Legislature gives final passage to US Senate vacancy special elections bill

Kentucky legislators gave final passage Thursday to a bill dramatically changing how Kentucky U.S. Senators are replaced when they vacate office before finishing their term.

House Bill 622, sponsored by House GOP Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, would strip the governor’s authority to appoint a replacement U.S. Senator and replace that process with a special election.

With 31-3 passage in the Senate — all Republicans and some Democrats supported it — the bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk.

Republicans alone hold 4-to-1 majorities in both chambers, more than enough to override Beshear if he vetoes the bill.

Beshear, whose role in replacing an outgoing U.S. Senator would be nixed in the bill, has previously characterized the legislation as a legislative power grab. He has long railed against similar legislative action.

The current law mandates that the governor select a replacement for any U.S. senator vacating the office from a list of three provided by the state executive committee of the vacating senator’s party. In the case of both current U.S. Senators, that list would come from the Republican Party of Kentucky’s executive committee.

In recent months, Beshear hasn’t said explicitly that he would follow that law and some Democrats in the state have predicted that he’ll resist it.

Beshear has also indicated that the legislature’s changes to the law, which before 2021 allowed the governor to appoint anyone of their choosing, were informed by partisanship. He believes that’s not what Kentucky voters want, citing his five percentage point reelection victory on a message of transcending partisanship.

“If we are just dominated by trying to create a result of what letter someone would have behind their name, if appointed, then we are not performing or engaging in good government,” Beshear said earlier this year. “Last November, people said ‘knock it off. We are tired of the rank partisanship, and we don’t want a candidate or a general assembly that just sees Team R or Team D.’”

Rudy has stated previously that the bill is unrelated to the health of Senate Minority Leader McConnell. Over the summer, the 82-year-old McConnell twice publicly froze up on camera. Earlier this month, the longtime Senate Republican leader announced he will finish his term as leader at the end of this year.

Key to the bill’s passage in the Senate was the support of Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, who carried the bill on the floor. Stivers was the sponsor of the 2021 law changing the process in the first place.

The bill received praise from Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, who did not like the 2021 law.

“Right now we have the cleanest constitutional option, which is just to move it on and get a special election going,” Southworth said.

Spokespeople for both McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, have yet to respond to a request for comment on the bill.

This story was originally published March 28, 2024 at 11:10 AM.

Austin Horn

Lexington Herald-Leader

706-571-8597

Austin Horn is a politics reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He previously worked for the Frankfort State Journal and National Public Radio. Horn has roots in both Woodford and Martin Counties.