Charles Booker jumps into the crowded Democratic U.S.

Senate primary as Republicans fight it out for their nomination.

Kentucky's legislative session is now a month away, and lawmakers talk priorities.

Kentucky Democrats sale their party headquarters building and try to plot a new way forward.

UK fires one football coach and hires another.

December brings the winter weather.

Comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky, a look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are McKenna Horsley politics reporter for the Courier-Journal, Lucas Aulbach reporter for the Courier-Journal and Austin Horn senior political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

I did say with the Kentucky Lantern, I meant with for McKenna, right?

As we all enjoy the holiday season, the political issues keep swirling and candidates are on the move out there.

The list of those running for the U.S.

Senate grew again this week, when Charles Booker jumped in on the Democratic side.

Known for his fiery speeches, Booker released a launch video where he took progressive positions.

>> The future of Kentucky is ours.

What do we want it to look like?

It looks like Medicare for all and universal childcare, so raising our families isn't so hard.

Housing you can live in and afford without being crushed by utility bills.

And it's a new deal for workers 40 for 40, a minimum of 40,000 a year for a 40 hour work week.

A guaranteed to live a life with dignity.

>> Well, Austin, there's been a lot of speculation about Booker since he left the Beshear administration.

He had a job there until just a few months ago, then later said he was not going to run for Louisville mayor.

So here he is back in a Democratic U.S.

Senate primary.

>> He's hoping third time's a charm, and I think it's kind of hard to see him as anything other than at least a co-favorite at this point.

His name, ID, is ubiquitous among Kentucky Democrats.

It's right up there with McGrath.

There was a public poll that was done among 590 voters that had him at 33% and her at 31%, with the others lagging.

>> Being Amy McGrath.

>> Quite behind.

And you could tell from his launch video, he's really trying to carve out this furthest left lane with specific policies.

And he says some kind of stalwart policies like universal child care and things like that.

But he's got some new ideas too, like the 40 for 40 thing and a general strike, which is, I think it's fair to say, a pretty far left policy that he's advocating for.

So he's clearly trying to carve out that lane.

>> Yeah.

So Lucas, as Booker does move to the left where it looks like Amy McGrath and Dale Romans have both sort of staked out moderate positions.

Is that to some advantage?

>> Yeah.

Well, I mean, you know, he's the same guy that you remember from 2020, 2022.

You know, he's not going to go around saying that he's going to be Kentucky's Joe Manchin like Dale Romans did.

So I mean, I think it remains to be seen how that plays with voters this time around.

And whether, you know, like Austin said, can this be the third time?

Can the third time be the charm?

And he breaks through in a statewide election?

You know, I like I said, I don't think anybody will get his message mixed up with what Dale is out there saying, or maybe some of these other candidates.

So we'll see.

>> McKenna so there are now six major Democratic candidates in this race, you know, does anybody have an advantage?

I mean, simple math would tell you that if you divide 106 ways, 17% could win the nomination, right?

>> And it's definitely a bit early to tell.

I mean, you know, we still have some time for candidates to even file to run for office.

So who's to say we won't see a few more people in the next few weeks?

Join this already crowded primary.

You know, I think there are maybe some different national politics that are heading into this cycle that are maybe a bit different than what we've seen in 2020 and 22.

You know, Democrats had a pretty good year back in November, when a particularly progressive Democratic candidates around the country.

So maybe that's something that the Booker campaign is hoping for to re replicate in 26.

But again, Kentucky is typically more conservative state, particularly when it comes to national politics.

So it's hard to say what will happen next year.

>> And you start to look at this.

You can look at it from very different ways.

What might be the path to victory?

Austin, including maybe even geographically when you know somebody, one of those names that we're not talking about as much down there, like a Logan Forsythe or somebody who's from out in the state, might get a lot of votes in that particular area.

>> Yeah.

Pam Stevenson, who has a strong base in Louisville, or Joel Willett, who's shown that he's willing to spend a good amount of money at the same time that the reality that we saw a little bit in the 2015 or 2019 governor's race is that the majority of these Democratic voters are generally liberal and generally in the Lexington, Louisville, Northern Kentucky DMA.

You know, Rocky Adkins killed it in the entire eastern half of the state just blanketed it.

But Andy Beshear prevailed, largely because of Adkins weakness in Louisville.

