revealing.

Republican Andy Barr will take Senator Mitch McConnell's seat in Washington, but he will be partof the minority Democrat Zach Dembo flips a Kentucky U.S.

House seat as Congress goes blue nationwide.

The blue wave hit Frankfort in a more limited way.

Some longtime Republican lawmakers are ousted.

[MUSIC] Louisville remembers a deadly plane crash a year ago this week, settles in on us.

Comment is next on KETV.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant, and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

A look back atand some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journaliststonight are.

John Cheves, reporter for the Lexington Herald leader, Mario Anderson, anchor and host of In Focus one.

And joining us virtually is Sylvia Goodman, Capitol reporter for Kentucky Public Radio.

The 2026 election is in the history books, and Democrats and Republicans will remember it for a long time.

A nationwide blue wave gave Democrats control of the U.S.

House and Senate.

One of the early signals came from Central Kentucky, where Democrat Zach Dembo won the open sixth District Congressional over Republican Ralph Alvarado.

And he did it bycarrying Lexington.

And just one more of the district's 16 counties.

>> This election was never about flipping a seat or changing the district's color on a map.

It wasabout delivering for working people here in Central Kentucky.

I am honored to have gotten to the starting line with all of you.

And because of you.

Now the hard work begins.

>> I may tonight, but I'm not discouraged.

I remain optimistic about Kentucky.

I remain optimistic about America, and I remain convinced that our finest days are still ahead of us.

>> Mario, this is the first time since 2010 that Democrats have captured the seat in Central Kentucky.

That's when Ben Chandler last won it.

He lost it to Andy Barr in 2012.

Dimba is a former federal prosecutor,a former officer, he once taught school.

His path to victory came from a huge advantage in Lexington.

>> Itsure did.

As you mentioned, he won Lexington-FayetteCounty, but also Woodford County.

Those are the onlytwo counties he won out of the 16 total counties in the sixth Congressional District.

But he was ableto make some large, impressive numbers and overperforming in theother rural parts of that sixth district.

And even though Ralph Alvarado won those other counties, Zach Dembo was able to get a large contingency of voters and potentially even some independents to go his way, because we'vetalked about it in the past, that thereare a huge contingency of independent voters in the sixth district.

So potentially he was able to flip them to come to his side.

And then there's a lot of talk about Republicans maybe potentially set out in this race due to frustration on the national scene.

But regardless, it was able to lift upDimbo.

And he's the new congressman elect.

>> When you look inside those numbers just a little bit, and you note that while he slightly lost Madison County, if you get inside the numbers, Dimbo carried the cities of Richmond and Berea.

It looks like.

>> Yeah, to win the sixth district, the Republican really has to run up the numbers in the suburban and The red ring around the blue liberal city of Lexington and Ralph Alvarado didn't you know Madison County, Scott County demo did really well?

It was pretty close.

It was nearly 5050.

And, you know, so when Fayette Countydumped in its huge vote totals later in the evening, it was all over.

Ralph Alvarado justdid not get the deep vote he needed in the redder, the redder outer rings of needed.

And obviously, as we said, Woodford County.

Fayette County went for Zach Dembo.

>> And Sylvia.

Thiscertainly was the one to watch,and it did not disappoint in terms of being an aggressive race and ultimately a flip in the in the sixth district.

>> Right.

I think all of us were watching this district really closely.

It was a. Targeted by Democrats pretty early on.

And I was expecting a much closer vote total.

I was expecting a much closer margin.

It didn't end up being a particularly close margin as we as we've talked about.

And that was because of that red ring, like we werejust describing really demo overperformed compared to Republicans previously.

Having having how they usually did are amazing.

Data reporter Justin Hicks did a great map showing the, the blue kind of arrows pointing district.

And you could see that demo overperformed by 33 percentage points in Bath and Nicholas County demo.

Alvarado still won those counties, but demo significantly overperformed compared to 2024.

And that's what won him the race.

>> John you noted in your reporting that demo got some considerable help from Andy Beshearand from Steve Beshear, who both appeared on the campaign >> That'scorrect.

One thing that really helped Zach Dembo during the campaign, other than the fact that Donald Trump did notendorse him, was that Governor Andy Beshear did and he didn't just endorse him.

He appeared in his campaign advertising.

He walked around with him on the campaigntrail.

He had a PAC in this together PAC that helped him financially.

