Outside of the Bluegrass State, the death of former Kentucky United States Senator Walter D. Huddleston earlier this month didn’t register many headlines. The 92-year-old broadcaster-turned-legislator, ill for several years, passed away quietly in his sleep. 

First elected to the United States Senate in 1972, Huddleston, a moderate Democrat, eventually lost his bid for reelection in 1984 when a 44-year-old Republican judge named Mitch McConnell narrowly defeated him in a hotly fought contest. 

Narrowly defeated is an understatement.