Alvarado makes it official: He’s running in Republican primary to replace Barr
Ralph Alvarado, a former state senator and running mate for former governor Matt Bevin, is running as a Republican for the 6th Congressional District.
Alvarado announced his plans on Thursday morning in a press release.
The release states that Alvarado is running to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with President Donald Trump.
“President Trump is under attack from every direction, and he needs reinforcements in Congress,” Alvarado wrote. “Kentuckians are fed up with open borders, sky-high prices, and unelected bureaucrats who trample our freedoms. I’m running for Congress to fight for working families, stop the invasion at our southern border once and for all, and fight the woke agenda.”
The former state senator from Winchester was a mainstay in Kentucky politics before he took a role leading Tennessee’s department of health in 2023.
According to the department’s website, a new commissioner has already been appointed in Alvarado’s stead.
Alvarado’s political career began with a history-making win in 2014 when he became the first Hispanic member of the Kentucky General Assembly.
He joins a growing field lining up to replace outgoing GOP Rep. Andy Barr, who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the Senate.
State representatives Ryan Dotson of Winchester and Deanna Gordon of Richmond have both announced their bids for the Republican nomination to the seat.
On the Democratic side, former state representative Cherlynn Stevenson, former Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber and former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo have all thrown their hats in the ring.
State Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, R-Lexington, was seen by many as the prohibitive favorite until she announced she would not run earlier this month. She suggested in her statement that she would support Alvarado, who announced that he was considering the race moments after Bledsoe made her decision public.
Alvarado wrote in the release that he would prioritize lowering healthcare costs and saving rural hospitals, a hot topic given the recent passage of Trump’s massive budget bill. Groups like the Kentucky Hospital Association have sounded the alarm about the bill, as it reduces spending on Medicaid and changes the tax structure in a way they say threatens rural hospitals.
He also emphasized that he would work to strengthen Kentucky’s signature industries like bourbon, horse racing and manufacturing.
A doctor by trade, Alvarado chaired the Senate Health & Welfare Committee before leaving the Senate in 2023.
Alvarado joined Bevin’s 2019 reelection ticket in an unorthodox move on Bevin’s part. The then-governor opted to run with Alvarado instead of the sitting lieutenant governor, Jenean Hampton. The pair ultimately lost to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman by a slim 5,000-vote margin.
In 2016, Alvarado’s star in the party rose with a speech he made at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump, highlighting his pride in his family’s legal immigration story at a time when Trump’s rhetoric on immigration was seen as unpopular with Hispanic voters.
“Hispanics believe what Republicans believe: Traditional family values, church, faith in God, the dignity of work and the opportunity for self-sufficiency that comes from a free society and a limited government,” Alvarado said at the time.
In mid-2022, Alvarado was openly considering a run for governor the next year. Former Attorney General Daniel Cameron won the GOP nomination that year, later losing to Beshear.
Alvarado started running for office in 2004 and 2006, when he lost close races to an incumbent House Democrat. In 2010, he fell just short of unseating incumbent Democrat R.J. Palmer, and in 2014 he finally succeeded.
In his role as chair of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, Alvarado drew criticisms from the party’s “Liberty” flank when he presided over the failure of a bill that would have kept governments from asking employees if they received a COVID-19 vaccination, and banned colleges from requiring disclosure of immunization status.
Alvarado voted for the bill, but he chided the sponsor, popular Liberty wing lawmaker Rep. Savannah Maddox, for not securing the votes for it to pass his committee.
In 2018, Alvarado was the subject of a Herald-Leader report on his role pushing for legislation that would have made it harder for people to sue nursing homes, as well as other health care facilities, while he was working at several substandard nursing homes. One of those bills passed, but was later struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Though Alvarado has held a major role in Tennessee for the last two-and-a-half years, he has kept ties to his Clark County roots. In a recent appearance on Kentucky Educational Television, Alvarado emphasized that he still practiced medicine in Winchester.
According to records obtained with the Clark County Clerk’s office, Alvarado has remained a registered voter there since at least 2019. He voted in elections taking place in 2019, 2020 and 2022. Records did not show him voting in Kentucky in 2023 or 2024 when he held his role in Tennessee.
Both Gordon and Dotson, the other Republicans in the race, have dropped hints as to how they will hit Alvarado: Pointing out his role in Tennessee.
Dotson, in an interview with the Herald-Leader, said that Ralph was a friend and neighbor. His likely entrance in the race stirred some emotions in him, calling it a “slap in the face” that Alvarado didn’t inform him of his thoughts before going public.
“I’ve stood with him and he’s stood with me,” Dotson added. “... He has to drive by my house everyday to get to his house — when he’s in Kentucky.”
Gordon, in a mass text sent to voters Wednesday, emphasized the fact that she created jobs and she “never left.”
“We don’t need someone parachuting in. We need someone who’s been in the fight,” the text reads.
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
