Latest news with #R-Lexington
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ryan Dotson launches GOP bid for Congress, says he'll slay ‘woke' giant in D.C.
State Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, launched his Republican campaign for Congress on Tuesday night with a thunderous prayer calling on God and the voters to let him be the David who slays the Philistine giant Goliath. 'I do know this: I'll fight. And when David fought the giant, he knocked him out, he cut his head off. I want to bring a trophy back to this district,' Dotson, a three-term state representative, told an audience of about 70 supporters at his campaign kickoff dinner at the Bluegrass Community and Technical College campus in Winchester. Dotson said among his priorities in Congress would be codifying President Donald Trump's far-reaching executive orders and Elon Musk's federal government cuts made through the Department of Government Efficiency so they can't easily be reversed in the future. Also, Dotson said, he will fight 'the woke madness' and 'be a thorn in the side of everybody who's got a D behind your name.' 'Washington, D.C., over the last several years has appeared off course,' Dotson said. 'Since the days of (former President Barack) Obama, we have seen the spiraling out of control, the culture wars that has taken place, the cancel culture that is taking place in America, that you can't speak freely without being canceled, you can't tell someone how you really feel without being ostracized. 'And we've seen that Obama made it happen.' Dotson hopes to win Central Kentucky's 6th Congressional District in the 2026 election. The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Mitch McConnell, who is not running for reelection next year. The district represents 16 counties around Lexington. Although it has voted consistently Republican since Barr was first elected in 2012, nonpartisan election handicapper Sabato's Crystal Ball on Tuesday shifted the 6th District from 'safe Republican' to 'likely Republican' based on a number of factors, including the arrival of a 'credible' Democratic candidate, former three-term state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson of Lexington. Dotson, 52, is a Pike County native who has spent most of his adult life in Winchester. He and his wife, Tresa, founded and operated several area businesses, including restaurants, a daycare and a roofing company. He's also a Pentecostal church pastor who has made regular mission trips to foreign countries. Taking an interest in politics, Dotson ran as a Democrat for the state Senate in 2010 and as a Republican for Clark County judge-executive in 2014, losing each time. He finally prevailed in 2020 by unseating incumbent state Rep. Les Yates of Winchester in the Republican primary and winning that year's general election. In the General Assembly, Dotson quickly established himself as a vocal social-conservative. He helped lead the fight in 2022 for a bill to ban transgender women from women's sports at public schools and universities, overcoming Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's veto. Two years later, he successfully sponsored a bill that struck down local ordinances in Lexington and Louisville that protected the right of tenants to use federal low-income housing vouchers, such as Section 8 vouchers. Again, his bill overcame a veto from Beshear. Standing with landlords, Dotson said his 2024 bill would 'safeguard our citizens from being forced to lease their properties to the government for those on assistance programs, unless the property owner chooses to.' Nearly a dozen Republican members of the legislature spoke in support of Dotson's congressional campaign at Tuesday's dinner, as did David Walls, executive director of the conservative Family Foundation. They said Dotson was a fighter who forced fiercely conservative bills through the General Assembly even when some Republican leaders were hesitant, fearing a political backlash from moderate voters. The lawmakers described praying with Dotson at the Capitol, sometimes on the House steps before they went into session, as they sought guidance for legislation to ban abortion, transgender health care and gender-neutral bathrooms. 'I honestly think Ryan goes to bed at night and lays there thinking about standing up against the woke ideology that we have in Frankfort and in D.C. We have a lot of craziness,' said state Sen. Greg Elkins, R-Winchester. When it was his turn to speak, Dotson warned the crowd about the risks of having 'ungodly people in leadership.' 'But when the righteous are in rule, the people rejoice,' he said to enthusiastic applause. 'I feel a mandate, I truly do.' 'There's been times I get frustrated, I get bent out of shape, and I've stopped and said, 'God, why am I even here?' I go to my office, lock the door, and (said) to the Lord, 'You need to show me.' And he will speak to my heart, 'You are holding back the darkness.' And I will see a vision of the cloud, of a dark cloud just coming over the state of Kentucky. And I alone, with some of my colleagues, were standing there, holding back the darkness.' Other than Dotson, several Central Kentucky Republicans reportedly are considering a run for Congress, including state Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, R-Lexington; state Rep. Deanna Gordon, R-Richmond; state Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville; and former state Senate GOP Leader Damon Thayer of Georgetown. Several Democrats also are expected in their own contested primary, including two already declared: Stevenson, the former state representative from Lexington, and, as of Wednesday, former Lexington-Fayette Urban Council councilman David Kloiber, who ran for mayor of Lexington in 2022.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A Lexington councilman was fined for endorsing a SC lawmaker. Why?
