Alvarado, Kentucky's first Hispanic state legislator, echoes Trump in launching a congressional bid
Alvarado, a medical doctor and the son of immigrants, will compete for Kentucky's 6th Congressional District seat now occupied by Republican Rep. Andy Barr , who is in a hotly contested race to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican Senate leader, in next next year's midterm election.
Seen as a rising conservative star during his years in the Kentucky Senate, Alvarado pledged to align with President Donald Trump's 'America First' agenda as he kicked off his congressional campaign.
'Kentuckians are fed up with open borders, sky-high prices and unelected bureaucrats who trample our freedoms,' Alvarado said in a statement. 'I'm running for Congress to fight for working families, stop the invasion at our southern border once and for all, and fight the woke agenda.'
Republican state Reps. Ryan Dotson and Deanna Gordon entered the House race earlier, also touting their conservative credentials and setting up the prospect of a competitive primary next spring.
The Democratic field also grew Thursday, with former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo entering the campaign. Dembo, also a former policy adviser for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, said his focus will include creating good-paying jobs, fighting back against Medicaid cuts and opposing tariffs that he said are hurting crucial Kentucky industries.
'Central Kentucky deserves to have a representative in Washington who stands up for families, works to lower their cost of living, expands access to affordable healthcare and protects their safety,' Dembo said in a statement.
National Democrats list Kentucky's 6th among dozens of districts nationally that they're targeting in hopes of winning back the narrowly divided House in 2026. Other Democratic candidates for the Kentucky congressional seat include ex-state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson and David Kloiber, a former Lexington city councilman.
Alvarado's campaign said he preserved his Kentucky ties while working in Tennessee, noting that he maintained his longtime home in Clark County in the district and continued to do medical work in the district. He typically returned home multiple times each month.
He was the first Hispanic member of Kentucky's legislature, his campaign said, having been first elected in 2014. He has said his immigrant parents made big sacrifices to get him a good education. His father was from Costa Rica, and his mother is from Argentina.
Alvarado ran for statewide office in Kentucky as then-Gov. Matt Bevin's running mate in 2019, but Bevin lost his reelection bid to Beshear. Alvarado left the Kentucky Senate to step into the role as Tennessee's health department commissioner in Republican Gov. Bill Lee's administration in 2023.
Lee last week announced Alvarado's departure from the state health department, saying Alvarado 'faithfully served Tennesseans throughout his tenure.'
Alvarado's role in promoting Bevin during the 2019 campaign could surface as an issue in next year's congressional race as Bevin's pugnacious style turned off many Kentucky voters.
The 6th District stretches from central Kentucky's bluegrass region to the Appalachian foothills. It flipped between Democratic and Republican representation for decades, but Barr has locked down the seat for the GOP for more than a decade, fending off a tough Democratic challenger in 2018.
Since then, the GOP-led legislature removed Democratic-leaning Frankfort, Kentucky's capital city, from the 6th District during the most recent round of redistricting, seemingly making it a steeper challenge for Democrats. The district includes Democratic-trending Lexington, the state's second-largest city, and covers multiple rural counties that are Republican strongholds.
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McConnell, Jr. played a recording of the call during an unusual discussion Thursday where multiple federal judges discussed threats they have received — a notable conversation because judges usually only speak publicly from the bench and through their rulings, and rarely if ever, about personal threats and attacks. Salas and others said the number of attacks has escalated in recent months. Without using his name, Salas called on Trump and his allies to tone down the rhetoric and stop demonizing the judiciary, for fear of what more could happen. 'We're used to being appealed. But keep it on the merits, stop demonizing us,' Salas said. 'They're inviting people to do us harm.' Thursday's event was sponsored by Speak up for Justice, a nonpartisan group supporting an independent judiciary. District Judge John C. 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Salas added that she's heard of additional cases targeting state judges in states ranging from Colorado to Florida, incidents that wouldn't be tracked by Marshals, who protect federal judges. 'This is not some random, silly act, this is a targeted, concentrated, coordinated attack on judges,' Salas said in an interview, 'and yet we don't hear any condemnation from Washington.' Salas, nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, in 2022 was critical of protests at the homes of Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who revoked women's right to have an abortion, which were followed by the arrest of a man at the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh who said he was there to assassinate the justice. Salas said both sides of the political aisle have used worrying rhetoric about judges, but it's reached a new peak since Trump took office. 'I've often referred to it as a bonfire that I believe the current administration is throwing accelerants on,' Salas said. 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Boasberg of D.C., who infuriated the Trump administration by finding they likely committed criminal contempt by disobeying his order to turn around a deportation flight to El Salvador. Though Chief Justice John Roberts has come to Boasberg's defense , Trump's Department of Justice this week filed a complaint against Boasberg over comments he made at a judicial conference that other judges worry the Trump administration won't obey their orders. Last month, Trump's Justice Department took the extraordinary step of suing every federal judge in Maryland over rules governing how they handle immigration cases. More than five dozen judges who've ruled against Trump are receiving enhanced online protection, including scrubbing their identifying information from websites, according to two Trump-appointed judges who wrote Congress urging more funding for judicial security. In 2022, Congress passed a law named after Daniel Anderl allowing judges to sue internet sites to take down identifying information. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
