[music] >> Kentucky loves President Donald Trump.

>> The president makes a stop in Kentucky to campaign for Republicans ahead of the midterms.

>> It doesn't matter what he says at his rallies, because people are now growing accustomed to the fact that he is lying about it.

>> Outside his rally, Trump's record is fuel for Democrats.

[MUSIC] >> Unless it's something super controversial, like the abortion amendment or the School Choice amendment.

Kentuckians typically have no idea.

[MUSIC] >> Kentuckians will be voting on a constitutional amendment.

But do they know anything about it?

[MUSIC] And check out the top team in the SEC.

>> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Monday, October 19th.

I'm Christy Dutton in our KET Studios in Louisville.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We're just two weeks in a day out from the 2026 midterms, and President Donald Trump is campaigning for Republican candidates across the country.

And that includes here in the Commonwealth, where he held a rally Saturday at Truist Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.

Our Laura Rogers was at the rally and is standing by in our Lexington studio with the report.

>> Yes.

Thank you, Christy.

More than 2500 people turned out for Saturday's rally in Highland Heights.

As President Trump spoke in support of his priorities in Washington.

Along with support for GOP congressional candidates, including Congressman Andy Barr, who is running for U.S.

Senate and Ed Gallrein in the fourth Congressional District.

>> Both of them also taking the stage.

>> Well, a very special hello to Kentucky.

>> President Trump drawing a crowd of more than 2500 energetic supporters to Northern Kentucky.

>> This is the most important midterm in the history of our country.

>> Many voters agree.

>> Cost the war gas prices.

>> Iran.

Iran is to blame for higher gas prices.

But thanks to the United States Navy oil exports out of the Strait of Hormuz have been restored to 80% of pre-war levels.

>> Voters telling us the war has been worth it.

To mitigate the risk.

>> I'd rather pay a little more for my gas and pay a little more for things than to have a nuclear bomb dropped on the country.

>> The president, projecting confidence in his economic policies.

>> They gave us the dark age of America, and we quickly turned it.

And I had no idea we could do it this quickly.

We turned it into the golden age of America.

We're in the golden age of America.

It was just announced that under Republican leadership, incomes for hardworking Americans have soared to the highest level ever recorded.

Thank you.

>> President Trump crediting his tariff policies for a big investment in Kentucky from $42.

>> Billion in its largest plant.

They're building the largest plant in the entire country.

The Louisville assembly plant is creating more than 4000 Kentucky jobs.

>> He also promised more economic development if Republicans maintain control of Congress in the midterms.

>> We'll be investing $100 million in the pharmaceutical company and to revitalize a gigantic drug manufacturing facility in Winchester, Kentucky.

>> The president stumping for Republican candidates, including Congressman Andy Barr, who's running for U.S.

Senate.

>> It has been an honor of a lifetime to fight alongside President Donald Trump, to make America great again.

>> And the GOP candidate and the fourth Congressional District.

Ed Gallrein, who won his May primary with the president's endorsement.

>> Mr.

president, I want to thank you for what you've done to unleash the U.S.

economy, to unleash energy, to restore law and order, and to restore national defense and national security.

>> One notable absence Doctor Ralph Alvarado, running for Congress in the sixth Congressional District.

The president voicing his support.

>> Ralph Alvarado is spectacular, and he's in a tight race with a lunatic.

>> Alvarado is running against Democrat Zach Dembo in the sixth district.

His team told the Kentucky Lantern that he had prior commitments on Saturday, including meeting with voters at court Days and Mount Sterling.

More on that race coming up shortly.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

>> The Democratic nominee for the U.S.

Senate.

Charles Charles Booker, put out this statement about President Trump's visit to Northern Kentucky.

Quote, While Andy Barr spent the day currying favor with Trump, spreading lies and sowing Division, I continued traveling throughout the state, hearing firsthand about Kentuckians struggles.

Andy Barr is sitting by while his constituents cannot afford gas, groceries and other basic necessities.

That's real lunacy.

Unquote.

Kentucky's only Democratic congressman called out Trump to.

He spoke to reporters in Louisville one day before Trump's rally.

When asked about Kentucky's sixth district race, he said, Democrat Zach Dembo will beat Republican Ralph Alvarado, who notably did not attend Trump's rally.