>> Is it can we look at this and say that Louisville may be split up three ways already with the candidates that are in?

>> There are a lot of candidates in the race.

You know, I think I don't I think Pam Stevenson and Charles Booker, they probably have a bit of an advantage, but it's big race.

A lot of things can happen.

>> All right.

So we obviously will watch on that.

That Democratic nomination is going to be an interesting fight to the finish.

And then on the Republican side we of course note that the the maps out there that making the predictions tend to paint Kentucky red for Republicans running.

Former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Congressman Andy Barr, businessman Nate Morris and Michael Farris, who's running against the better funded field.

Austin this week, a shakeup in the Cameron camp.

>> Yeah.

So Daniel Cameron's campaign manager is moving on to a different campaign.

The Cameron campaign is bringing in Nathaniel Hurt, who's from the Jason Myers campaign.

You might have heard that name in the Virginia AG's race, which got a lot of attention because the Democrat nominee, who ended up winning J. Jones, texted various members and friends advocating violence against Republicans, and he still won by, I think about two points.

So we'll see what this move means.

I think it is worth noting campaign managers, the title in most campaigns makes that person seem a little more important than they are.

You'll often have consultants, general consultants, who are the ones making the really big strategic decisions at the very high level, and campaign managers more of like an execution kind of role.

It's still important, but maybe not the end all be all that people.

>> Was this a case of the campaign manager getting a new job, or was did you read into the tea leaves that this might have been a choice of candidate Cameron?

>> As we know, as far as we know, the campaign manager does have a new job.

Has it been 100% elaborated that this was not a decision of the Cameron campaign to move on?

No.

So there's a little bit of gray area there so we may never know.

>> McKenna.

The early polling again has suggested that Cameron has this name recognition advantage.

Barr has worked to claim momentum and has a lot of money to spend, and Morris is trying to position himself as an outsider, comparing himself to President Trump's entry into politics is anybody's strategy working?

>> I mean, it's definitely still too early to think to tell us a bit.

But, you know, Cameron's advantages are that he's ran statewide campaigns before in Kentucky, winning the AG race and then later going on to lose the governor's race, even though he did win the Republican nomination in a very contested primary in 23.

So, you know, it kind of depends on how checked in voters are at this time.

You know, with the holidays, I think, you know, a lot of people aren't reading the news at this point, except for our lovely viewers at home.

>> And we.

>> Appreciate that.

We appreciate it.

So, you know, I think once people start seeing more campaign ads and get registered to vote and, you know, check things like that, people will become more aware of the candidates on their own and definitely pick somebody at that point.

>> Is there something outside of a Trump endorsement that might change the trajectory of the Republican race?

>> Well, you know, the Trump endorsement, I you don't need me to tell you that's the key.

And, you know, that would change everything.

But in the meantime, I think how these guys are trying to define each other, if, you know, if one can take, you know, a lead in that regard, that could give them an advantage over the others.

You know, you look at Andy Barr, he's kind of tried to define himself as the guy in DC who's helping Trump get his agenda passed and is going to continue to help him.

And that kind of backfired on him a little bit this week with some comments he made several years ago about wanting to support some of these Afghan refugees who had helped American troops.

You know, I think Morris and some of his backers kind of jumped on that.

And so, you know, that's kind of that's it's been a nasty primary so far and a lot of punches thrown.

And if Trump doesn't get involved, I think how these guys define each other, if one kind of comes away with it, that could be the key.

>> Yeah.

I mean, I think you could make the argument that they're all kind of succeeding in their own ways up to this point.

Daniel Cameron's lead, I think most would agree, has been kind of stubborn from the other candidates point of view.

He really does have a base and a high name ID, and it's hard to get people to switch away from him.

At the same time, Andy Barr has raised a crap ton of money, more than $6 million, and is starting to deploy his ads a little bit.

They're working.

You can see him inching up in the polls.

He's certainly milked all he can out of those like 2 or 3 videos of President Trump saying, Andy Barr, you just hear that over and over again, every single commercial that he runs.

And at the same time, Morris is moving a little bit in the polls, maybe not as much as they want, but he's genuinely and, you know, even other campaigns will admit this.

He is genuinely connected to the Trump network through JD Vance.

