Ben Chandler, last Democrat to hold KY-06, backs Zach Dembo for Congress
In a contested Democratic primary race for the nomination to Central Kentucky’s now-open congressional seat, the last Democrat to hold it has made his pick.
Former congressman and Attorney General Ben Chandler endorsed Zach Dembo for the seat Wednesday.
“I think he has the best chance to win in the fall is the bottom line,” Chandler told the Herald-Leader.
Chandler held the 6th Congressional District seat from 2004 to 2012, when he was defeated by Republican Rep. Andy Barr by a margin of roughly 4 percentage points.
He was able to withstand Barr’s first challenge in 2010, a midterm year, but fell in a presidential election year when sentiment against then-Democratic President Barack Obama was high in Kentucky.
The timing of this year’s election, a midterm cycle where Republican President Donald Trump’s approval numbers are slipping, leads Chandler to believe that the district can be flipped, even if Barr has won it handily in recent years.
“I think he checks all the boxes. I think he’s decent, he’s capable, he’s shown courage to stand up when you need to stand up, and I think he’s got the kind of profile that will play better in the fall in this district. That’s not, certainly, a criticism of any of the other candidates. I like all the candidates. I just think that he’s got the best chance,” Chandler said.
Dembo is one of several well-funded and serious candidates running for the nomination. Former state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, businesswoman and bourbon writer Erin Petrey and former Lexington councilman David Kloiber are all vying for the seat as well.
Chandler said his background as both a veteran — he was a U.S. Navy JAG officer — and a federal prosecutor who quit because of Trump’s handling of the Department of Justice, would put Democrats in a position to win in November.
He is not the only major Kentucky Democrat to back Dembo, and Dembo isn’t the only one with big-name endorsements.
Stevenson, for instance, has the backing of Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and former Gov. Paul Patton. Coleman recently called back to Stevenson’s past elections, where she flipped her previous House seat and held off Republican challengers — though she fell to Rep. Vanessa Grossl, R-Georgetown, in 2024 — as evidence she should be the nominee.
“I’ve been a Central Kentuckian my whole life, and so I know how important the seat is. I know that this is the best opportunity we’ve had in a long time to flip it, and I know that Cherlynn is the best candidate to flip it because she’s the only person that’s ever done that,” Stevenson said.
Joining Chandler in endorsing Dembo are former Lexington mayor and Kentucky transportation cabinet secretary Jim Gray as well as former Kentucky Supreme Court justice Mary Noble.
Chandler was generally considered a “blue dog” Democrat — a tag for fiscally conservative, more moderate Democrats — in his eight years in Congress.
Petrey, a former Chandler intern who has carved out a lane as the most progressive of the Democratic field, drew a contrast with that in a debate hosted by WKYT Wednesday, the same day Chandler announced his endorsement.
“The last Democrat who did hold this seat, Mr. Chandler, was also a blue dog Democrat, and, like I said, voted against universal health care in the first place. So, we really need a different tack. We are seeing across the country that progressives are outperforming,” Petrey said.
When asked what appeals to him from a policy standpoint about Dembo, Chandler — who is the grandson of former governor, senator and commissioner of baseball A.B. “Happy” Chandler — said he thinks the key to politics and life is compromise.
“What I never have wanted, and this is something that I’ve been consistent about, is that I don’t believe that a person should be doctrinaire. Of course, the people who are doctrinaire suggests that those of us who are willing to compromise on things don’t stand for anything. I don’t want somebody who will just fight for a particular idea, I want somebody who will actually try to accomplish something on behalf of the people that they represent. And I think Dembo, as far as policy concerns, he’s given me the indication that he’s willing to compromise on certain things — not in a negative way at all, but in a positive way to move the ball forward in the right direction,” Chandler said.
