026 | KY Election Historyelectionodds.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 2Red State, Blue State, Swing State: 2026 Political Mapuspollingdata.com · not rated · cited for: context
- 3Senate races · Election Forecast Tracker - Kevin DeLucakevinmdeluca.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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