With US House, future of state in balance, here are 9 elections to watch in KY
It’s a big election year in Kentucky.
The race to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell is taking up much of the attention, but down the ballot voters will find many other state and federal races worth following.
Some of them could shape the future of the Republican Party of Kentucky or the Kentucky Democratic Party. Others could end up chipping away at Republicans’ massive majorities in the state Senate or House, or reassert their dominance even further. One could decide whether Republicans or Democrats have control of the U.S. House.
Here are nine races to watch this year ahead of the May 19 primary and Nov. 3 general election.
Lexington-area House races
A handful of Kentucky House races in the Lexington area will be closely watched in 2026.
Rep. Adam Moore, D-Lexington, claimed his South Lexington and Jessamine County seat by the skin of his teeth — about half a percentage point — in 2024. He will face the winner of the GOP primary between former state Rep. Killian Timoney and former Idaho state Rep. Jeff Thompson. Timoney, seen as a moderate, was defeated in the 2024 Republican primary after facing a barrage of attacks for votes against social conservative priority bills like Senate Bill 150, which banned gender-affirming care for Kentucky minors.
Moore is viewed as a strong candidate for Democrats, but much of his House District 45, particularly the Jessamine County portion, is conservative. Republicans view it as a ripe opportunity for a pickup.
The inverse scenario is playing out on the opposite end of Lexington in House District 88. Rep. Vanessa Grossl, R-Georgetown, represents much of suburban North Lexington and a swath of Scott County. She unseated former state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson in a close election in 2024, and is high on Democrats’ target list this year.
Only one Democrat filed to run against her: Alisha Chaffin, who manages the family office of Charles and Merryl Zegar. Charles Zegar is a billionaire philanthropist and cofounder of Bloomberg L.P. Chaffin was joined by Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman when she filed for the office.
The math for House District 56 is a little different, with Rep. Dan Fister, R-Versailles, having won by 15 and percentage 12 points the last two cycles. Still, Democrats are hopeful that David Graves, a longtime teacher and coach in Woodford County, can make it competitive.
Woodford is a traditionally Democratic county that has been voting for Republicans at the state and federal level for years, but has continued to elect several Democrats to local office. In 2024, the county supported President Donald Trump’s election by 14 points.
State House District 30
Incumbent Rep. Daniel Grossberg will face three Democratic challengers on the ballot for his Louisville district seat.
For over a year, the legislative ethics commission has investigated Grossberg’s alleged misconduct and found probable cause on three counts of violating the state ethics code in July 2025. Those three counts include intimidation of a strip club that banned him for life, attempting to solicit a donation from Subway restaurant owner in exchange for a benefit, and his conduct in 2023 toward now Lexington City Councilwoman Emma Curtis, who says the behavior was sexual harassment.
Grossberg has denied any impropriety, and the commission set public hearings on Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 for the case.
Some of Grossberg’s actions being investigated by the commission were first publicized in 2024 in the Herald-Leader, which detailed a pattern of inappropriate interactions with woman and his lifetime ban from a Louisville strip club for trying to touch a dancer on stage.
Max Morley, a Democrat from Louisville, launched an early campaign 18 months before the election. While Morley’s press release at the time did not explicitly mention Grossberg, Morley wrote he wants to be a new voice who can offer “principled leadership.”
Cassie Lyles, a high school teacher in Jefferson County Public Schools, announced her candidacy in May 2025 and says on her website the district “deserves a good listener who will be accountable to voters in the same way.”
The last Democratic challenger, Mitra Subedi, is a teacher at Jefferson County Public Schools and ran against Grossberg in the 2024 primary; Subedi narrowly lost with garnering 49.2% of the vote.
No Republicans are running in the district, meaning whoever wins the primary won’t face a challenger in the general election.
State Senate District 6
Two Democrats are vying to win the nomination to represent Oldham, Trimble and part of Jefferson County, where social conservative Sen. Lindsey Tichenor holds the seat.
Tichenor has represented the district since 2023 and is a one of a growing “Liberty” wing of GOP lawmakers, which is a faction of Republicans pushing the caucus to the right on social conservative issues. One example is her filing legislation attempting to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at K-12 public schools.
The two Democratic candidates are Christian Furman and Chad Stoess.
Furman is a geriatric and palliative care physician and is a member of the Prospect City Council. According to Furman’s campaign website, her priorities include strengthening public schools, making Kentucky more affordable and preventing gun violence.
Stoess has worked at the Ford Kentucky Plant Truck since 2016 and previously served almost six years as an intelligence analyst in the 20th Special Forces Group of the Kentucky Army National Guard. According to Stoess’ campaign website, he’s running for the seat because he believes that there is “a lack of leadership in District 6 and harmful legislation coming from our elected official.”
Tichenor won’t face a primary opponent, but this will be her first time on the ballot against a Democratic candidate in the general election. In 2022, she won the general election with 94.5% of the vote, with Democrat Brian Easley gaining 5.5% as a write-in candidate.
While Oldham County has more registered Republican than Democratic voters, Trimble County has 19 more Democratic voters than Republican, according to December 2025 registration numbers from the Secretary of State website.
