Latest news with #KentuckyDemocraticParty
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Rep. Ryan Dotson enters Kentucky's 6th Congressional District race
WINCHESTER, Ky. (FOX 56) — With 6th District Congressman Andy Barr giving up his seat to run for U.S. Senate, the race to replace him is heating up. Rep. Ryan Dotson (R) officially announced his candidacy Tuesday night at a campaign event in Winchester. Dotson is no stranger to politics, currently serving District 73 in Frankfort. Dotson told FOX 56 that he believes his success at the state level would translate well in Washington. 'Save women's sports passed in the state of Kentucky,' said Dotson. 'I authored and got that bill passed. It is now a law. I protected property rights. I was a big part of helping to lower state income taxes.' Now, Dotson is entering the race for Andy Barr's 6th congressional district seat. As a veteran, businessman, and longtime pastor, Dotson said he is someone everyday people can trust. 'A good shepherd smells like the sheep,' he said. 'And so when you live among the people and you dwell among the people, work among the people, do business, and when people know you, they trust you. And I believe you're able to lead because they see you as one of them.' Read more of the latest Lexington & central Kentucky news While the seat has been held by a Republican since 2012, Democratic candidate Cherlynn Stevenson said she's determined to flip the seat in the next election cycle. 'If I can get out there and meet all the people, just have those one-on-one conversations, we can block out all of that noise,' said Stevenson. 'And that's what it is. It's just noise. It's meant to divide. I have my head down. I'm focused on the people of the sixth district, and we're going to win this race.' Dotson is confident that it won't happen. 'This was a plus 25 for Andy Barr back in November,' he said. 'This was a plus 15 for Donald J. Trump back in November. This is not going to be flipped.' The Kentucky Democratic Party released a statement today criticizing Dotson's time in the legislature. 'Ryan Dotson has spent his time in the General Assembly trying to make life harder for Kentucky families, prioritizing divisiveness while advocating to cut food assistance for our children, take money from our public schools, roll back regulations that keep our workers safe and make it harder for families to find affordable housing,' stated Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge. 'Dotson's candidacy is yet another example of Republicans trying to fail up while failing their constituents in the process.' How county officials put together a budget: A deep dive into Garrard County Rep. Ryan Dotson enters Kentucky's 6th Congressional District race Kentucky veteran nonprofit founder seeking presidential pardon after delayed release But Dotson remains steadfast in his decision to run, promising to fight for trade school funding and border security and to always put the American people first. 'Shrinking government control and giving the government back to the people,' he said. More candidates from both parties are expected to enter the race in the coming weeks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ground is broken for multimillion-dollar religious garden, 70-foot cross in Northeastern Kentucky
Jerry and Charlotte Lundergan with the Rev. Augustine Aidoo of Saint Patrick Church between them get help from others in breaking ground June 3, 2025, for a six-acre religious garden and 70-foot cross at the church cemetery in Maysville. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jack Brammer) Religious garden, giant cross to rise in Maysville: Jerry Lundergan's vision MAYSVILLE — On a sun-splashed Tuesday morning, former Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Jerry Lundergan, along with his wife, Charlotte, and several others, heaved shovelfuls of dirt heavenward to break ground for a multimillion-dollar religious garden and 70-foot cross at Saint Patrick Cemetery. Lundergan, a well-known Lexington entrepreneur who owns several companies in the food services and hospitality industry and emergency disaster services, wants to turn six acres in the front of the historic cemetery in the village of Washington in his hometown of Maysville into a religious site that he thinks may attract tens of thousands of people each year. The project will feature a replication of the Garden of Gethsemane near Jerusalem where the New Testament says Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion. It will contain life-size bronze statues of Christ and the main characters in the 14 Stations of the Cross. They are representations of events in Jesus' life on his way to his crucifixion. The planned cross will stand seven stories high. Lundergan is aiming at a completion date of early next April for Easter services and envisions tens of thousands of visitors each year. A minimal fee may be charged but nothing like the admission prices at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky that sometimes go over $100, he said. Lundergan noted that any proceeds would go to maintain the garden and cemetery and support Saint Patrick Church. Lundergan acknowledged Tuesday that the project will cost several million dollars. No tax dollars are to be used, he said, but the state may sell to the church at appraised value 2 ½ acres of surplus land in front of the cemetery — on what is known as old U.S. 68— to be used for parking. The bishop of Covington, the Rev. John Curtis Iffert, has leased land to Lundergan, who plans to give the entire garden to Saint Patrick Church once it is completed. Lundergan unveiled the first Station of the garden at the groundbreaking ceremony that attracted about 120 people. It shows Jesus speaking to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion. Reto