McGarvey says Alvarado and other Republicans cannot, quote, run away from Trump's policies and record low approval ratings.

>> Yeah, I was driving back over to Frankfort last week, and of course, the cheapest gas between Louisville and Frankfort, everybody knows, is in Wadi.

It was for 17 a gallon for gasoline.

It was $6.50 for diesel.

Right now, Kentuckians are paying on average more than $4,000 per family.

More because of this, president's policies, $4,000 per family.

They're watching this happen.

Yes.

You know, it doesn't matter what politicians are saying.

It's what people are seeing.

They are seeing the gas prices.

They are seeing the grocery prices.

They are seeing health care prices.

They're watching the corruption in this administration.

Everything from the president.

Reporting, making over $2 billion.

Dealing crypto out of the basement of the white House or accepting a luxury jetliner from the Qatari government.

It doesn't matter what he says at his rallies because people are now growing accustomed to the fact that he is lying about it.

You know, so in the face of the president's rising costs of everything from gasoline to groceries, I actually passed a bill through the United States House of Representatives that lowers the cost of prescription drugs for every single senior in America.

I'm working on cleaning up the Ohio River.

I'm working on taking care of our veterans while fighting the corruption of this administration and working to lower everybody's costs.

It's what I've always done.

It's what I'm going to continue to do.

>> Like all U.S.

House members, Morgan McGarvey is up for reelection.

He is running against Republican Maria Rodriguez.

She's an emergency room nurse and an immigrant.

She was born and raised in Cuba and became a naturalized U.S.

citizen in 2017.

The Cook Political Report cast McGarvey as a solid win for Democrats.

He beat his 2024 opponent by 24 percentage points.

House representatives have now been out of session for more than a month.

They won't return until after the midterms.

McGarvey has criticized speaker Mike Johnson for refusing to consider legislation, including budget measures, for so many weeks.

Johnson says he cleared the House's schedule so members could focus on their campaigns.

Northern Kentucky's fourth congressional district is our focus this evening on Kentucky.

Tonight, join host Laura Rogers and send us your questions and comments.

That's tonight at eight eastern, seven central right here on KET.

Well, on Friday, host Bill Bryant recapped the week's news in the Commonwealth with a trio of working Kentucky journalists on comment on Kentucky.

With Election Day closing in, the panel discussed the tight race in Kentucky's sixth Congressional District between Republican Ralph Alvarado and Democrat Zach Dembo.

>> Is it a given that Dimbo carries Lexington, which has leaned to blue for several years?

Alvarado hopes to run up the numbers in the Republican leaning outlying counties that surround it.

Could something disrupt the math?

>> Well, I better hope he runs it up in Fayette County.

I think he's kind of banking on that, especially with the district having redistricted several years ago and take Frankfort out of it.

You know, this is you got to win Lexington if you're Zach Dembo.

And I think he's probably in a position to do that.

But yeah, it's these surrounding counties, the kind of purple ish on the outside and then the red in the when you get a little further from Lexington, these are.

Yeah, it's Dimbo.

I've been told his events in some of these redder areas have been well attended.

So I think he's hoping to make gains there.

But yeah, I mean, his, his his goal is win Fayette and get some of these other voters.

Alvarado is make the gains that you can in Fayette and win these outside counties.

>> Will closely watch Madison and Scott.

That's right.

>> Denver needs to close the gap.

He may not win.

Scott County, for example, but he needs to narrow the gap so that Alvarado doesn't carry it by such a big spread.

And and it's interesting in this district, too, I went back and looked.

But Congressman Barr hasn't had a very prominent, if you will, challenger these last two election cycles.

So this is kind of new to see a strong Democrat running, you know, because it's been a while since he's had since we've had to really look at that.

The turnout numbers and see how that's how that played out.

>> And again, in your story, it was telling to me that Barr said he considers it to be a toss up for his successor.

>> Right.

You know, one point I was thinking about earlier.

>> Was that the word the term was toss.

>> Up, he said.

He said a toss up.

That was a quote.

But I think it's interesting that the the the man who holds the seat right now is calling it a toss up, but we haven't seen some national race raiders like the Cook Political Report, the crystal ball out of University of Virginia.