Governor Andy Beshear really got worked for him for a little whileduring the pandemic and in his office as an aide, and former Governor Steve Beshear, Andy's father, also appeared to himat least onceat an event that I went to as well in Bourbon County.

It helped tremendously.The Beshear is a very popular in Kentucky politics, andI think it demonstrated to somevoters who weren't sure about this new guy, this former federal prosecutor, that, hey, if you likeAndy Beshear, Zach Dembo is in the same mold.

>> Yeah.

And we saw, as John wasmentioning, that Zach Dembo had the endorsement of Governor Andy Beshear, literally the day after the primary.

So from public events to private events, Andy Beshear was tied to the hip, and he put his neck out there on the line as primarily the single candidate in Kentucky that he campaigned on behalf of multiple times over the courseof this election season.

>> Probably going to help Andy Beshear a little bit, too.

Here's a guy who, rumor is, is running for president, and he's just shown that he can flip a reddistrict blue in the middle of a state like Kentucky for somebody else, not just for himself.

In addition to being the DemocraticGovernors Association chairman, a little bit of afeather.

>> In his cap.

He had a good night there as well.

Yeah.

Sylvia Alvarado, aswe mentioned, counties.

He ended up breaking with President Trump on some issues late in the in the race.

And was he increasingly fighting national headwinds as he tried to win the seat?

>> I think it's fairto say that he also had some of his own personal problems that maybe some Kentuckians are paying attention to.

Certainly the demo campaign made a big deal of hisconnections Governor Bevin, tying him quite closely to.

Governor Bevin is a very controversial pardons during the.

At the end of his term,Alvarado, of course, ran as the lieutenant governor on Bevin's ticket when he lost to Governor Beshear.

So, you know, people may have been paying attention to that, but of course, there were national headwinds.

Alvarado ran on President Trump's endorsement during the primary.

But then as it expedient over the course of his campaign, running up until November to be tied to PresidentTrump, you saw him backing away from some ofthose policies.

Forexample, initially, Alvarado supported the Iran war.

By the end of the campaign, he was saying it was time to wind down the war.

So we saw some shifting.

As we got closer toNovember, and it seemed likehe was reading some tea leaves.

>> All right.

indicates he is not finished with public service.

So we shall see.

Mario Bill will go to the house in the majority part of a large freshman class.

He says he will weigh in on issues based on how it would impact his district.

But how challenging is that when party leadership has priorities that might not always align exactly with what might play well in Central Kentucky.

>> It will be very challenging, most likely because,again, as a whole, Congress has 435 members.

But for the majority party, which will be the Democrats, they've got at minimum 250 members, and it's potentially still growing.

So he's one of 250.

And again, he's one of the very newest ones from one of the smallest states in the country.

So,you know, he has campaigned on some of the national Democratic talking points, wanting to end corruption,wanting to ban stock trading for members, also wanting to develop some ethics type rules for members of Congress.So he's already kind of falling in line with what the national Democrats want to do.

So he may be stickingand goingwith the majority in that capacity.

But then as he develops more time in Congress may be able to carve out some moneypotentially for his sixth district.

>> Mary is member is just one of hundreds, has the least clout.

But if the House Democratic leadership does what they say they're going to do with the voters elected them to do, which is to address costs, affordability, that's going to dovetail neatly with what Zach Dembo campaigned on.

So in theory, in two years, we'll have some results to run on.

>> Well, the sixth district contest was an open race because running for the U.S.

Senate.

The Republican Barr captured the seat long held by Senator Mitch McConnell in a hard fought race with Democrat Charles Booker.

Barr captured 55% of the vote to Booker's 43%, and independent Chris Campbell got just over 2%.

>> Socialism may be on the rise in some places in the United States, but not here in Kentucky.

>> I know that all of us hurtingand there is a status quo that is robbing us, that is making life harder for us, and that things will not change unless we do it.

I know that we can.

>> Sylvia Barr had a lot of advantages, obviously, including money in Kentucky's tendency to go red in the federal races, especially.

But Booker's strong showings in Louisville and Lexington, especially, kept some suspense going on election night.

>> Yeah, it did.

It did.

I think we all saw a lot of signs pointing to Booker, to Barr winning this race.

And he did.

He won by a12 point margin, which is certainly not insignificant.

However, it is significantly less than Trump's 30 point margin that he won the entire state by in just two years ago.

So it was a shift.