People in Vance's network, like Andy Surabian, who's deeply involved in his campaign.

>> Well, of course, that is the other race.

So there, the Republican race for the nomination for the Senate and the Democratic race.

And they're both interesting.

We also have congressional races to watch in central Kentucky, crowded primaries on both sides.

More than a dozen candidates hoping to take the seat that Barr's leaving open.

And this week, Democrats Cherlynn Stevenson officially filed for office and made an event of that.

>> This campaign isn't about me, it's about us.

It's about the people who are getting squeezed from every direction, from higher costs to health care cuts to uncertainty in their jobs.

And politicians in Washington who are more focused on fighting each other than fighting for you.

Today is the next step in our journey to flip the sixth district and to take back Congress.

>> McKenna, right behind Stevenson was Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman at that event.

And she has endorsed Stevenson.

Does she does Stevenson have the advantage right now in that crowded race?

>> I definitely think she's seen as kind of the early frontrunner because she has come into this race with some ID already in that district, having been a leader in the House Democratic caucus before in the state House, she did lose reelection, but very narrowly to that seat.

So, you know, she's a known quantity to voters in that district.

And, you know, her campaign, particularly this time around, has taken a lot of steps to get her in front of the news, to have a respond to things that are happening nationally and having campaign events and things like that and so forth, and having the Lieutenant governor's endorsement early on in this race, a high profile, statewide Democrat is something that could definitely help her.

>> Yeah.

At this point, I'd call her the favorite.

For now, she's got the institutional backing.

As McKenna was talking about.

She's fundraising from other sources pretty strongly.

However, the other three candidates who are running real campaigns could all make a case here.

Zach Dembo is raising a lot of money.

David Kloiber could self-fund and randomly put in a lot of money to shake up this race.

And Aaron Petri is running a very vigorous campaign of her own, so things could really get interesting.

And it's going to be an interesting test of the power and transferability of Jacqueline Coleman's endorsement, particularly when we think about her plans potentially for 2027 and maybe running for governor.

>> Right.

Well, Austin, what should we watch for in the sixth district Republican primary?

>> Yeah, I think it's kind of a similar story right now.

You've got somebody who's more the pick of the establishment running as somewhat of the favorite.

And former state senator Ralph Alvarado.

He's raising a lot of money.

He's getting support from, quote unquote, the right people.

But at the same time, you've got two pretty legitimate, three pretty legitimate candidates.

Now, with State Representative Ryan Dodson.

He's a very effective messenger and has put in a good amount of his own money.

Also putting in some money, as Deanna Gordon, another state representative who's from an increasingly Republican and increasingly important area of Richmond.

And you've got a wild card.

And Greg Luzinski, who's a pharma executive from Nicholasville.

And it's kind of hard to see what exact shape his campaign will take.

But he seems to have a good amount of money and could shake things up.

>> Lucas, in the fourth district, we're watching that.

President Trump backing Ed Gallrein in the Republican primary over Congressman Thomas Massie.

How is that playing out early on?

>> Well, Massie, you know, he's got himself a little winning streak going right now with the Epstein discharge petition that he was able to get through Congress.

He would be the first to tell you he's raising a lot of money right now, more than he's ever, you know, raised in the past.

So it's no secret he and Trump are not on the same page.

And he's probably lost some fans in that regard.

But I think some of these recent successes, maybe nationally as much as anything, has won him some support.

And you're seeing that in the fundraising now when you look at Ed Gallrein, I haven't met him.

I've been told that he's making fans on the campaign trail.

He's making good impressions on voters.

I was told he was at an event with Andy Barr earlier this week where, you know, a room of 50 or so people up in Northern Kentucky where, you know, he made good impressions on these people.

So I'll be interested to see where he lands.

Fundraising wise, he's got about 2 million, so he's got some catching up to do.

>> In the fifth district.

Congressman Hal Rogers, who turns 88 later this month, is dean of the House seeking a 24th term in Washington.

Attorney Ned Pillersdorf is a Democrat challenging Rogers.

We know Rogers has name recognition and a lot of money.

>> Yeah, it's hard not to see him as anything but the strong favorite in this race.

You know, anything can happen.

But I think that's where things stand.

He hasn't been in the single digits in a general election since the 90s, when the Democrats very explicitly redrew his district to try and beat him.

