Speaking at the Values Voter Summit on Saturday, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin alluded to Thomas Jefferson’s famous aphorism about the need to periodically water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 
 
 Except in Bevin’s telling, the tyrant is Hillary Clinton: 
 
 Somebody asked me yesterday, I did an interview, and they said, “Do you think it’s possible, if Hillary Clinton were to win the election, do you think it’s possible that we’ll be able to survive? That we would ever be able to recover as a nation?” And while there are people who have stood on this stage and said we would not, I would beg to differ. But I will tell you this: I do think it would be possible, but at what price? At what price? The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood, of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else? The patriots. Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something, that we through our apathy and our indifference have given away. 
 
 Daniel Desrochers of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Bevin later tried to clean up those remarks by saying we should construe them as being about military service in the war on terrorism. 
 
 “Today we have thousands of men and women in uniform fighting for us overseas and they need our full backing,” Bevin said in a statement. “We cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms.” 
 
 The text of his actual speech, however, is completely at odds with that — he is very clearly talking about patriots winning back liberty from the tyranny of Democratic Party governance. 
 
 The specific political context is that Kentucky is a state where the national Democratic Party has become deeply unpopular (Mitt Romney won more than 60 percent of the vote) but that has one of the strongest state-level Democratic parties of any red state. Bevin succeeded a popular two-term Democratic governor, and even after the Democrats’ nationally disastrous 2014 midterms the party still holds a majority in the Kentucky House of Representatives, and two of the three down-ballot statewide elected officials are Democrats. 
 
 Consequently, basically anything that raises the salience of national partisan conflict in state-level Kentucky politics is a win for the Kentucky Republican Party. 
 
 The larger political context is the overall rise of what Alan Abramowitz calls “negative partisanship,” in which voters are feeling decreasing affection for the party they usually vote for but increasing alarm and dismay about the party they usually vote against. Bevin is arguing not that Clinton will implement some policies that he disagrees with and hopes will be reversed in a future election, but that Clinton will fundamentally imperil the viability of the American republic. 
 
 Of course, raising the specter of violent resistance to the Clinton regime only servers to further demonize the Republican Party and its supporters in the eyes of non-conservatives — further entrenching the cycle. ||||| “Today we have thousands of men and women in uniform fighting for us overseas and they need our full backing,” he said. “We cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms.” 
 
 As the full context of Bevin’s VVS remarks demonstrate, that’s pure spin. Bevin was clearly suggesting that bloodshed might be necessary domestically in the event of a Clinton victory. (You can watch the speech here.) 
 
 Yet the fact that Bevin is trying to walk it back also demonstrates just how extreme the statement is: a sitting governor suggesting publicly that armed insurrection might be necessary if a legitimate presidential election doesn’t go the way he wants. 
 
 Implications about armed revolt were somewhat common at the height of the Tea Party movement, and at the height of that Jefferson quote’s prominence. Few of the cries for uprising came from elected officials. In 2010, Sharron Angle, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada, said that she hoped “Second Amendment remedies” would not be necessary to deal with a “tyrannical” government—while clearly leaving the option open. Her statement was a huge national controversy; she ended up losing to Senator Harry Reid that November. 
 
 The 2016 election has been so strange that Bevin’s remark may barely register. In August, Republican presidential nominee made reference to the possible assassination of either Hillary Clinton or Supreme Court nominees, saying, “If she gets the pick of her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dunno.” Trump and his backers tried to play it off as a poorly executed joke. 
 
 Bevin’s comments do, however, underscore the apocalyptic attitudes aroused by this election, which has been unusually marked by fear. It is common for partisans on both sides to declare each new election “the most important of our lifetime” or something similar, but the nominations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have produced similar reactions from each candidate’s fiercest opponents: a sense not just that a loss would be catastrophic, and not even just the worst of a lifetime, but that it would be existentially dangerous to the United States. 
 
 Such sentiments are not unheard of; liberals threatened (and for the most part failed) to move to Canada if George W. Bush was reelected, while Tea Partiers foresaw doom if Obama was reelected, a prediction that has not yet been borne out—except perhaps by voters’ choices in 2016. 
 
 Trump, with his manifest ignorance of the Constitution and disregard for international norms, has been the greatest focus of this worry. Many conservative national-security figures have come out against him, warning that he is not fit to control the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. But as my colleague Molly Ball has written, fear may also be Trump’s most important tool in the election. Bevin’s speech is a reminder that Clinton’s opponents harbor apocalyptic fears too. ||||| (CNN) Matt Bevin, the controversial Kentuckian who attempted to dethrone Sen. Mitch McConnell last year and has vowed to eliminate the state's Obamacare programs, orchestrated a remarkable political comeback on Tuesday to win the state's governorship. 
 
