Any Democrat hoping to run for statewide office in Kentucky faces an uphill battle, and that is especially true of the state’s two U.S. Senate seats. In a state President Donald Trump won by 30 percentage points, Republicans have represented Kentuckians in the Senate since 1999. It’s also been a long time since Kentucky had an open Senate seat, with Sen. Mitch McConnell retiring after more than four decades in office.
U.S. Rep. Andy Bar, armed with an endorsement from Trump, is the Republican nominee for the open seat. Democrat Charles Booker, who has run for Senate twice before, is running against him as a progressive with a plan.
They have McConnell’s legacy as the longest-serving party leader and GOP bogeyman to contend with — and his more recent role of occasional opposition to a president who isn’t quiet about his distaste for the 84-year-old senator. Politicos in the state wonder if Kentucky will maintain its outsized influence in Washington as McConnell makes his exit.
Despite some steep odds, Booker said he’s confident Kentuckians have become disillusioned with Trump, whose policies Barr has fiercely defended. While polls show Trump’s approval rating in Kentucky is underwater, election predictors seem to agree there’s still a big leap between disapproving of a Republican president to voting for a Democrat for Senate. Barr removed a few references to the president from his website and is leaning into bipartisanship in a recent ad, while also joining Trump onstage at his northern Kentucky rally over the weekend. Booker must also contend with lopsided fundraising, with Barr far outpacing him.
Control of the Senate is up for grabs this year, and Americans are divided over who they believe will win control of the chamber. Republicans are in control now with a narrow 53-47 majority. Election forecaster Cook Political Report rates seven races this year as tossup and one as leaning toward Democrats. Kentucky’s Senate race is not one of them, currently rated as a “solid Republican” seat.
Election Day is Nov. 3, and no-excuse early voting runs from Oct. 29 through 31. Learn more about the races on your ballot with the Kentucky Public Radio voter guide. Here’s what you need to know about the top two candidates running for Kentucky’s open Senate seat.
U.S. Rep. Andy Barr asks for a promotion to Senate
Congressman Andy Barr got his start in politics working under the administration of former Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, after interning with McConnell and the Republican National Committee. In 2010, Barr lost in his bid to oust incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler for the Lexington-area district by less than 700 votes. But in 2012, he proved successful, flipping the district red.
Barr serves as a member of the House Financial Services committee. He voted in favor of Trump’s signature tax and spending policy, the One Big Beautiful Bill, which extended tax cuts while slashing spending on Medicaid and food benefits. He has voted against resolutions to reign in Trump’s war powers and voted no on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He has also championed the horseracing industry, sponsoring the legislation to create the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
Barr announced he would make a run for the U.S. Senate almost immediately after McConnell said he would not attempt reelection. Despite a hotly contested three-way GOP primary, Barr won handily after receiving and running on Trump’s endorsement.
Barr’s support for Trump and his policies had not diminished since his primary run, although Kentucky Public Radio reported he had removed several references to the president and his endorsement on his campaign website. Barr said the solution to high oil prices is for the U.S. to oil more oil refineries stateside and laid the blame on the Iranian regime rather than the president for starting the war.
“As we litigate who would be a better steward for lower gas prices in this country in this upcoming election, don't elect more Green New Deal politicians who will take energy production offline,” Barr said.
Like McConnell, Barr says he’ll champion the cause of farmers and the agricultural industry. However, unlike McConnell, he championed the burgeoning hemp industry as an alternative for tobacco farmers and proposed a federal framework to regulate intoxicating products. He argues pressures brought on by Trump’s international trade wars, which have wreaked havoc on farmers dependent on foreign exports, will benefit the American economy in the long run.
Barr defends tariffs as a “tool” to open up new markets. For example, he said tariffs could create new markets for Kentucky’s bourbon industry and blamed Canada for retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s trade war.
“We haven't been getting reciprocity with the Canadians, and so using the tool of tariffs and other tools of economic statecraft to get that reciprocity is very very important,” Barr said.
Barr also argues inflation is down under the Trump administration and the fact it remains above benchmarks is the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s economic policy. Under Biden, inflation hit 9% high, but by the time he left the presidency in January 2025 the rate was 3.0% year-over-year. In September, the inflation rate hit 3.7%, higher than when Trump took office and well about the Federal Reserve’s target.