That said, Ned Pillars, Dorf has a very legitimate resume for a candidate and is running this race hard.

I mean, all you have to do is look at his social media.

He's showing up to events all over the place, so this race could potentially get interesting.

>> Vice president JD Vance and his family were in Kentucky during the Thanksgiving week.

The VP served an early Thanksgiving dinner to soldiers at Fort Campbell, and he was also in Lexington.

He spoke at Fort Campbell.

>> We know that the most powerful weapon in the United States arsenal, the most powerful weapon anywhere in the world.

It's not a rifle.

It's not a tank.

It's not a helicopter or an airplane.

The most dangerous and lethal weapon anywhere in the in the world is a United States soldier.

And we're proud of you.

And we're going to stand behind you every step of the way.

>> Vance obviously has well known ties to Kentucky, made that high profile stop at Fort Campbell.

But obviously Austin also felt very comfortable just grabbing dinner in Lexington.

And you wrote that there may be nothing to really read into that.

>> Yeah.

Your KET crew caught caught him and his family outside of Tony's Steakhouse, which was kind of interesting.

It's a fine dining haunt of many of the area's elite, including Rocky Adkins.

I mean, he might even be there right now for all we know, but it's it wasn't a official stop.

We know that.

And it doesn't seem like it's political either.

My question was, is he meeting with his known friend Nate Morris, who's running for Senate at this mysterious Tony's dinner?

But no, it doesn't seem like that's the case.

His spokespeople have said this is just family and they're nearby, so it could make sense as a meeting point.

>> All right.

In Washington, Republican Senator Rand Paul, who will soon become Kentucky's senior senator, continues to take positions critical of the Trump administration policies.

He expressed concerns about the Pentagon strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.

>> I'm very fearful that these boat strikes and the positioning of our ships and our troops right off the coast of Venezuela is a prelude to war.

I think that there is a real question of legality under the military justice, under the code of military justice.

It says that when someone has been incapacitated or shipwrecked or they're clinging to the wreckage of a boat, that they're out of combat and they're no longer subject to be killed.

And so there is a real question who gave the order, and why would they give the order to kill someone who is out of combat?

>> Lucas.

Senator Paul going his own way here on this?

>> Yeah, he's been on an island on some of these positions in the past, but I think you're starting to see more support from some Republicans to speak up a little bit about issues, especially like, you know, the boat strikes.

He doesn't have to worry about reelection until 2028, whether it's senator or some other office.

So I don't expect him to pipe down anytime soon.

>> Let's shift our discussion to Frankfort the 2026 legislative session coming up fast.

It begins January 6th, runs for 60 days.

Lawmakers are required to pass a state budget, and that will take a lot of time and effort.

But Republican lawmakers met this week in Bardstown, and several other issues were also at the forefront.

A major question is whether there will be another state income tax cut.

>> Policy and process.

And when you set the policy and process, you should follow it, and we try to follow it.

Now, we know that you have to modify it on occasions.

In the last session we did to where it may not be as big of an incremental decline, but we set some different triggers that would still give us the ability to hit those incremental spots to make incremental declines.

>> Healthiest Budget Reserve Trust fund and the history of the Commonwealth.

Highest level of education.

Investment in the history of the Commonwealth, those sorts of things we may have been able to do at the same time that we've been paying down our pension liability.

>> All right.

So obviously this income tax question is key.

McKenna representative Jason Nemes favors it over in the House.

You heard the Senate president say follow the process.

Where where are we with this?

>> Well, you know, I think we'll definitely see a lot of debate around this heading into session and probably throughout the session as well.

It's a 60 day session on the Democratic side.

Andy Beshear did.

Governor Andy Beshear did say that he would warn lawmakers against disregarding physical guardrails that they've previously put in place.

That's something you kind of did hear survivors talk about a bit.

The governor said that state revenue is a little while costs are still expected to be up.

So that's something that he's watching for and is cautioning Democrats against.

But of course, Republicans hold a supermajority in the legislature.

>> We see lawmakers want to talk about artificial intelligence.

Child care keeps coming up.

President Stivers interested as well in addressing the financial issues facing the state's two largest school districts.

There will be a lot to discuss.

>> There's going to be a lot of issues discussed this session, I believe.

