Ky voters want real people, not tired talking points from political campaigns | Opinion

I was talking with someone outside Kentucky who asked about U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie. How will Massie fare against Ed Gallrein, the primary opponent backed by President Trump in an effort to punish Massie for daring to disagree with the president?

This primary puzzles me. Massie is a unique figure who has always been popular in his district — I’d even call him something of a rockstar in Kentucky politics — whereas Gallrein was recently (if narrowly) defeated in my state senate district by Aaron Reed.

While I have never met Massie, he seems an affable fellow. Surprising no one, I disagree with him on most policies, but I also suspect that if we ever met in person we would have a cordial conversation, agree to disagree, shake hands, and be on with it. As I told the outsider asking the questions, I can’t help but respect Massie for holding firm to his belief system (however much I personally abhor some of those beliefs) under such intense pressure from the White House.

A rare, rare bird.

There are so few politicians who seem to believe their own words and who, it has to be said, are starting to sound like robots.

And this is not just problem for the Republican Party.

There are a lot of candidates across the political spectrum in Kentucky this year, and if you listen to their interviews, watch their social media feeds, and read their emails and text messages, you can start to feel like you’re in talking point hell.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a text message from the Booker campaign that opened with, “It’s Charles Booker. Breaking news Teri: The richest person on the planet just donated $10 million to boost one of my Republican opponents here in Kentucky.”

Breaking news is broken, so let’s start there. Are the big red exclamation points supposed to make me read this with more urgency? Do campaign managers and communications teams not realize we already have news alerts and likely know about Elon Musk’s absurd $10M donation to candidate Nate Morris?

I am not here to pick on Booker. He seems like a nice guy. I am here because the emails and text messages we all get almost daily from candidates in both parties, at all levels, sound the same, and there comes a point — hello, we are at that point — where there has to be another way, a better way, to break through the noise without just adding to the rote, screaming cacophony.

Which leads me to the boredom of talking points.

I was listening to an interview last week and the person began by saying they had three points to make. They made two points, then the interviewer interrupted, and the conversation took a good turn on a key issue that required a longer discussion. Minutes passed. Then the person said, “So back to my third point …” and even the interviewer chuckled.

There is so much happening and much of it, like in Minneapolis, is horrific. We are all overwhelmed. But Dear Candidates: For the love of God, there is a reason that podcasters like Joe Rogan, Andrew Sullivan, Jennifer Welch and others — where the conversations are extensive and cover a lot more than standardized talking points or even politics — are so successful.

Voters want to know who YOU are, not what your political consultant told you to say, and the public can sniff out B.S. like a bloodhound.

In a time of so much dehumanization coming straight from the White House, citizens are hungry for real people with real voices and this includes sounding like a normal, flawed human being in interviews and yes, even in text messages.

When I was asked about Rep. Massie, I realized that while he most certainly has talking points — all politicians do — it is often hard for me to hear them because he sounds so much like a real person.

On Sunday, Feb. 1, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul talked to CBS 60 Minutes about the federal government shootings in Minneapolis. If you haven’t watched the interview, I recommend you find it on YouTube. Granted, Paul is not running for office this year, but like what happens when I listen to Massie of late, what I heard in Paul’s interview was a real person with power asking much-needed questions about justice, use of force, and accountability.

Senator Paul did not sound like a Democrat or a Republican in the interview.

He was not determined to get his third talking point in.

He sounded like a thoughtful person trying, in this moment, to do what is needed and what is right.

This is what voters are hungry for.

Teri Carter is a writer in Anderson County.

This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 5:30 AM.