They still have this race leaning.

Are.

But nationwide they are moving a lot of races in the House and Senate and in governor races as well to the Democrats favor.

You know, one place I think is telling like Alaska, I think both of those races are now in Democrats favor.

You know, so we're seeing this kind of coalescing of national movement for Democrats.

And I think that that is what the six Democrats are hoping to kind of replicate there early on in the night.

>> You can watch the full episode on our website at ket.org/comment.

And don't forget to tune in live each Friday night at 8:00 eastern, 7:00 central, right here on KET.

Well, the races for the U.S.

Senate and the U.S.

House are getting the most attention.

But that's not all you'll find on the November 3rd ballot in Kentucky, you'll be picking candidates for the Kentucky General Assembly and voting yes or no to a constitutional amendment.

Our Emily Prince has more on that in a special Monday edition of Inside Kentucky Politics.

>> Let's jump now to our leaders in Frankfort.

Want all 100 of the state House races are up for election.

19 of our 38 state senators are up for election.

Of course, many of those incumbents are unopposed.

But are there any particular races you're keeping an eye on maybe that are competitive or that we know we might see a new face or what?

What races are you watching?

>> Well, one where we're not going to see a new face either way is be here in Lexington with Adam Moore's race.

You know, I think that Adam's running a very strong race.

And but Tiffany, you know, there's money behind him on the on the Republican side.

>> I think the atmosphere hurts that because I've said repeatedly they're kind of.

Those two are kind of like spy versus spy of each other.

Like they're the mirror mirror image on the other side of the aisle of each other.

And in what's going to be a bad election cycle for Republicans.

It's hard.

It's hard to it's hard to see that that race flipping another year.

I think it could be Tiffany's.

But this year it's it's going to be tough just because they're so similar.

>> And then then you get in where I'm watching in the urban, in the urban areas.

I mean, with with again, with Trump's numbers kind of watching that.

I think the Republicans in Louisville, those are the races kind of seeing that is where the most money has been spent protecting those Republicans.

You saw the articles yesterday or Wednesday on the independent expenditures coming in.

I'm just watching all of those races.

>> I think I think the one thing you have to remember on those sorts of races is it's kind of like we've always talked about congressional polling numbers.

Congress is super unpopular.

I like my congressman.

It's the other ones that I hate.

And I think, you know, especially for the General Assembly level, you have people like Julie Raque Adams, Ken, Fleming who've been around for years.

People may be frustrated with Republicans, but they like those people specifically because they've worked hard and have built up a personal brand.

And this is this is the year that you do that for.

This is the year that that then acts as a buffer.

The one race I do think you'll see a party flip is the 95th district.

Tackett Lafferty seat down in Floyd County.

I do think Tanner Hesterberg will probably pick that one up.

So you know, that's that's a little padding for any any losses Republicans may have in the urban areas.

I think this is a good election to be a younger person.

And Hesterberg a much younger than John Ferre Turner is running to kind of come back and everything here in that seat is very good for for Hesterberg.

>> Gentlemen, one final topic.

We've talked about the candidates, but also on this year's ballot, there will be an amendment.

Amendment one has to do with the governor's power to give pardons.

It asks voters if, 60 days before a gubernatorial election, all the way until the swearing in of a new governor.

If that power to pardon should cease to exist.

State Senator Chris McDaniel has backed it.

He often cites well, he really solely cites Governor Matt Bevin pardons as the reason for it.

I want to ask first, when we talk about these constitutional amendments, are voters aware that this is on the ballot?

Do we have any indication of are people familiar with what this means?

Sherman, what do you think?

>> I haven't seen a lot of ads.

I haven't seen many posts.

I've seen Senator McDaniel McDaniels posts about it.

The governor made a comment the other day just kind of, you know, he didn't think that it was appropriate as far as focusing on one one governor.

And I do think that Matt Bevin, what happened there?

I mean, if you go back and look at the history of all the pardons that came forward, some with money behind them, there's a lot of lot of problems with that.

The issue that I see more and more of it of playing in will be maybe in that debate we were talking about because of the demo tying Alvarado to Bevin, being that Alvarado was the running mate just for history of folks.

But that piece will be, to me is, is that something to even bring up and to see?