And, you know, I think we're still probably going to hear a few as a few interim committee meetings wrap up in this month.

One issue that I think will definitely come up for Republicans is a proposal from representative TJ Roberts that would require Kentucky law enforcement agencies to have agreements with Ice, the federal agency that deals with immigration enforcement.

And that's got a lot of talk within the past couple of weeks.

Next week, Representative Lindsay Titchener, another Republican, or senator, Lindsey Titchener, another Republican, will discuss die in K through 12.

And that's something we saw this session, particularly at the college level eliminating die.

So that's probably going to come up as well.

>> Lucas housing likely discussion.

>> Housing.

Yeah, I think there will be a lot of chatter about that, I think and I think there's some bipartisan agreement there.

I was talking to representative Josh Watkins from Louisville earlier.

And you know, that task force, Republican led task force put out some recommendations earlier recently.

And he said he agrees with some of them, you know, the Affordable housing Loan Fund and faith based housing.

So I think there will be a lot of chatter in Frankfort about that and a lot of action and, you know, other issues, data centers, things like that.

You know, AI goes hand in hand.

>> Boston new changes, the Democratic Senate leadership and Cassie Chambers Armstrong making history.

The first woman in one of those roles among Democrats.

>> Yeah.

She was elected the number three Democrat in a five member caucus.

That's a historic low for the Democrats, but I'm sure she will hope to turn that around very soon.

>> The Kentucky Democratic Party has sold its building, its highly visible headquarters along I-64, moving to an office near the Capitol.

McKenna Governor Wendell Ford was in power when they bought that in 1973.

>> Right.

You know, and if you talk to the Republicans, they definitely see this as a change or a sign of the decline of the Democratic Party that they have to sell this building.

Meanwhile, Republicans did celebrate the expansion of their headquarters, the Mitch McConnell building in Frankfort, as well.

>> Questions about Snap benefits.

We're going to be watching that closely next week.

McKenna governor Beshear addressed that during his Team Kentucky briefing.

>> Right.

>> Just go ahead.

>> Snap benefits.

It would violate a court order that's out there.

Let me just say this is a little bit bizarre, because we've already litigated this.

And one.

>> So we'll wait.

What Tuesday, I think is the deadline.

>> Yes.

The U.S.

Department of Agriculture will begin next week to block nutrition assistance.

These SNAP funds from states led by various Democrats, including Kentucky, they haven't turned over information that the Trump administration is requesting that they say proves fraud in some cases.

>> University of Kentucky has been in the news.

Football has made a change.

Coach Mark Stoops was fired.

The school has hired Will Stein, a Louisville native whose father played for UK Austin.

A big decision involves a $37 million payout to Stoops.

>> The fans seem very happy about this one, but at the same time, I think if you're in Lexington, you should walk around Gatton Park and enjoy it as much as you can, and then realize that the cost of that park is less than the $37 million we're spending to fire.

Football coach.

>> And the Bill Gatton Foundation gave $150 million to UK to develop an arts district.

It's to include a new College of Fine Arts building, several hundred seat theater that is the largest single gift in UK's history.

McKenna.

>> Right, and Bill Gatton is synonymous with several past donations, large donations to the University of Kentucky.

You know, the College of Business is named after him.

And as well as the recent student center project.

So this is definitely another addition to UC's campus that will have a great impact.

>> Several lawsuits have now been filed after the UPS plane crash in Louisville that killed 14 people back on November 4th.

Lucas, obviously, there's going to be a lot of litigation.

>> Yeah, yeah, two lawsuits filed over wrongful deaths this week.

About a month ago, we had a lawsuit filed over neighbors and business owners who alleged negligence.

So, I mean, yeah, a crash like this in the middle of the city, a lot is going to come out of that.

And, you know, some of these businesses are still working to reopen.

Grade Lane is still closed portions.

So developing situations still it's been about a month and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

>> Former state representative Jodi Hayden died on November 24th.

The Democrat and lifelong resident of Bardstown served in the House from 1997 to 2004.

He had been a Bardstown councilman.

Jody Hayden was 80 years old.

Communities across the state continue holiday traditions, from parades to tree lightings to sing alongs, and early indications are Kentuckians, like the rest of Americans, are spending more this year on gifts and celebrations.

That's comment.

Have a good week ahead.