I think I saw a believeit was from the Washington Post that showed that every single Kentucky County did shift a little bit towards Booker compared to 2024.

However, like we said, a lot of those wins, a lot of his actual vote totals came from Jefferson, came from Fayette County.

And at the end of theday, Barr, of course, came out.

The success, the with the win with a 12 point margin.

>> Margin, the Senate race went as expected.

>> When, as expected, once both the nominees were decided back in May,there was a lot of discussion that Andy Barr obviously was already going to have an advantage just being.

Replacing a Republican in the U.S.

Senate.

He had a large bank account.

Campaign, finances, and then Charles Booker being a three time candidate, there was a lot of kind of concern there.

That he's already had two chances for this.

AndAndy Barr was able to maintain the Republican seat and is going to move forward and hold that for the next six years.

>> John Barr is in the majority in the House.

He'll be part of a new Senate minority, but he's been there before as well in the in the House.

How would you think he would plan to navigate hisnew opportunity?

>> Well, you know, a rookie senator obviously is at the back of the line in a chamber with seniority counts.

But Andy Barr has been in many years now, albeit in the House.

So he knows lawmaking.

He has friends in Washington.

He has some idea what he's doingthere.

And so he's not just any freshman.

And the Senate is not like the House.

The rules area little different.

One individual senator has more power to move some of their desires forward or to gum up the works.

Just ask Rand Paul than one individual member So I think Andy Barr comes in with an advantage that some other freshmen might not have, even in the minority.

And when he's not giving thunderous, angry campaign speeches that where it is and heknows how to deal withpeople, and I think he'll be able to hit the ground runningto accomplish what he wants to accomplish in the Senate.

>> Mario, as we noted, Senator McConnell has clout after 42 years, and he was able some funding and projects for Kentucky.

Barr will have to take a different approach for a time, right?

>> That's right.

And again, he's his background is being an attorney, being able to do a lot of negotiating back and forth.

But some of the things he has been advocating for, championing for, agriculture, thehorse racing industry, the bourbon industry, white oak trees, those are various policies thathave already been established in Congress and in the Senate discussions there.

So I'm surehe's going to be able to kind of start where things are already established, and then see what he can be able to carve out for Kentucky.

But a lot to a lot to go.

>> Sylvia, with the Booker's big urban vote, doeshe have optionsgoing forward?

>> You know, it's a really good question.

I think that a lot of people were wondering after his first two Senate runs, if maybe he would run for Louisville mayor.

Obviously, he did that,and he instead ran for the Senate for a third time.

I thinkthat door is still open to him.

He is well known across the stateafter all these runs.

Democrats know him really well.

So I could see him withthe future, especially in Louisville politics, which is, of course where he lives and where he grew up.

And I just want to correct myself.

Earlier, I said a Washington Post analysis was actually a New York Times analysis on Booker, on the Booker Barr race.

But yeah, I do wonder if lookingfor a future.

A Booker is looking for a future within Louisville,within Kentucky politics.We'll see.

>> All right.

Democratic CongressmanMorgan McGarvey easily won again in Louisville.

He will now move to the majority.

So we'll have more more clout.

And because he has some seniority now.

>> Hedoes.

And during this last session of Congress, he's been serving as a deputy whip under Hakeem been in the minority leader.

But now that they have the majority, he potentially likely will be moving up in further leadership position and potentiallyeven a chair of a committee or two in DC.

>> John, Kentucky's longest serving House member, Republican Hal Rogers, easily won again in the fifth Congressional District.

He is the the dean of the House, the longest serving member First elected in 1980, and every two years since.

And once again, he was durable against a challenge from Ned Pillersdorf.

>> Yeah, Hal Rogers got his 24th, I believe, house term this week.

His opponent was Floyd County Attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who was a perfectly credible Democratic challenger, Ned has practiced law out in Eastern Kentucky for decades, represents poor people, does consumer Democratic Party just did not jell behind him, and he didn't get much money.

He didn't get much attention.

>> Ed Gallrein captured the fourth district seat, a hold for the GOP.

He had defeated CongressmanThomas Massie in the Republican primary after President Trump endorsed him and Mario Gallrein gets that win in the in thefourth district.

Andhe'll now prove what he can do.

>> That's right.

He received about 54% northern Kentucky.

And again, that district also has been redistricted.

So it stretches down all the way to Shelby County,but also Nelson County and Spencer County.