You know, if I were, Alvarado would be ready for those questions that are coming.

But that would be, you know, the, the, the only thing as far as the amendment itself, I don't think I've not heard anybody ask about it.

It's not.

Yeah.

>> Not Kentuckians in general on those amendments, unless it's something super controversial, like the abortion amendment or the school choice amendment.

Kentuckians typically have no idea.

And the the reason it's hard to pass amendment is because when they haven't, they don't know about it.

The kind of reflective or reaction is to just vote against it.

If I don't understand it.

So a lot of it, I've not seen the wording.

A lot of it depends on how it's worded on the ballot.

And there's specific rules on on how that can be worded, you know, as to the the effect on CD six.

I just I find it incredibly hard to believe that there are any Andy Barr voters who are going to say, well, I was going to vote for Alvarado too, but then I found out he was.

This voter doesn't exist.

I think that's a turnout piece for Democrats.

It's to agitate lower propensity Democrats who don't like Matt Bevin and get them to turn out.

There is zero persuasion involved in it, and I think those voters are already voting.

So I don't know.

It's confused me why they keep running that ad, because to me, the people that I would be targeting that ad to are already engaged.

So why don't you move on to a different message?

That's that that message just confused me the entire election.

>> It's a pretty strong message as far as the polling.

No, I mean, I mean with you, but as far as the polling of how unpopular he is to stick with.

>> But I think you've already got those people locked in and showing up on Election Day.

So why not pivot to a different message.

>> With early voting?

I mean, if it's the if it's the way that it is, I mean, roll through that and then get into the next discussion as far as folks going and going out and voting themselves.

But I think you got the the Trump message.

I mean, you know, it's a, it's a weird spot for Democrats to be in where we can tie you guys to national figures.

And normally that's not the I mean, not the situation.

It's normally the opposite way.

>> If you ask me to, to design a strategy to lose the most possible seats, I don't know that I wouldn't even come up with trumps, come up with.

I mean, it's just it's, it's been disastrous.

And it's 100% coming from the white House.

And we'll start to see how bad the damage is.

>> All right, gentlemen, well, messaging is everything.

Right.

So we will see an amendment one.

People need to be aware that it's on the ballot.

There you go.

All right.

Thank you all so much for breaking down this Kentucky politics.

You all take care.

>> Thank you.

>> Thanks.

>> Good to know.

Thank you.

Emily.

Three groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security, claiming DHS compiled sensitive data, information on voters in 47 states, including Kentucky.

The League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the League of United Latin American Citizens, filed the federal lawsuit in Washington, DC.

According to the Messenger Enquirer, the suit alleges DHS handled voter information in a way that violates the law, disregards privacy, safeguards and ignores Americans privacy rights.

In a statement to Louisville Public Media, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says Kentucky's voter rolls have not been improperly accessed.

Breathitt county's judge executive has died.

The Breathitt Funeral Home says Jeff Noble died last Thursday at the age of 65.

He was in his second term as judge executive and also owned Jeff's Body Shop.

His funeral was today.

[MUSIC] Connecting neighbors to resources.

That's the purpose of the Pulaski County Homelessness Conference in Somerset.

Last week, community organizers came together to talk about issues regarding housing, share information and resources to those in need.

>> We live in an area that has about 20% poverty here in this county, so we want to look out for all of our neighbors, not just after they've slipped into homelessness, but before.

So what we want to do is try to connect them to resources they may need for things like rental assistance, utility assistance.

We do a lot of shelter placements.

We do shuttles for shelters, showering.

We have a food bank, a little food pantry that we have in our office, community showers, just all kinds of things.

We do employment assistance, educational assistance, free Wi-Fi, basically anything we can do to help the community.

We also act as a cooling center and a warming center for our county, for the daytime discussions at this conference have included things like a need for transportation resources.

We now have more of those.

The first conference, we decided we needed a way for people to get to sheltering.

There wasn't a lot of transport for people that wanted to get off the streets, so we started shelter shuttle.

We needed more showering in the community.

So we actually started showering at our office.

But we've identified a lot of needs and moved forward in a lot of ways.

And that's from not only you're helping resources, but the private sector also, you know, has has provided some opportunities, like more transitional housing has popped up.

