It’s been five years since Alyssa Dara McDowell, clad in a Wonder Woman T-shirt, rushed the stage at a 2019 watch party and announced (incorrectly) that incumbent Matt Bevin had won the seat for governor against Andy Beshear.
McDowell, a Republican from Covington, most recently ran for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District. She lost to Thomas Massie in the Republican primary in 2022.
In 2019, McDowell said she spent Election Day praying that Kenton County would go to Bevin. McDowell told LINK in 2019 that she got a phone call from a friend who was praying with her.
“I kind of felt like – this thought came to my head – it would be weird for me to go on stage,” she said. But her friend on the phone praying with her prodded her. “He said, if there is no one there to stop you…”
McDowell made her way to the stage.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to announce that Governor Bevin had won,” she said.
But she did.
As seen in a viral LEX18 video, which now has nearly 423,000 views, McDowell is seen coming on an empty stage with a mobile phone at her ear, walking toward the open podium.
“Hey, we just got word,” she shouted into the mic. “Matt Bevin has won!”
The crowd, which had much to celebrate as the Republicans easily swept all the other statewide offices but were down at the prospect of Bevin’s pending loss, went from somber to jubilant in an instant.
McDowell appeared to become swept up in it. Still holding a phone to her ear, she began to “whoo” along with the crowd, her voice amplified by the mic. “Yes!,” she shouted before jumping up and down and waving her hand around.
By the time she went back to the mic, grabbing it with her free hand and beginning to speak into it, the sound had been cut off and a man was tapping her on the back. Still holding the phone at her ear and shouting into a mic that was no longer on, McDowell initially ignored the man who was trying to get her to leave the stage. She yelled into the turned-off mic for 15 seconds, long enough for a second man to come along and nudge her off stage.
Finally, she relented and departed.
The race, as we know now, went to Beshear. And the viral video featuring McDowell continues to resurface each year on Election Day.