But he was able toprevail there over the Democratic nominee.

There was Melissa Strange, but she actually got over100,000 votes in this race.

And the libertarian candidate, Jeremy Todd, he had about 12,000 votes.

So Ed Gallrein he some nervous, probably moments in the beginning of that on election night.

But he was able to prevail and still won by 33,000 votes.

>> Sylvia, Republican Brett Guthrie wins again in the second district.

Could he lose some clout, though, because he nowgoes from the majority into the minority.

>> Of course.

I mean, everyone is kind of dealingwith that right now.

He was he had a pretty influential had a lot of influence in the one big, beautiful Bill the health care component of that.

In his role in the as a chairman.

So, you know, he is goingto lose a little bit of his clout, but he's also been there for a long time, a long time incumbent.

So presumably he willstill have those connectionsin Washington, D.C.

>> RepublicanJames Comer, reelected in the first district that comes as he is openly expressing aninterest in running for governor.

And some believe he could announce soon.

Might that Mario be even more attractive,given that he will move into the minority in Washington?

>> That's right.

Again,he's turned out officiallyas serving as oversight chairman can only serve, I believe, two different sessions consecutively.

Asa chairman in theHouse and the a lot of discussion about his future coming back home to Kentucky and doing some nationalmedia, Fox News, and talking about how he does foresee some potential hearings related to Pete Hegseth and says that there's questions about the Iran war and how things are still going on.So we're starting to see him potentially distance himself from bullying for being fully aligned with the Trump administration.And President Trump, and wanting to become more and for voters here in Kentucky come ElectionDay, if he runs for governor.

>> Also, some news thatCasey Crosby of Lexington has announced her bid to become the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee indicates that she wants the party to do soul searching.

John.

She currentlyis the RNC co-chair.

>> Yes, Miss Crosby had been a Lexington City councilwoman for a while.

Many years ago, her husband, of Lexington.

People might remember Kentucky has along, proudtradition of generating.

Leaders of the Republican National Committee.We'll see how that one turns out.

>> The Democratic trend extended to some competitive state legislative races as well.

Senators like Julie and Lindsey Tichenor lost their seats in the Louisville area, and that came as a surprise to to some, Sylvia >> Wright.

It was it was quite thenight for some incumbents, especially in the Louisville area.

We saw members who had been veryinfluential in the Kentucky General Assembly, like Senator Julie Raque Adams, like Representative Jason Nemes, who is a member of House Majority Leadership and will be leaving that role at the end ofthe year.Lose their seats.

They were well known for bringing a lot of money to Louisville.

Also sponsored some very wide ranging legislation.

For example, Jason Nemes and Jared Bauman, another incumbent who is out this year, sponsored the Safer Kentucky Act, which is a wide ranging criminal justice, tough on crime piece of legislation.

And, you know, so they were very influential in Frankfort, and they will no longer bethere.

And, you know, the RepublicanParty is is saying it had to do with national headwinds at this point.

>> Yeah.

In fact,let's hear from the Senate president, Robert Stivers,who leads the Republicans.

Hedid largely blame the issues on the nationwide level for the outcomes in the legislative races in Kentucky.

>> This was a snapshot of international national politics.

Kentuckians based a lot of their decisions in certain areas of the state, not on what Julie Raque Adams had done.

Senator Julie RaqueAdams had done or Representative Jason Nemes had done.

They were basing their decisions and judging us on the snapshot of national and international circumstances, economics and politics.

>> So it's a total of two senators and seven House members from the GOP losing their seats in in Frankfort.

And there you had the president blaming the president of the Senate, blaming the national issues.

be more to it than that?

>> Yeah, I think Senator Stivers is mostly right, but not entirely right.

A lot of these lawmakers, they washed in with some red waves, and they didwash out with a blue wave.

But the voters are aware of local and state issues, too.

Julie Raque Adams was the subject of some reporting in the Kentucky Lantern about moneyshe received from a nonprofit.

She ran, and I that probably contributed to her defeat.

As Sylvia pointed out, Jared Bowman and Jason Nemes were leaders of the Safer Kentucky Act, which had some controversial aspects, includingpunishments for homeless people.

A lot of people in Louisville didn't like that, and I think that might have played some role in them getting turned out by their voters as well.

>> Sylvia, do you think that some Democrats are left wondering, what if you know, what if they candidates this year?

