Rep. Andy Barr brings some late winter race-baiting with a dash of tariffs | Opinion

I could have been in the Edgefield, S.C. of Strom Thurmond, the Sophia, W.Va. of Robert Byrd, or the Grenada, Miss. of Trent Lott. But no, it’s Lexington, Ky. in February 2026.

Kentucky gardeners dream of summer’s tomatoes and cucumbers. Skunks, coyotes, and raccoons mate in the relative warmth and increasing light of late winter. Honey bees range the central Kentucky tree canopy for a precocious bloom or two. Amid these wonders of variety and adaptation, U.S. Representative and Senate candidate Andy Barr outed himself as a race hustler. Barr says, in a new campaign ad: “It’s not a sin to be white, it’s not against the law to be male, and it shouldn’t be disqualifying to be a Christian.” Poor, beleaguered Andy. Is Barr mansplaining, racesplaining, Christiansplaining, or some nasty brew of all three?

And speaking of Christianity, the Episcopalian Church now and for some time, has a Barr problem. As Austin Horn reported in the April 22, 2025, Lexington Herald-Leader, the Episcopalian Rev. Donna Barr, offered a prayer for her son’s Senate run announcement. Now, Rt. Rev. Mark Van Koevering, VIII Bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, must have something to say about the gleeful promotion of White Christian nationalism by one of his flock. I don’t know, maybe there’s a spare bedroom for Christian Identity in the Episcopalian house.

The ad, which could double as a recruiting pitch for Idle Hour Country Club, places Rep. Barr’s campaign securely in the gutter. But Barr didn’t have far to fall. He’s a skilled influence peddler. In exchange for campaign contributions, he returns an organized legislative protection racket for the finance, insurance and real estate sector (and their predation profits) and AIPAC, among other beneficiaries. He’ll be right at home in the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Barr’s devotion to Trump is getting sticky. The organization We Pay Tariffs estimates that Kentucky importers paid $4.5 billion in tariffs from March to December 2025. SCOTUS has now struck down those IEEPA tariffs. Will Barr recognize Kentucky’s economic harm or will he support Trump’s new tariff tantrum of 15%? All Senate candidates, including Daniel Cameron, Nate Morris, and the Democrats, should demand refunds for Kentuckians; businesses and Kentuckians at large that had their money taken because of Trump’s “favorite word in the English language.”

The U.S. lost 108,000 manufacturing jobs in 2025, and the US trade deficit after dipping slightly in 2025, is rising again. The facts of US trade are in bright contradiction to Trump’s economic policy claims. Dig deep enough and you’re likely to find Trump Administration insiders profiting from policy moves seemingly coming from the mind of Trump.

The racial pandering of Andy Barr and the tariffs of Donald Trump are a distillation of a political practice that relies on fear and intimidation. Barr’s ad is merely another version of Trump’s birther lies. President Trump’s tariffs have harmed Kentuckians and the country, but you won’t hear a peep out of the Congressman from Kentucky’s 6th District.

Todd Kelly is a nurseryman and gardener from Lexington.