A Lexington town council member was fined for violating South Carolina ethics laws when he endorsed a South Carolina lawmaker who was up for re-election. The complaint against Gavin Smith, who's served as a town councilman for Lexington since winning a special election in May 2023, came after he endorsed then state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, who was up for re-election. Debbie Heim, the vice chair of the Lexington County Republican Party which had endorsed Shealy's opponent Carlisle Kennedy, brought the matter to the attention of the state's ethics commission in June of last year. During a June town council meeting, Smith voiced support for Shealy, which violated an ethics law that prohibits elected officials from using public funds, property or time to influence an election. Smith told the ethics commission that he'd asked the town's attorney, who at the time was Brad Cunningham, over text if he was allowed to endorse Shealy during a meeting and was given the OK. 'Mr. Cunningham responded that he didn't think it violated any laws and that it had been done a few times before. I had no reason to doubt the advice of the town's attorney,' Smith told The State. In the fall of 2023, when then-councilwoman Kathy Maness chose not to run for re-election, she encouraged people to go vote on two occasions during council meetings and to 'study the candidates.' 'We have some candidates who will continue to make Lexington a great place to live, work, worship and go to school. But in my opinion we have others running who will set Lexington back and that can't happen,' Maness said during a November 2023 meeting. She stopped short of officially endorsing a candidate or mentioning names, but described in detail the candidates who concerned her. When reached by a reporter, Cunningham, who retired as the town's attorney in December of last year, declined to comment on the matter. In March, the commission found Smith in violation of that law and he was made to pay $600 – a civil penalty of $200 and an administrative fee of $400. The commission reduced Smith's civil penalty because he received 'improper legal advice' regarding his actions, according to the order. 'Smith's use of public property and time to influence an election were thoughtful, deliberate and a violation of [the law]', Heim wrote in her complaint to the ethics commission. Shealy, a 12-year incumbent, lost the June 2024 runoff election to Kennedy. She was one of three Republican women who blocked a near total abortion ban from passing the S.C. Senate in 2023 – Shealy along with the other two women, Penry Gustafson and Sandy Senn, lost their primary elections. Heim serves as the vice chair of the Lexington County Republican Party, which endorsed Zoe Warren in the primary, and then supported Kennedy over Shealy when the race went to a runoff. But Heim said her filing of the complaint had nothing to do with who Smith was endorsing. She added that she was not a voting member on the board that chose to endorse Kennedy. 'It's not about protecting a party, it's not about playing sides. He's an elected official, he had a clear violation of the ethics code … I have a duty to report that,' Heim said. 'He could've encouraged people to vote for Carlisle Kennedy and I still would've had a responsibility to report that.' The complaint isn't the first time Republicans in Lexington have butted heads with each other, nor the first time some Republicans have pushed against Smith despite him running on a conservative platform. When Smith ran for office in 2023, he faced backlash for being gay. On election day, protesters against his campaign showed up outside polling places, one holding a sign saying that Smith didn't reflect Lexington values because he had a husband. 'Obviously Gavin Smith is a hard no for me. Of course most conservative Christians will recoil from having a councilman who has a husband, but it goes beyond that,' wrote Mandy Allen in a 2023 Facebook post. Allen and her family, who own Momma Rabbit's Nibbles and Sips, are outspoken Republicans in the area. A member of the family, Will Allen, has a seat on Lexington Town Council. Smith is up for re-election in the fall. He said he'd learned from the mistake and had used it as an opportunity to establish a better working relationship with the state's ethics commission. 'Too often, elected officials deflect or shift blame when something goes wrong, but, to me, that's not leadership … the honest thing here to do is acknowledge that yes, I went to seek out legal advice, but at the end of the day, I have to own the mistake,' Smith told The State. 'My parents raised me to understand that none of us are perfect and that we're going to make mistakes, but they also taught me that what defines us is not the mistakes that we make, but the honesty and the humility and the integrity we show in owning those mistakes and the following steps we take to make sure those mistakes don't happen again.'