Of course, it's been pointedout they have earlyfiling deadline.

And this national issue set was not set in January, when the people had to put their name on the dotted line.

>> Right.

We have a relatively earlyfiling deadline, like you just mentioned, and it was before President Trump's approval ratings started tanking, and Democrats started kind of feeling that this blue wave did fail to field candidates in a lot ofseats.

And there were two seats in which a candidate either withdrew or was kicked off the ballot in potentially competitive seats, and one in Lexington and one in the southwest Louisville area.

And so, you know, I do think that thereare some Democrats doing some thinking on that.

I've talked to some of them myself, some political strategists, some members of the party who who wonder if there could have been a bigger blue wave for Kentucky at at this moment, it was kind of a more of a ripple.

There was some definite changeover in Frankfort, but definitely still a dominant Republican supermajority will come in in January.

>> And Mario, one notable gain for Republicans, Tanner Hesterberg captured a House seat in Floyd and Pike counties.

He'll replace Democrat Ashley Tackett Lafferty, who did not seek reelection.

His win means there is no Democratic member of the state legislature in the House or Senate east of Lexington, in I 75.

>> That's right.

And he actually ran a write in candidacy within the last year as well for the state Senate.

He, I think, was the second came in second place there to Scott Maiden, who's now the statesenator for Pike County area.

Yeah, he's a well known in Eastern Kentucky, serving in, you know, as a reporter or journalist and anchor WYMt.

And so he's well known, but also served as an attorney fora couple of years before he jumped into this race.

And yeah, that's a big difference now that no Democrats will be representing Eastern Kentucky moving forward.

>> The only constitutional amendment on this year's ballot passed overwhelmingly measure limits the governor's pardoning power.

John that, again, it was an overwhelming in a state thatsometimes says no to amendments.

>> Right.

People are often suspicious about changing the Constitution, which has served us so well for so long.

Matt Bevin, obviously on his way out the door, pardoned a lot of very, youknow, awful people.

And so this justsays that if you're going topardon as governor, you got to do it before the final phase of your term so we can judge you.

>> Data centers could have played intoa role in some of these elections.

There was reporting that the Mason County judge, executive, Owen Neal, lost his reelection bid to Republican challenger McNeil recently approved a massive data center project associated with meta.

So thatis something that will probably into account by observers.

>> Yeah, definitely.

It's a big national conversation.

It's impacted races in the Texas.

The Lone Star State.

But then here in Kentucky, and then in addition to Mason County, there were some backand forth in bourbon in Mercer County, in the city of Bergen, where the city council,they have a big changeover where there are four new incoming members who are elected whowere against annexation and data that small city there near Harrodsburg.

And there are several members who were in support of the annexation that were voted out.

So conversation will be continued, especially with the legislature in January, because the legislators will be having to make some decisions, potentially regulations moving forward.

>> We think that flock cameras and jails and some other big issues are comingup.

There was a tough one year this week.

Mario and Louisville, as people reflected on the anniversary of the UPS plane crash.

>> That's right.

15 people were killed.

That was the three pilots on that plane, and then 12 people on the ground who were just living life.

And there are many remembrance remembrances that were hosted across the city all week long to recognize and pay tribute to thepeople that were lost.

>> It was a bell ringing yeah, andsome other observations.

Tomorrow is the 45th Annual Kentucky Book Festival that willbe going on at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington.

It is hosted by Kentucky Humanities.

Itbrings together writers and readers.

And John, you said you just realized that it's this weekend, so you may go.

>> I'm makingplans.

>> Okay.

As we speak.

Well, many are remembering former lawmaker and judge Beginning in the 1980s, he served in the state House and later in the state Senateuntil 2012.

He also served as a circuit judge in Laurel County.

Senate President Robert Stivers said Jensen brought both passion and a sense of humor to Frankfort.

Tom Jensen was 77.

You may have seen this week that Renee Shaw is returning to KET this time.

She'll be the executive stepped away this past summer after 29 years and was a familiar face and a trusted voice to Kentuckians for many years.

Shaw notes.

Those at KET have heavy hearts right now with the passing of longtime CEO Shea Hopkins, who had planned to retire at the end of the year.

But Shawsays she does lookforward to building on the foundation that Hopkins and others helped build, know she will.

That's.

Comment on Kentucky.

Thank you for joiningus.

Have a good week ahead.

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