Demetz, an Italian sculptor who designed the statues, was on hand to talk about his work. Other professionals involved in the project are Lexington landscape designer John Carman of the CARMAN firm and Betty Vento of Mentor, Ohio, who is an expert on religious statues. But the day belonged to Lundergan, who thanked his wife and their five daughters for their support and said they were fulfilling a dream. Daughter Alissa Lundergan Tibe moderated the hourlong ceremony. He recalled how he visited the cemetery as a boy with his parents, who attended St. Patrick's Church, and where he was baptized, married and someday will be buried in its cemetery. He spoke of his love for the church and Maysville. His comments received a standing ovation. The Rev. Augustine Aidoo of Saint Patrick Parish prayed that the project becomes 'a beacon of hope' while several public officials touted its potential economic development effects as well as its religious message. Maysville Mayor Debra Cotterill said the project's 'economic implications are enormous' with many visitors. It is to have a welcome center with a gift and snack shop that will be on the site where the groundbreaking was held. Mason County Judge Executive Owen McNeil predicted the project 'will attract visitors from around the globe,' and state Rep. William 'Buddy' Lawrence, R-Maysville, said it will attract national and global attention. David Cartmell, mayor of Maysville for 20 years and now a city commissioner, said the project will become 'iconic' for the region. 'This is a big, big day in Maysville,' he said. Lundergan plans to post a website soon keeping interested people informed of the development of the project. He said it could be reached by searching for Gethsemane Garden Maysville. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Newsweek
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Who Is Robin Webb? Democratic Lawmaker Switches Party to Become Republican
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Kentucky state Senator Robin Webb announced she is leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican on Friday. Newsweek reached out to Webb and the Kentucky Democratic Party for comment via email. Why It Matters Webb's announcement leaves Democrats with only six of 38 seats in the Kentucky state Senate. Party switches are relatively rare in American politics, but she is believed be the fourth elected Democrat to leave the party following President Donald Trump's victory in November 2024 and the eighth to leave the party since the beginning of 2024. What to Know Webb, who was the last Democrat representing Eastern Kentucky in the state Senate, announced the party switch in a statement released by the state GOP Friday morning. "While it's cliché, it's true: I didn't leave the party—the party left me," Webb said in the statement. "The Kentucky Democratic Party has increasingly alienated lifelong rural Democrats like myself by failing to support the issues that matter most to rural Kentuckians." She wrote that she no longer felt the party represented her values amid a "lurch to the left" and a "hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development" in the region, which is known for its coal industry. She added that her values have not changed—only the "letter next to [her] name." State Senator Robin Webb speaks in Frankfort, Kentucky on Monday, April 2, 2018, in Frankfort, Kentucky. State Senator Robin Webb speaks in Frankfort, Kentucky on Monday, April 2, 2018, in Frankfort, Kentucky. AP Photo/Adam Beam, File "I will continue to be a fearless advocate for rural Kentucky and for the residents of eastern Kentucky who have been so good to me and my family," she wrote. "I want to thank President Stivers, my colleagues in the General Assembly, and the Republican Party of Kentucky for the warm welcome. I look forward to continuing to focus on sound policy with rural Kentucky's best interests in mind." Webb was first elected to the state Senate in 2009, previously serving in the state House of Representatives for more than a decade. Eastern Kentucky, once more competitive, has become increasingly conservative in recent decades. She, at times, embraced more conservative views than other Democrats in the state legislature, siding with Republicans in 2023 on a bill that would prohibit transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care, reported The Lexington Herald Leader. She worked as a coal miner until she was 25, NPR reported in 2006. She later became a lawyer and joined state politics. In the state Senate, Democrats are left with representation only in the Louisville and Lexington areas, following her party switch. What People Are Saying Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge wrote in a statement provided to Newsweek: "Senator Webb has chosen to join a political party that is currently working around the clock to take health care away from over a million Kentuckians, wipe out our rural hospitals, take food off the table of Kentucky families and take resources away from our public schools. If those are her priorities, then we agree: she isn't a Democrat." U.S. Representative James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, wrote to X (formerly Twitter): "Congratulations to my dear friend Sen Robin Webb for switching parties. Like so many good honest people with common sense who work hard and pay taxes, the Democrat party has abandoned them. Robin will make an excellent addition to our great Kentucky State Senate Majority!" What Happens Next Webb is next up for reelection in 2026 if she chooses to run again. Eastern Kentucky voted handily for Trump in the 2024 race, so the race is not particularly likely to become competitive. Kentucky is likely to remain a solidly conservative state in the foreseeable future.
