U.S. Rep. Andy Barr ran hard on President Donald Trump’s endorsement when he won the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Kentucky earlier this year. His campaign website prominently displayed that he is “Trump-Endorsed” with a photo of Barr standing side-by-side with the president as recently as July 8.
Now, it’s a picture of Barr with two of his children, and instead of trumpeting the endorsement and being “100% America First,” the lead text reads that Barr is “Kentucky First Always.”
Barr is not the only Kentucky Republican running for federal office to move away from Trump in their public messaging. NBC News first reported that Ralph Alvarado, the GOP candidate in the 6th Congressional district, had significantly changed his campaign website to remove all mentions of Trump and his agenda. Alvarado too received Trump’s endorsement for the congressional race in Kentucky’s most purple district.
In a statement, Barr’s spokesperson Alex Bellizzi said that Kentuckians are aware that the congressman is proud to have Trump’s endorsement.
“He’s laser focused on defending Kentucky common sense versus crazy Socialism,” Bellizzi said. “Andy Barr can't wait to keep fighting for Kentucky alongside President Trump as our next U.S. Senator.”
Barr did not remove all references to Trump from his website, leaving in a reference to the endorsement among all his other endorsements and saying in bullet points that he had previously endorsed the president and chaired his 2024 primary campaign in Kentucky.
However, under the “Meet Andy” tab, Barr deleted all mentions to the president, including a phrase stating he would be a “a Senator who will fight for limited government and stand with President Trump.” He also deleted the following paragraph from his biography:
“Andy was the first member of the Kentucky delegation to endorse President Trump in 2024, and he served as the Chairman of Trump’s primary campaign in the Commonwealth. Andy has consistently fought to advance the America First agenda in the House and will be the President’s biggest advocate in the Senate.”
Charles Booker, the Democrat running against Barr for the open Senate seat, said Barr is a “shapeshifter” and Kentuckians need a senator who they can trust.
“The fact that Andy Barr is trying to scrub his website lets you know that he's seen the writing on the wall that people are ready for real change. They're tired of the corruption. They're standing with me,” Booker said. “He can try to take Trump from his website, but he can't remove his lips from Donald Trump's boots.”
Trump’s popularity has hit a record low, according to several polls. A Reuters/Ipsos poll and the latest Economist/YouGov survey has Trump with a 33% approval rating as the U.S.-Iran war lurches on, inflation rates have remained stubbornly high, and trade wars and tariffs continue to make headlines.
Despite that, Trump’s endorsement has still proven valuable in Republican primaries — that endorsement gave Barr a strong lead against his two GOP opponents and it led Ed Gallrein to victory over prominent Trump critic Rep. Thomas Massie.
In his victory speech upon winning the GOP nomination, Barr partly credited the president.
“The reason why the people of Kentucky gravitated towards me is because they know I'm with the president all the way and I support him,” Barr said. “And this is a state that wants us to make America great again.”
But some staunch Republicans are also questioning if Trump is hurting Republicans in the midterms with his continued tariff crusade and, early Monday, tirade against data center opponents, in which he said communities that push back against data centers will “end up being backwards and poor.”
Several communities in Kentucky — rural and urban, red and blue — have pushed back hard against data centers developers hoping to set up nearby. Kentucky state Rep. Savannah Maddox, a prominent liberty-wing Republican from Dry Ridge, said dismissing rural Kentuckians' concerns “is not a great strategy.”
"Messaging like that is going to get Republicans slaughtered in midterms,” she said.
Barr campaigned hard for Trump’s endorsement during the primary and leaned on it heavily once it came down a few weeks before Kentuckians headed to the polls. At the Fancy Farm political picnic in 2025 before securing the endorsement, Barr mentioned Trump’s name 15 times in his six-minute speech.
“I served proudly as chairman of President Trump's 2024 primary election in Kentucky,” Barr said in the speech. “I'm working arm in arm with him right now to get his America First agenda passed in the House.”
At this year’s August picnic, Barr didn’t mention the president once in his speech.
At the annual Kentucky Farm Bureau’s ham breakfast and charity auction, Barr responded to Alvarado’s website change. He said Alvarado has Trump’s endorsement of a positive relationship with the president.
Barr said his good relationship with the Trump administration has helped bring prominent members of the administration, including Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy and Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick, to the state to hear from Kentuckians.
“So it is in the interest of the people of the 6th District that they have a congressman like Ralph Alvarado who will have that positive relationship with this administration, so that he can effectively advocate for the people of Central Kentucky,” Barr said.
