Thomas Metcalfe in 1828 to the expiration of John L. Helm's term in 1851, only one Democrat held the office of governor: John Breathitt, who died a year and a half into his term and was succeeded in office by his lieutenant governor, James Turner Morehead, a National Republican. Following the collapse of the Whig Party in the early 1850s, many former Whigs joined the Know Nothing, or American Party, and Charles S. Morehead was elected governor from that party in 1855. Sectarian tensions gripped the state in the lead-up to the Civil War, and while the majority of Kentuckians favored the preservation of the Union above all else, a self-constituted group of Confederate sympathizers met at Russellville and formed a Confederate government for the state. While this provisional government never displaced the elected government in Frankfort, two men served as Confederate governors of Kentucky. From the close of the Civil War until 1895, Kentuckians elected a series of Bourbon Democrats with Confederate sympathies as governor, including two men—James B. McCreary and Simon Bolivar Buckner—who had served in the Confederate States Army. The Democratic dominance was broken by William O'Connell Bradley, who was elected the state's first Republican governor in 1895. Bradley's election marked the beginning of thirty years of true, two-party competition for the governorship in the state. Between 1895 and 1931, five Republicans and six Democrats held the office of governor. Since 1931, however, the Republicans have been unable to preserve this level of parity, and in that period only four of the twenty elected governors have been from the Republican party. See also 2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election – most recent gubernatorial election References Works cited External links Office of the Governor of Kentucky 1792 establishments in Kentucky