Jefferson County, which typically votes blue, also has more registered Democratic voters, with 323,868 compared to 185,728 registered Republicans.
U.S. House 6th Congressional District
Arguably the biggest election in the Lexington area both this May and November will be for the 6th Congressional District, which covers Fayette, all of its immediately surrounding counties and a small portion of Eastern Kentucky.
Republicans feel strongly about their odds of holding onto the seat, as Rep. Andy Barr is running for the U.S. Senate, even in a midterm year when voters are traditionally liable to revolt against the president.
They’ve got a three-person slate of leading candidates so far. Former state Sen. Ralph Alvarado is casting himself as the favorite, having raised the most from donors of any candidate, and has made inroads among many in Frankfort.
State Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, a pastor and businessman with a social media following, is trying to run to Alvarado’s right and insists he’s the most genuine conservative in the race.
Then there is Greg Plucinski, a Nicholasville pharmaceutical executive who sold the drug company he co-founded a company to Kindeva in 2024. Details of the sale aren’t public, but he’s likely to self-fund some amount. How much of his own money he’s willing to spend, and how he spends it, could be an X factor in the race.
The Democratic primary has a similar feel, and there’s energy around the idea of flipping the district they came so close to in 2018 when Barr beat then-candidate Amy McGrath by three percentage points.
Former state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson is the ostensible favorite, having run in the Lexington area several times. She has organized local Democrats, made several appearances on Lexington’s television stations — both in ads and political coverage — and has the endorsement of Coleman.
Former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo has turned heads with his fundraising figures, and in short order has garnered the support of some prominent Kentucky Democrats like Christy Brown, one of the country’s top Democratic donors.
Erin Petrey, a businesswoman and bourbon writer, made a splashy entry into the race and has continued to campaign hard as a committed progressive.
David Kloiber is playing a similar role to Plucinski in the field, though he’s more of a known quantity from his time on Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council and his ill-fated 2022 run against Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton. Kloiber gave his mayoral campaign more than $630,000, and could change the face of the race if he self-funds to that tune or more this year.
State Senate District 14
An open seat in bourbon country drew in seven Republicans and two Democrats for primary election.
Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, who currently represents the district announced last year he would retire at the end of his term. Higdon has served in the Senate since 2009 and first entered the legislature as a state representative for House District 24.
Whoever is elected to replace Higdon will have substantial shoes to fill. He chairs the Senate Transportation Committee and saw the advancement of major projects, including the Brent Spence Bridge project and the expansion of the Hal Rogers and Mountain Parkways in Eastern Kentucky.
Other leadership positions Higdon held include majority whip, president pro tempore and chair of the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection Committee.
His district encompasses LaRue, Marion, Nelson, Spencer and Washington counties, and Higdon has only faced a Democratic opponent once during his time in the Senate. That was in the 2018 election, and he won 65.3% of the vote against Democratic candidate Stephanie Compton.
This election cycle, Carrie Gribbins Truitt and Malcom Jones are the Democratic candidates in the district.
On the Republican side, the following candidates filed to run:
- Brian Bayers
- Stephen Carney
- Ben Mudd
- Dallas Robinson
- Lynn Shelburne
- Peggy Brady Smith
- James Victery
State Senate District 30
State Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, is challenging Republican incumbent Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, in the Republican primary.
Wesley, who currently represents House District 91, announced in July 2025 he would run for the Senate seat, where he touted his experience being on the front line of the culture wars in Frankfort.
Wesley has served in the House for five years and sparked controversy during the last legislative session after confronting a transgender woman for using a woman’s restroom in the Capitol.
In 2023, Wesley was the primary sponsor of a bill banning transgender students from using school restrooms that aligns with their gender identity. While there’s no law in Kentucky dictating which bathrooms trans adults can use in public spaces, Wesley has previously indicated he will file one during this session.
Smith has represented the district since 2008 and previously represented House District 84. He has chaired the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee for several years and is facing multiple lawsuits over a failed Bitcoin mining operation in Eastern Kentucky.
Senate President Robert Stivers told reporters on Monday the caucus will be supporting Smith, but didn’t have a targeted investment yet for the race.
“We’re going to do all the things you do in a traditional race,” Stivers said. “We’ll poll it. We’ll see what the name recognition is and what’s needed, and then we’ll determine our budgets and go from there, but that’s a couple of weeks down the road.”
State Senate District 36
A Senate district representing part of Jefferson County drew in two notable Democratic candidates.
Those are Luke Whitehead, a former University of Louisville basketball player, and Sarah Cole McIntosh, a former Jefferson County Board of Education member.
Republican Sen. Julie Raque Adams currently holds the seat and has filed for reelection. She has a massive fundraising advantage, ending the year with $237,000 on hand, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.
The district is one of the most politically “purple” held by Republicans, and Democrats hope this is the year they can flip the seat form red to blue.
Stivers said though he thinks Raque Adams is “well prepared” no matter who wins the Democratic primary.
“I think the people will know who Julie is and reward her for the work she’s done there for the past several years,” Stivers said.