Los Angeles Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Democrats' path back to power might start in places like this Kentucky town
PAINTSVILLE, Ky. — Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the two dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian town to meet with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. A former Kentucky Supreme Court justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo said the event was 'the biggest Democratic gathering I have ever seen in Johnson County,' an enclave where Republican Donald Trump got 85% of the presidential vote in November. Paintsville, the county seat, was the latest stop on the state party's 'Rural Listening Tour,' a periodic effort to visit overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative towns of the kind where Democrats once competed and Republicans now dominate nationally. Democrats' path back to power may start in places like Paintsville, one small meeting at a time, because it may be difficult for the party to regain control of Congress or the White House without faring better among rural and small-town voters across the country. The party recently lost U.S. senators from states with significant rural populations: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Also, Democratic-led states are losing population to Sun Belt states led by Republicans, with some projections suggesting changes after the 2030 census could cost Democrats 12 electoral college votes. 'The gut check is we'd stopped having these conversations' in white rural America, said Colmon Elridge, the Kentucky Democratic chair. 'Folks didn't give up on the Democratic Party. We stopped doing the things that we knew we needed to do.' It's not that Democrats must carry most white rural precincts to win more elections. It's more a matter of consistently chipping away at Republican margins in the way Trump narrowed Democrats' usual advantages among Black and Latino men in 2024, and not unlike what Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, did in two statewide victories. Nationally, Trump won 60% of small-town and rural voters when he lost reelection in 2020 — and 63% in his 2024 victory, according to AP VoteCast data. That's a far cry from a generation ago, when Democrat Bill Clinton won pluralities in Johnson County on his way to capturing Kentucky's electoral votes in the 1992 and 1996 White House races. 'We have to be intentional about how we build something sustainable,' Elridge said. 'It's not like we haven't won here before.' For two hours in downtown Paintsville, Elridge listened as Stumbo and others took umbrage at conservatives' policy agenda, expressed frustration over President Trump's standing in eastern Kentucky and said they were determined to sell their neighbors an alternative. Many brought their personal experiences to bear. The event was part town hall, part catharsis, part pep talk. In some ways, the complaints in Paintsville mirrored how Democrats nationally are angry, often for very different reasons. Sandra Music, a retired teacher who called herself 'a new Democrat,' converted because of Trump. She bemoaned conservatives' success in advancing private school tuition voucher programs and said they were threatening a public education system 'meant to ensure we educate everybody.' Music criticized Republicans for making a 'caricature' of Democrats. 'They want to pull out keywords: 'abortion,' 'transgender,' 'boys in girls' sports'' and distract from the rest of the Republican agenda, she said. Stumbo, the former justice, lamented what she called the rightward lurch of the state and federal courts. 'We are going to suffer irreparable damage,' she said, 'if we don't stop these conservative idiots.' Michael Halfhill, who works in healthcare information technology, was incredulous that the billionaire president has taken hold of voters in Appalachia, historically one of the country's poorest regions. 'It's not left versus right. It's rich versus poor,' he said, shaking his head at working-class white voters — Johnson County is 97.5% white — 'voting against themselves.' Ned Pillersdorf, who is married to Stumbo, went after Republicans for their proposed federal tax and spending plans, especially potential cuts to Medicaid. He said Paintsville still has a rural hospital, which is among the largest employers in the region, in no small part because Kentucky is among the GOP-leaning states where a Democratic governor expanded Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Elridge, the first Black chair of a major party in Kentucky, mentioned Trump's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and related civil rights laws and regulations. 'This is where Trump and MAGA excel — if somebody who looks like me is your enemy, then you don't care if the guy in the White House is peeing on your leg and telling you it's rain,' he said, referring to Trump's 'Make American Great Again' movement. By definition, a 'listening tour' is not meant to produce concrete action. Elridge and Nicholas Hazelett, the Johnson County Democratic chair who is a college student and a Paintsville City Council member, acknowledged that the small crowd was Democrat-friendly. Despite a few recent converts, no one was there waiting to be convinced. Across the street, antiques shop owner Michelle Hackworth said she did not even know Democrats were holding a meeting. Calling herself a 'hard-core Republican,' she smiled when asked if she would consider attending. 'They wouldn't convince me of anything,' she said. Bill Mike Runyon, a self-described conservative Republican who is Paintsville's mayor and loves Trump, went immediately to social and cultural commentary when asked in an interview to explain Johnson County politics. Democrats, he said, 'have to get away from the far-left radical — look at the transgender message.' Further, Runyon said, 'everything got kind of racial. It's not like that here in Paintsville and in Johnson County, but I can see it as a country. … It's making people more racist against one another.' Asked specifically who he was talking about, he alluded to progressive U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina from New York City, and Jasmine Crockett, a Black woman from Texas. 