 In an upset victory by a surprisingly large margin, Bevin bested Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, a Democrat, in the contest. 
 
 Bevin, a Republican often at odds with more mainstream elements of his party, solidly beat Conway 53%-44% in a race that Bevin was not expected to win by any significant margin. 
 
 The wealthy businessman has pledged to shutdown the state's healthcare exchange and he's also expressed concerns about the expansion of Medicaid in Kentucky under the Affordable Care Act. 
 
 In Mississippi, incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Bryant easily won his re-election against Democrat Robert Gray, a truck driver. The contest was pushed to the background, however, by a clash over a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to sue the state to boost funding for public schools. 
 
 In Virginia, Democrats failed to capture control of the state Senate, where Republicans maintained the same narrow 21-19 majority they held before the election. Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe had campaigned aggressively in the run up to Tuesday's elections, seeking to flip control of the senate in order to advance key parts of his legislative agenda, in particular an expansion of Medicaid, and to build support for his longtime ally Hillary Clinton before 2016. 
 
 Meanwhile, heated debate surrounding an effort to defeat a LGBT rights law in Texas could become hot fodder for the presidential candidates, a billionaire is backing a major effort to protect big game, and voters in Seattle are weighing a unique answer to the problem of money in politics. 
 
 Here are some of the issues being decided Tuesday and that are sure to be dissected in the aftermath as pols, pundits and the press look for clues to what the results all mean in the 2016 contest for the White House: 
 
 Ohio votes against legal pot 
 
 In Ohio, which was weighing a series of ballot initiatives that could have paved the way to the legalization of recreational marijuana, voters turned down the measure, CNN projects. Issue 3 would have effectively given a few businessmen a monopoly on cultivating the drug, which would have been sold at a limited number of places for sale in the state. 
 
 Nick Lachey, the onetime lead singer of 98 Degrees, and other investors are behind ResponsibleOhio, the group that was pushing an initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use in the Buckeye State. 
 
 While I may not agree, the people of Ohio have spoken and that's the way it's supposed to work. Change takes time. #democracy #respect — Nick Lachey (@NickLachey) November 4, 2015 
 
 "The people of Ohio have understandably rejected a deeply flawed, monopolistic approach to marijuana reform that failed to garner broad support from advocates or industry leaders," said one of those advocacy groups, The National Cannabis Industry Association. "This debate has shown that there is a strong base of support for legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana." 
 
 The amendment would have permitted anyone 21 and older to hold up to an ounce of pot for personal use. With a $50 license, they could have housed eight ounces of harvested pot and four plants. 
 
 Also on the pot front, Colorado voters are deciding what they want to do with the millions in revenue raised from its sale -- return the funds to taxpayers or use it to pay for school construction and other things. 
 
 Houston rejects LGBT rights measure 
 
 CNN projects Houston voters will reject the "Houston Equal Rights Ordinance," a measure designed to protect lesbian, gay and transgender people. The ballot issue drew national attention, with conservative opponents claiming the law would allow troubled men to go into women's restrooms and locker rooms. 
 
 On Tuesday afternoon, the Clinton campaign joined the fray, responding to a baiting tweet from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, that urged Houston to "vote Texas values, not @HillaryClinton values." 
 
 The law passed by the city last year to protect lesbian, gay and transgender people, but Tuesday's vote repealed it. 
 
 In recent months, the campaign to undo HERO has become a focal point for the right, which has spent millions and recruited an assortment of local celebrities to their cause, including former Houston Astros star outfielder Lance Berkman. 
 
 "My wife and I have four daughters," Berkman said in an ad paid for by the Campaign for Houston PAC, which is seeking to repeal HERO. "Proposition One would allow troubled men to enter women's public bathrooms, showers and locker rooms." 
 
 Supporters of the ordinance bristled at the claim, calling it fear-mongering against transgender men and women. 
 
 Seattle: Coupons for candidates 
 
 How would you like some coupons to spend on your favorite candidate? 
 
 That's what Seattle voters will now receive after the successful passage of the "Honest Elections" referendum, which was introduced to diminish the influence of money in politics. 
 
 "Initiative 122" will radically transform the financing of local campaigns. Under the measure, voters will each be given $100 in "democracy vouchers" -- four each, at $25 per -- to be shelled out to the candidates of their choice. 
 