Like I said, more transportation opportunities.

So those things are really valuable when you're looking at people that are needing employment and, and trying to get ahead.

>> I mean, Kentucky is in, you know, by and large, a rural state.

And so our transportation options are very vehicle dependent.

And so this is something that comes up when communities are trying to solve for homelessness, making sure that A, we're building housing where, you know, our roads are and that people do have vehicles to, to get around.

>> We try and overcome some of the barriers that are out there, like housing.

We try and get people educated about what their rights are, help in the community, trying to get some trust built to where we can actually sit down and have conversations that actually get somewhere, put some action behind it.

Applications and job hunting.

A lot of people, everything has gone to online and there's a lot of scams out there.

So it's kind of a filter process to get hired somewhere.

Resources for places to get with internet access, transportation is a huge one too.

Like I said, and just being work ready, having resumes ready, places to go that are willing to be second chance employers.

That's a challenge.

>> There's a lot of stigma surrounding homelessness.

I know that a lot of people are familiar with people struggling with addiction.

You know, may end up in homelessness or our neighbors that are struggling with mental illness, you know, may also struggle with homelessness.

But there's also a lot of other people that are struggling right now besides those two categories of neighbors.

There are elderly neighbors.

We have high school seniors in the county that reach out to us, our veterans in the community.

There are a whole lot of people that are experiencing homelessness.

It's not just a few select groups of people that this is happening to.

>> You are not alone.

Things are tough.

We are all feeling the pressure of rising rent, the existence of of this conference and the number of people attending really shows just how important this work is and how there is a collective will to do something different.

>> According to a presentation at the conference, the Kentucky Housing Supply Gap Analysis projects that more than 3300 housing units will be needed in Pulaski County by 2029.

In 2024, it was a little more than 2500 housing units.

[MUSIC] The Kentucky Wildcats won again over the weekend to go to six and one on the season.

Moore in tonight's look at sports, Kentucky beat Oklahoma in Oklahoma 21 to 13 on Saturday.

It's the cats fourth SEC win this year and its fifth win in a row with the win, Kentucky moved up to 12th in the Associated Press.

College football poll.

Kentucky is now tied with Georgia for first place in the SEC.

Both teams have one SEC loss.

Kentucky plays Vanderbilt next on Saturday as it looks for its seventh win of the year.

And now we're going to switch sports.

Both Louisville and Kentucky are in the top 25 in the AP preseason basketball poll.

Florida is first in the poll, with Duke second.

Louisville is 11th and Kentucky is 23rd.

Seven SEC teams are in the top 25.

Well, what is the story behind Western Kentucky?

So-Called Jackson Purchase.

And there's a Kentucky connection to the TV show Seinfeld.

Our Toby Gibbs tells us more in this.

Look back at this week in Kentucky history.

>> Kentucky grew on October 19th, 1818, when former Governor Isaac Shelby and General Andrew Jackson arranged for the purchase of 2000mi S of land from the Chickasaws in present day western Kentucky.

[MUSIC] The so-called Jackson purchase includes Kentucky's eight westernmost counties.

Kentucky started work on its first rail line on October 22nd, 1831.

Governor Thomas Metcalfe drove the first spike on the Lexington and Ohio Railroad on Water Street in Lexington.

Louisville's Brown Hotel opened October 25th, 1923.

[MUSIC] It would welcome presidents, prime ministers, royalty, Hollywood stars and would be the birthplace of the hot brown sandwich.

[MUSIC] In 1926, happy birthday to a trio of prominent Kentuckians Louis.

Grandpa Jones was born October 20th, 1913, in Henderson County.

The country music star was best known as one of the stars of the TV show Hee Haw.

Georgia Davis Powers was born October 19th, 1923 in Washington County.

In 1967, she became the first woman and first person of color elected to the Kentucky State Senate.

And Jonathan Wolfe was born October 23rd, 1958, in Louisville.

He's a musician and composer who created the memorable Seinfeld theme.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] And that's a look back at this week in Kentucky history.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Thank you.

Toby.

Well, we hope that you're going to join us again tomorrow night at 630 eastern.

530 central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

You can send us a story idea, public affairs@wkyt.org and follow KET on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Have a great evening.