'It's the ones you always see on TV,' the mayor said. Beshear seems to be the one Democrat who commands wide respect in and around Paintsville. Democrats hailed the 47-year-old governor for supporting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights while still attracting support beyond the Democratic strongholds of Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort. Beshear did not win Johnson County but got 37% of the vote in his 2023 reelection. He carried several nearby counties. Many Republicans, including the mayor, complimented Beshear for his handling of floods and other disasters in the region. 'He's been here,' Runyon said. 'I absolutely can get to him if I need him.' In 2024, Beshear landed on the list of potential vice presidential running mates for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. He also remains Senate Democrats' top pick for a 2026 campaign for the seat coming open with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's retirement. Beshear, whose father once lost to McConnell after having won two governor's races, has said he will not run for Senate. But he has stepped up his cable TV interviews and launched his own podcast, fueling speculation that his next campaign will be for the 2028 presidential nomination. 'Andy is not like those national Democrats,' Runyon said. Harking back to the 1990s, he added, 'Bill Clinton wasn't like these Democrats today.' Hackworth, the shop owner, noted that she voted against the younger Beshear twice. But over the course of an extended interview, she, too, commended the governor's disaster management. She also questioned some moves by Trump, including the idea of getting Washington completely out of the disaster aid business. She blamed Trump's predecessor, former President Biden, for a 'tough time at my store,' but acknowledged that federal aid had helped many businesses and households stay afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. Hackworth said she was not familiar with details of Medicaid expansion, but she identified the nearby hospital as among the area's largest employers. The others, she said, are the public school system and Walmart, which a day earlier had announced it was increasing prices because of Trump's tariffs. While supporting Trump's 'America first' agenda, Hackworth said widespread tariffs would upset many consumers. 'You can walk through my store and see where the new stuff is made,' she said. 'I try to buy American, but so much of it is China, China, China.' Asked again whether any of that should give Democrats an opening in places like Paintsville, she said, 'Well, there's always an opening if you show up.' Barrow writes for the Associated Press.
San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Democrats' path back to power might start in places like this Appalachian town
PAINTSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the two dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian town to meet with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. A former Kentucky Supreme Court justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo said the event was 'the biggest Democratic gathering I have ever seen in Johnson County,' an enclave where Republican Donald Trump got 85% of the presidential vote last November. Paintsville, the county seat, was the latest stop on the state party's 'Rural Listening Tour,' a periodic effort to visit overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative towns of the kind where Democrats once competed and Republicans now dominate nationally. Democrats' path back to power may start here, one small meeting at a time, because it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the party to regain U.S. Senate control or win the presidency without competing harder for rural and small-town voters. The party recently lost senators from states with significant rural populations: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Also, Democratic-led states are losing population to Sun Belt states led by Republicans, with some projections suggesting Democrats would lose 12 seats in the Electoral College in the 2030 census. 'The gut check is we'd stopped having these conversations' in white rural America, said Colmon Elridge, the Kentucky Democratic chair. 'Folks didn't give up on the Democratic Party. We stopped doing the things that we knew we needed to do.' It's not that Democrats must carry most white rural precincts outright to win more elections. More realistically, it's a matter of consistently chipping away at Republican margins in the way Trump narrowed Democrats' usual advantages among Black and Latino men in 2024 and not unlike what Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, did in two statewide victories. Nationally, Trump won 60% of small town and rural voters in 2020, according to AP VoteCast data, and 63% in 2024. That's a far cry from a generation ago, when Democrat Bill Clinton won pluralities in Johnson County on his way to capturing Kentucky's electoral votes in the 1992 and 1996 White House races. 'We have to be intentional about how we build something sustainable,' Elridge said. 