 It will also lower donation caps, ban contributions from corporations with significant city business interests, increase transparency and increase fines for electoral wrongdoing. Furthermore, officials who leave office will be required to spend three years on the sidelines before becoming eligible to register as lobbyists. 
 
 Washington: A push to save endangered animals 
 
 This one's for Cecil the Lion, the big Zimbabwean cat killed in July by a dentist on safari from Minnesota. 
 
 Washington state's Initiative Measure 1401, which was resoundingly passed by a greater than 2-to-1 margin Tuesday night, criminalizes "selling, purchasing, trading, or distributing certain animal species threatened with extinction," raising the bar beyond where laws already on the books in New York, New Jersey and California have previously gone to protect big game. 
 
 The measure is the brainchild of billionaire Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, who has sunk millions of dollars of his own money into the campaign. 
 
 Opponents, including the "Legal Ivory Rights Coalition," had knocked the proposal for going too far. The group's website blared "It's Not What They Say It Is!" warning that grandmas looking to pass along their "antique" ivory will be made into criminals under the measure. 
 
 Not complaining about the initiative's passage: Elephants and rhinoceroses -- often hunted for the ivory in their tusks and horns -- along with lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, marine turtles and sharks that are among the threatened species that supporters say would be helped by the referendum. 
 
 Texas: The NRA bags its prize 
 
 On the other hand, Texans with a taste for "hunting, fishing and harvesting" got a constitutional boost on Tuesday, as voters there resoundingly passed Proposition 6. 
 
 The amendment makes it more difficult for activist groups to push through new legislation or regulations aimed at expanding protections for animals or delicate ecosystems. The NRA lead the way in lobbying for its passage, with groups like the "Dallas Safari Club" also boosting the cause. 
 
 With the measure's passage, Texas became the 19th state to guarantee its residents a constitutional right to hunt and kill almost all manner of wildlife and the freedom to catch and "bag" as many fish as they can haul back home. 
 
 San Francisco: Airbnb wins big 
 
 Airbnb, a vanguard of the so-called "sharing economy," won a decisive victory in Tuesday's elections when San Francisco voters rejected a measure that would have critically limited the company's ability to operate in the city following a furious lobbying effort from proponents of both sides. 
 
 Referred to as "Prop. F," the defeated measure proposed a citywide ban on what are known as "short-term rentals." If successful, Prop. F would have effectively crippled Airbrb, the profitable hub for homeowners and renters who profit from leasing out rooms or houses to travelers for below market rates, in its hometown. 
 
 The company had locked horns with the left over the measure, which activists supported amid growing tension over the lack of affordable housing in a city wracked by skyrocketing real estate prices. Rent and home sale prices in San Francisco have shot up in recent years, along with evictions, and critics say the fault lies, at least in part, with wealthy buyers who purchase housing for the express purpose of leasing it out for a quick profit. 
 
 But for now, at least, Airbnb will be able to remain in its home.
– Kentucky's Republican governor said blood might be shed if Hillary Clinton is elected president. Speaking to the annual Values Voter Summit on Saturday in Washington, Matt Bevin said he was asked if the country could ever recover if Clinton were elected president. "I do think it would be possible, but at what price? At what price? The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what? The blood, of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else. The patriots," Bevin said, referencing a quote from Thomas Jefferson. "Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children. It breaks my heart to think it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something that we through our apathy and indifference have given away." Per the Lexington Herald Leader, Bevin continued, "I want us to be able to fight ideologically, mentally, spiritually, economically, so that we don’t have to do it physically. But that may, in fact, be the case." The comments are starting to get quite a bit of attention: Democrats condemned Bevin's remarks, with one candidate for Congress calling for Bevin's impeachment. However, any impeachment attempt would be unlikely, as the heavily Republican state Senate would have to vote to convict the governor. Amid that and other blowback, Bevin's office provided a statement saying he was speaking about the sacrifice required of members of the military: "Today we have thousands of men and women in uniform fighting for us overseas and they need our full backing. We cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms."' But the Atlantic calls that "pure spin," saying Bevin was clearly implying an armed insurrection might be necessary should Clinton be elected. It says his "extreme" comments "underscore the apocalyptic attitudes aroused by this election, which has been unusually marked by fear." Vox agrees: "The text of his actual speech, however, is completely at odds with [his statement]—he is very clearly talking about patriots winning back liberty from the tyranny of Democratic Party governance."