More than 300 candidates file for office in Kentucky. 17 will challenge McConnell.
The filing deadline to run for political office in Kentucky is weeks earlier this year, but that didn’t stop more than 300 Kentuckians from filing for state and federal political offices Friday, including 17 people hoping to take down U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Hoping to defend their super-majorities in both legislative chambers, 138 Republicans filed for a seat in the 100-member House or 38-member Senate. Democrats, who are trying to make up ground after losing seats in consecutive elections, fielded 108 legislative candidates. The deadline to file was 4 p.m. Friday.
All 100 House seats and 19 Senate seats are up for election in 2020.
The election of Gov. Andy Beshear gave an inkling of hope for Democrats that their party, which has faced a serious decline in power since 2016, could rebound in 2020. But compared to 2018, when 155 Democrats ran for a seat in the General Assembly, including a record number of women, that energy appears to have declined.
Republicans appear to like being in control, as 92 percent of Republicans in the House of Representatives filed for reelection, compared to 74 percent of Democrats. Democrats filed to run in only 36 of the 61 seats controlled by Republicans in the House of Representatives.
“I think we’ve had very good response to our message and have a solid group of candidates,” said House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect.
There are 28 uncontested races in the House of Representatives, with 16 Republican seats going uncontested and 12 Democratic seats. Of the 19 seats up for grabs in the Senate, nine of them are uncontested, including the seats of Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville.
There was no such luck for Osborne in the House. He attracted a primary opponent in Jefferson County Public School teacher Tiffany Dunn. Osborne was one of nine Republicans who drew a primary opponent in the House while three House Democrats drew primary opponents.
A spate of vacancies was left in the House of Representatives leading up to this year’s session, as two Republican representatives stepped away before the November election (former Rep. Tim Moore and former Rep. Dianne St. Onge) and then two more representatives were given jobs by Beshear (former House Minority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins and former Rep. Dennis Keene).
On the Senate side, former Sen. Dan Seum, R-Louisville, stepped down in November after controversially endorsing Beshear over former Gov. Matt Bevin and three members decided to retire after 2020: Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort; Sen. Stan Humphries, R-Cadiz; and Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville.
The retirements continued up to the filing deadline, with longtime Democratic representatives Rick Rand, Russ Meyer and Wilson Stone stepping away from the legislature. All three vacancies attracted Republican primaries in attempts to flip the long-held Democratic seats in areas that have trended Republican recently.
Others stepped away to run for a different office. In Eastern Kentucky, Rep. Chris Harris, D-Pikeville, retired so he could run for Kentucky Supreme Court. In Louisville, Democratic Rep. Charles Booker decided to pass on seeking a second term in order to make a long-shot bid to challenge McConnell.
Rep. Joe Graviss, who represents part of Fayette County, decided not to seek a second term in the House so he can run for the Senate vacancy that will be created when former governor and state Sen. Julian Carroll retires at the end of his term.
There is a Republican primary to run against Graviss that includes Adrienne Southworth, a former staffer of ex-Lt. Gov. Janean Hampton who was fired by former Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration. Southworth told reporters she couldn’t remember who she voted for in November but it wasn’t Bevin.
Among the Republicans stepping down is former House Speaker Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, who lost his speakership after secretly settling a sexual harassment complaint made by a former staffer in late 2016. Two Republicans have filed to run for his seat — Joshua Branscum and Mark Polston. Branscum is the former chairman of the State Board of Elections.
Democrats were contesting just two of the five seats being vacated by Republicans in the House of Representatives. Republicans had a candidate in all but one district where a Democrat is stepping down.
In Fayette County, two long-serving representatives drew primary opponents — Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, will face Killian Timoney, who is the director of plant operations at Fayette County Public Schools; and Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, will face Justin Bramhall, an openly gay small business owner whose website is advertising a fundraiser with Lance Bass of *NSYNC.
In Lexington’s District 88, which flipped to Democrat Cherlynn Stevenson in 2018, there are two Republicans running to take the seat back: hemp attorney Monteia Mundy and Aaron Yates.
Congress
The field for the 2020 U.S. Senate election against McConnell is set. There are 18 people running for U.S. Senate in 2020 — 10 Democrats and eight Republicans.
The Democratic pack is led by former Marine Corps pilot Amy McGrath, who has already raised $16.9 million, and Booker, who is looking to tap into a grassroots progressive movement that has spread through the country.
The rest of the Democratic field consists of Jimmy Ausbrooks, of Franklin; Mike Broihier, of Stanford; Maggie Jo Hilliard, of Louisville; Andrew Maynard, of Georgetown; Eric Rothmuller, of Louisville; John Sharpensteen, of Bonnieville; Bennis Smith, of Louisville; and Mary Ann Tobin of Guston.
McConnell’s seven Republican opponents are Nicholas Alsager, of Campbellsville; Wendell Crow, of Coxs Creek; Paul John Frangedakis, of Lexington; Louis Grider, of Elizabethtown; Naren James, of Stanford; Kenneth Lowndes, of Wilder; and former State Rep. C. Wesley Morgan of Richmond.
In the Sixth Congressional District, which covers all or part of 18 counties in central Kentucky, including Fayette County, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr filed to run for Congress for the sixth time. He’ll have a primary against Chuck Eddy and perennial candidate Geoff Young, a former Democrat. Both are from Lexington.
On the Democratic side, there are two candidates looking to unseat Barr — Josh Hicks and Daniel Kemph, both from Lexington.
Barr isn’t the only member of Kentucky’s congressional delegation with a primary opponent. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, will face Kathleen Free, of Brandenburg; Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Vanceburg, will face Covington Catholic attorney Todd McMurty, of Covington; and Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, will face Gerardo Serrano of Tyner. All six of Kentucky’s representatives face opponents in the general election.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 1:33 PM.
