Kentucky Senate Primary

The two main candidates in the Republican Senate primary are Representative Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron, the former state attorney general. They are looking to replace Mitch McConnell, the former Senate Majority Leader and longest-serving senator in Kentucky history, who is retiring after seven terms. Barr, the front-runner, has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and much of the G.O.P. establishment.

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On the Democratic side, Charles Booker, a former Kentucky state representative, is the front-runner. Booker was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 Senate race against the incumbent, Rand Paul, losing to Paul by more than twenty points. Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, later appointed Booker to lead the governor’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and Community Involvement. Booker’s main challenger is Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot who was the Democratic nominee in the 2020 Senate race against McConnell. Also running are Pamela Stevenson, the minority leader in the state House; Joshua Blanton, Sr., an advocate for marijuana legalization; Logan Forsythe, a former U.S. Secret Service agent; and Dale Romans, a horse trainer.

Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District Primary

The Republican primary in Kentucky’s solidly red Fourth Congressional District is officially the most expensive House primary in U.S. history. President Trump is determined to unseat the incumbent congressman Thomas Massie, who has become an outspoken critic of the White House. Massie, an M.I.T.-educated engineer, was first elected to Congress as a right-wing libertarian conservative in 2012, as part of the Tea Party movement. During Trump’s second term, Massie, who was initially a Trump supporter, co-sponsored a bill to force the release of the Epstein files, criticized the U.S. relationship with Israel, and broke with his party to condemn the war in Iran. Massie’s main challenger, Ed Gallrein, is a fifth-generation Kentucky farmer and former member of SEAL Team Six. He has been endorsed by Trump, and by Andy Barr, the front-runner in the Republican Senate Primary.

On the Democratic side, Jesse Brewer, a former area manager for 7-Eleven locations, is running against Melissa Strange, a supply-chain director for an agribusiness company.