“If you want to make life more affordable for the American people, start paying down the national debt, put downward pressure on Treasury bonds, and the cost of credit will go down for everything on mortgages, on credit cards, on your loan on your truck,” Barr said.
Barr also says the U.S. needs to build up its artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers. He said he supports local control instead of federal intervention.
“We have to compete with China, and we have to win,” Barr said. “So the national policy needs to be energy dominance and AI leadership, and that means we have to build out the infrastructure.”
During the primary, Barr ran several ads focusing on culture war issues — including an ad declaring “It’s not a sin to be white” and another where he cheersed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Now, his ads focus on bipartisan appeal, including an ad in which a self-identified Democrat says she will vote for Barr.
Barr has a massive fundraising advantage over Booker, outraising Booker several times over. Super PAC American Mission, which gets its money from the artificial intelligence industry, has spent more than $880k supporting Barr since the primary.
Charles Booker back for another shot at a Senate seat
Booker has often spoken about his difficulty paying for insulin as a type-one diabetic, maintaining stable housing and paying for college. He first began working for the state under the non-partisan Legislative Research Commission, from which he was fired for appearing in a campaign ad for Allison Lundergan Grimes in her 2014 U.S. Senate bid. He would later be hired under Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration as division director for the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Booker was elected in 2018 to the Kentucky House and would serve one-term. He sponsored several pieces of unsuccessful legislation focused on criminal justice. In 2020, Booker ran for U.S. Senate against Amy McGrath, losing by a slim margin. He championed a similar progressive platform to today — a Green New Deal, universal health care and criminal justice reform amidst the height of the Breonna Taylor protests.
In 2022, he easily won the Democratic nomination to take on incumbent Sen. Rand Paul. Paul won handily by 23 points and the next year Beshear appointed him to the Governor's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and Community Involvement. He resigned last year ahead of announcing his third attempt at a Senate seat. Booker won another close primary against Amy McGrath.
Booker has emphasized healthcare and social safety nets throughout his campaign, calling to bolster Social Security and Medicaid in the short-term and eventually expand to universal healthcare.
“I'm going to Washington to meet those needs now to make sure that we can finally negotiate for prescription drugs, that we can continue to expand access and make sure people can get the insurance, the coverage they need, that the public has every option affordable available to them,” Booker told Kentucky Public Radio. “To get the care they need while we keep fighting for that ultimate goal.”
Booker opposes Trump’s blanket tariff policies and has called to stop trade wars with allies. He opposed Trump’s war in Iran and what he calls “forever wars,” saying the U.S. should be a leader through diplomacy instead.
Booker calls for a national moratorium on data center development and worker protections against the spread of artificial intelligence. Barr has frequently attacked Booker by calling him a “socialist,” a label which Booker has not outright rejected and responds to indirectly.
“The attack is lazy, and it's desperate,” Booker said. “They're trying to use fear tactics to make people believe that having more money in their pockets is a bad thing, that the government working for us instead of Mark Zuckerberg is somehow a bad thing. People aren't buying it anymore.”
Using terminology associated with Trump, like “drain the swamp” and “Kentucky First,” Booker has called for anti-corruption measures in Congress. He supports term limits, a ban on stock trading and no lobbying for previous members of Congress.
“When Trump said he was going to drain the swamp, we were going to clean that up,” Booker said, referring to corruption in D.C. “We really do need to do that, and getting all of this mega money out of politics — ending Citizens United — and then just finally lifting up an agenda for the people, the government that we pay for should work for us.”
Despite significant fundraising disadvantages, Booker said he is building a coalition inclusive of Democrats, independents and Republicans. In a state, where Republicans far outnumber Democrats, he’ll need them.
Booker’s campaign released internal polling that showed Booker trailing by 9 points. That polling also included a “post-messaging vote,” that Booker claims shows that the race is in a dead heat among Kentuckians who hear his message. Internal polls tend to skew toward the candidate who commissioned them.
“I never set out to raise the most money. This campaign is funded by the people. It is for the people,” Booker said. “That is what we need, and the fact that we can beat the big money by speaking to the issues, by showing up in the communities that we have counted off or felt forgotten.”
Barr and Booker are scheduled to debate live on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. on WKYT/Channel 27 in Lexington — days before early excused voting kicks off in the state.