'It's not like we haven't won here before.' Angst over GOP domination and 'caricature' of Democrats For two hours in downtown Paintsville, Elridge listened as Stumbo and others took umbrage at conservatives' policy agenda, expressed frustration over Trump's standing in eastern Kentucky and said they were determined to sell their neighbors an alternative. Many brought their personal experiences to bear. The event was part town hall, part catharsis, part pep talk. In some ways, the complaints in Paintsville mirrored how Democrats nationally are angry, often for very different reasons. Sandra Music, a retired teacher who called herself 'a new Democrat,' converted because of Trump. She bemoaned conservatives' success in advancing private school tuition voucher programs and said they were threatening a public education system 'meant to ensure we educate everybody.' Music criticized Republicans for making a 'caricature' of Democrats. 'They want to pull out keywords: abortion, transgender, boys in girls' sports' and 'distract' from the rest of the Republican agenda, she said. Stumbo, the former justice, lamented what she called the rightward lurch of the state and federal courts. 'We are going to suffer irreparable damage,' she said, 'if we don't stop these conservative idiots.' Michael Halfhill, who works in health care information technology, was incredulous that the billionaire president has taken hold of voters in Appalachia, which is historically one of the country's poorest regions. 'It's not left vs. right. It's rich vs. poor,' he said, shaking his head at working-class white voters — Johnson County is 97.5% white — 'voting against themselves.' Ned Pillersdorf, who is married to Stumbo, went after Republicans for their proposed federal tax and spending plans, especially potential cuts to Medicaid. He said Paintsville still has a rural hospital, which is among the largest employers in the region, in no small part because Kentucky is among the GOP-leaning states where a Democratic governor expanded Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Elridge, the first Black chair of a major party in Kentucky, mentioned Trump's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and related civil rights laws and regulations. 'This is where Trump and MAGA excel –- if somebody who looks like me is your enemy, then you don't care if the guy in the White House is peeing on your leg and telling you it's rain,' he said, referring to Trump's 'Make American Great Again' movement. Republicans say their Democratic 'caricature' is accurate By definition, a 'listening tour' is not meant to produce concrete action. Elridge and Nicholas Hazelett, the Johnson County Democratic chair who is a college student doubling as a Paintsville City Council member, acknowledged that the small crowd was Democrat-friendly. Despite a few recent converts, no one was there waiting to be convinced. Across the street, antiques shop owner Michelle Hackworth said she did not even know Democrats were holding a meeting. Calling herself a 'hard-core Republican,' she smiled when asked if she had consider attending. 'They wouldn't convince me of anything,' she said. Bill Mike Runyon, a self-described conservative Republican who is Paintsville's mayor and loves Trump, went immediately to social and cultural commentary when asked in an interview to explain Johnson County politics. Democrats, he said, 'have to get away from the far-left radical -– look at the transgender message.' Further, Runyon said, 'Everything got kind of racial. It's not like that here in Paintsville and in Johnson County, but I can see it as a country. … It's making people more racist against one another.' Asked specifically who he was talking about, he alluded to progressive U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina from New York City, and Jasmine Crockett, a Black woman from Texas. 'It's the ones you always see on TV,' the mayor said. Beshear wins plaudits from across the spectrum Beshear seems to be the one Democrat who commands wide respect in and around Paintsville. Democrats hailed the 47-year-old governor for supporting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights while still attracting support beyond Democratic strongholds of Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort. Beshear did not win Johnson County, but got 37% of the vote in his 2023 reelection. He carried several nearby counties. Multiple Republicans, including the mayor, complimented Beshear for his handling of floods and other disasters in the region. 'He's been here,' Runyon said. 'I absolutely can get to him if I need him.' In 2024, Beshear landed on the list of potential vice presidential running mates for Kamala Harris. He also remains Senate Democrats' top pick for a 2026 campaign for the seat coming open with Republican Mitch McConnell's retirement. Beshear, whose father once lost to McConnell after having won two governor's races, has said he will not run for Senate. But he has stepped up his cable TV interviews and launched his own podcast, fueling speculation that his next campaign will be for the 2028 presidential nomination. 'Andy is not like those national Democrats,' Runyon insisted. Hearkening back to the 1990s, he added, 'Bill Clinton wasn't like these Democrats today.' Hackworth, the shop owner, noted that she voted against the younger Beshear twice. But over the course of an extended interview she, too, commended the governor's disaster management. She also questioned some moves from Trump, including the idea of getting Washington completely out of the disaster aid business. She blamed Trump's predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for a 'tough time at my store,' but acknowledged that federal aid had helped many businesses and households stay afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic. Hackworth said she was not familiar with details of Medicaid expansion, but she identified the nearby hospital as among the area's largest employers. The others, she said, are the public school system and Walmart, which a day earlier had announced it was increasing prices because of Trump's tariffs. While supporting Trump's 'America First' agenda, Hackworth said widespread tariffs would upset many consumers. 'You can walk through my store and see where the new stuff is made,' she said. 'I try to buy American, but so much of it is China, China, China.'
