House candidates make their pitch for how they’d support Central KY business community
Candidates for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District sparred Tuesday in front of Lexington’s business community about the federal government’s role in growing a strong workforce, building an ecosystem for entrepreneurship and assisting in maintaining sufficient infrastructure that retains residents and keeps the area attractive for growth.
Commerce Lexington, the area’s chamber of commerce, hosted Republican Dr. Ralph Alvarado and Democrat Zach Dembo July 7 as part of its Public Policy Luncheon Series. The two answered questions about regional competitiveness, regulatory pressures on the business community and how they’d approach tackling a variety of local challenges in the halls of Congress.
Alvarado and Dembo won their respective primaries in May to succeed Republican Rep. Andy Barr. Barr left the seat that covers Lexington, Richmond and Georgetown for a bid in the U.S. Senate to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell.
While Democrats hope to flip the district to help win back the U.S. House, Republicans have been fairly confident they will keep the seat.
Dembo — a former federal prosecutor, Naval officer and legislative director for Gov. Andy Beshear — pitched himself as the candidate who would actively work with the Central Kentucky business community to ensure federal dollars make their way back to Fayette County and the surrounding areas. He acknowledged he has more to learn about business interests and said he’d avoid politics in favor of voting for policies that benefit the region no matter who sponsors them.
Alvarado — previously a state senator and running mate of former Gov. Matt Bevin before being appointed commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health — said it’s in Central Kentucky’s best interest to entrust the critical U.S. House seat to someone who has navigated politics and policy before. He said in his time in office, he’s already proved to be an ally of the business community.
Regional competitiveness
Dembo said it’s the responsibility of Congress to not act as a rubber stamp, but rather ensure a workforce is built while increasing access to healthcare and education systems that are attractive and are the backbone of resident retention.
He was critical of the work of Congress so far, especially on tariffs, which have hurt Kentucky’s bourbon and car manufacturing industries, Dembo said. He was also critical of Medicaid cuts which have the potential to not only impact the health of Kentuckians but their source of income.
Alvarado said Congress has a role in creating second chance work opportunities. He called his time as co-chair of the Kentucky Substance Use Recovery Task Force “one of the most meaningful roles” he had while serving in the General Assembly, and said government service is “not only about supporting businesses, it’s also about building a society where opportunity is real, and it’s reasonable for everyone.”
Alvarado said there’s a national debate on the direction of how government should work. He said the choice is between more freedom or more government, and he’d always pick opportunity over restriction, growth over stagnation, and a system that celebrates success.
“Government doesn’t create prosperity, I think it creates a condition for entrepreneurs, innovators and workers to create prosperity,” Alvarado said. “I think my job in Congress is to make sure that Washington is helping Kentucky compete.”
Data centers and technology infrastructure
Alvarado said the success of Kentucky is partly due to its reliable electricity, an asset that should be protected.
“As electricity demands grow because of advanced manufacturing, because of AI data centers, I think Congress’s role needs to be to make sure that we have an all-of-the-above energy policy moving forward,” Alvarado said. “And that means expanding reliable generation, modernizing our infrastructure that we have right now for transmission and reforming our permitting process.”
AIvarado and Dembo said artificial intelligence is one of the country’s greatest opportunities because whoever leads is going to have a significant military and economic advantage.
“While the federal government should create the conditions for innovation, it should not dictate where data centers are built,” Alvarado said, adding it should be up to local communities to decide if they want to be a data center host or not.
Dembo said he’d lean on his experience as a veteran to drive combined national and cybersecurity policies, something he said has been “too whack-a-mole” thus far.
“Right now, I don’t feel that there’s a coherent (AI regulation) strategy coming out of Congress, and part of the problem is Congress is really old and they don’t understand AI,” Dembo said.
Taxes and regulation pressure on business community
Dembo — who remained critical during the entire forum of Congress and President Donald Trump’s administration — said he’d work in Congress to make economic certainty as much of a reality as possible when it comes to taxes and regulations the business community interacts with.
“This uncertainty, where trade policy is done based on tweets and tantrums instead of any sort of responsible, thought out way to protect American industry while ensuring that we’re living up to the free market ideals that the United States helped create. It’s got to end,” Dembo said.
Alvarado, who has Trump’s endorsement in this race, again pulled from his experience in the statehouse and balancing a budget for a state department in arguing the federal government measures success by how many rules it has in place, not by the quality of the rules or what they are trying to accomplish. Alvarado said the goal of tariffs and other tax policy impacting Kentucky business should be to level the playing field.
“I don’t think we have to choose between protecting American industries and expanding international trade,” Alvarado said. “We can and we have to do both. ... The goal should always be to change unfair behaviors and strengthen America’s position, not to create unintended consequences.”
Transportation infrastructure
Dembo said he would prioritize the development program ongoing at the Blue Grass Airport, which involves funding the relocation of an air traffic control tower to make way for a new terminal. Infrastructure, road projects and bridge improvements are one of the things Dembo sees as an opportunity for Congress to work in a nonpartisan way.
Alvarado said he’d also support upgrades at the Blue Grass Airport but said there’s opportunity for smaller, regional airports to expand, too. He also said manufacturing across Kentucky relies on rail, something that would need to be a collaborative effort in Washington to improve and connect to new communities.
Workforce challenges and immigration
While Alvarado supports securing the U.S. border with Mexico to restore confidence in the immigration system, he recognizes the economy depends on immigrants and wants to expand and modernize legal work visa programs.
“These programs are essential, really to our agricultural industry, to the horse farms here, hospitality (and) landscape construction,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado also said protecting communities should come first, and “anyone who’s in this country illegally and commits a crime should be removed.”
Dembo said the immigration system is broken, and is something Congress needs to fix.
“For folks who are law-abiding, who have been the cornerstones of the horse industry, of the bourbon industry, of the ag industry, the tobacco industry — which my family used to be a part of before the buyout — they deserve a pathway to citizenship,” Dembo said. “They are already fulfilling the American dream we’ve been asking of them.”
Federal government’s role in housing availability and affordability
Dembo said Congress has an opportunity to expand programs for first time homebuyers. Part of the “American dream,” he said, involves purchasing a home, but is out of reach for most young people. He said the only way he was able to afford one was thanks to a loan through Veterans Affairs.
He proposed that the government could put up the research funding to find more solutions to housing gaps instead of putting up more red tape for construction and for tax credits.
Alvarado said housing is an economic competition issue and it’s critical to maintain a healthy workforce. The federal government’s role, he said, should not be to dictate local zoning or create a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, Congress should remove federal barriers that are increasing construction costs and empower the private sector to build more.
.JPG)