>> Do you care about the future of this commonwealth in this country?

If you can vote Daniel Cameron on May 19th.

>> There's no learning curve with me.

I know this job because I'm doing this job.

>> The two front running Republican candidates for the U.S.

Senate are on the road and looking for votes.

[MUSIC] It's one of the biggest House races in the country.

But who's ahead in the race for Congress in northern Kentucky?

>> Doctor Fauci's role in the Cover-Up was intentional.

>> Senator Rand Paul promised a whistleblower about a Covid cover up.

What that whistleblower had to say today.

[MUSIC] >> To be able to calculate and show these positive results has been elusive.

[MUSIC] >> And a Louisville theater program celebrates 50 years and national recognition for helping students.

[MUSIC] >> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Wednesday, May the 13th.

We are at the midpoint of the workweek.

I'm Renee Shaw.

We thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

With less than one week left until the primary election, the two best known Republican candidates for the U.S.

Senate are crisscrossing the state to garner support in tonight's election 2026.

Update.

Our Mackenzie Spink caught up with Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron this week on the campaign trail.

[MUSIC] >> One of the many stops for Daniel Cameron this week was in Madison County, where he promised to be a strong voice in Washington if he's elected to replace Senator Mitch McConnell.

>> This is a change election, and we have an opportunity to send someone to Washington that's going to stand firm for the values of the men, women and children of our 120 counties are going to stand firm for our coal and natural gas industries and nuclear as well.

Going to stand firm for our law enforcement community and making sure that taxes are as low as they possibly can be, so that people can pay for groceries and gas and save a little for the long haul.

And so this race is very much about the future.

And it would be an honor to serve in the United States Senate.

I will be someone that isn't looking out for, you know, big banks and big business, but is focused on small businesses in our communities all across our 120 counties.

>> I spoke with Representative Andy Barr after his meeting with community bankers in Carroll County.

He says his relationship with President Trump will allow him to hit the ground running if he wins the seat.

>> We are spending this last week going to every part of Kentucky to talk about the fact that I am the only candidate in this race, endorsed by President Trump, that I'm ready on day one.

There's no learning curve with me.

I know this job because I'm doing this job.

And importantly for Republicans, I'm a battle tested winner in general elections, and we can't afford to lose this seat in the United States Senate.

>> Businessman Nate Morris dropped out of the race at President Trump's request.

Morris has since endorsed Barr and was offered a role in Trump's administration.

Both Cameron and Barr say the game hasn't changed for them in these last few days before the primary.

>> I'm very encouraged by the number of people that have said, hey, we were on Nate's team, now we're coming to your team.

We've had people redoubling, recommitting or joining for the first time team Cameron.

And it's been an honor.

>> Obviously, the president asked my opponent, Nate Morris, to drop out.

He did.

And then to his credit, he endorsed me.

And I thank Nate for endorsing me in this race.

So now we have President Trump's endorsement.

We have Congressman Hal Rogers endorsement.

We have Congressman Brett Guthrie endorsement, we have Nate Morris endorsement.

We have a lot of endorsements from state senators, from state representatives, from county judge executives, Republicans all over Kentucky who know that I'm ready on day one to fight with this president to save this country.

>> For Kentucky edition.

I'm Mackenzie Spink.

>> Thank you, Mackenzie.

For much more on the U-S Senate race and the impact of President Donald Trump's endorsement of Andy Barr, I'll talk to Sylvia Goodman of Louisville Public Radio and Media and our reporter's notebook.

That's coming up in just a minute.

A new poll says Ed Gallrein is ahead of Congressman Thomas Massie in the fourth Congressional District Republican primary.

The poll is from Qantas Insights.

Gallrein leads Massie about 53 to 45% when including respondents who lean one way or the other.

This has become one of the most expensive and most watched House races in the country.

President Trump has endorsed Gallrein.

Massie is an occasional critic of President Donald Trump on the budget, some foreign policy matters, and of course, The Jeffrey Epstein Files.

But Massie says he votes with the president 90% of the time.

A reminder early voting begins in Kentucky tomorrow.

You can vote early tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, or vote next Tuesday on primary day the 19th.

You can find voting locations in your county and sample ballots online at go vote.ky.gov.

[MUSIC] Time now to look at the critical U.S.

Senate race in Kentucky.

And we have the awesome journalist who.

She is, Sylvia Goodman, who is the state Capitol reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, and doing a lot of things other than covering the state Capitol.

Right now, she is really on the campaign trail.

Good to see you, Sylvia.

>> Glad to be here.

>> I hope you're getting some rest.

We've got a few more days to go before it's all over.

Yeah.

No rest for the weary and busy.

So you have really been covering the U.S.

Senate race.

So talk to us.

Let's focus on the GOP side.

A lot of developments, probably since we last had you on comment and just in the last few days.

Tell us the state of this race right now.

>> I was actually on comment the night that the Andy Barr received President Trump's endorsement.

So that has obviously shaken up this race quite a bit.

All of the top candidates had really been chasing that endorsement.

And when he came down in favor of Andy Barr, it really shifted the GOP side of this race.

So a Lexington businessman, Nate Morris, dropped out of the race.

He said that he had been offered an ambassadorship within the Trump administration, and that he was going to take that and endorse Andy Barr, along with President Trump.

And then Daniel Cameron, a former state attorney general and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate.

He has stayed in this race.

He says he will stay in it, and that he is kind of setting himself as a foil.

A foil to Andy Barr, aligning himself a little bit more with the liberty side of the Republican Party.

>> So let me ask you about the fundraising part of this.

And we know that just yesterday or day before, Daniel Cameron had said that he was pulling back on some TV scheduled TV ads that were going to happen the last week of the election or the days leading up to the election, the primary on the 19th.

What do you make of that?

Is that a big thing or not?

>> I mean, you can't discount anything in these last few days.

Everything is important.

Daniel Cameron has really lagged in fundraising dollars this entire campaign.

And I think we're really seeing that come to roost here in the final few days.

Andy Barr, meanwhile, has a ton of money behind him, a lot of PACs spending independent for him as well.

So I think that you can't discount the importance of those last minute ads.

But at the same time, you know, I think a lot of voters are probably decided at this point, although I say that there are still some polling numbers that we've seen where there are plenty of undecided people, at least in those polls.

So you can't really discount the importance of that last minute push to get people, your biggest supporters, at the very least, to remember, election Day is right around the corner, and you got to get out to vote.

>> And early voting starts tomorrow, Thursday, right.

And so many will take advantage of that.

Daniel Cameron, as you said, has been really lagging in the fundraising.

And but he is going on this multi-city county blitzkrieg tour.

He's doing these every day, going to different cities.

And so is Congressman Andy Barr.

Do you think he feels like he can make up on the ground what he can't do on television?

And is that a realistic way to go about trying to tie this up on May 19th?

>> Look, it's a really difficult strategy to to go for the ground campaign.

It takes a lot of work.

And also you just won't reach people who don't go to political events, you know what I mean?

You're not going to reach somebody who goes to work and then comes home and watches TV.

That's plenty of voters.

Now.

Primary voters are tend to be a lot more politically active.

They might be the types who go to campaign events more, but it's definitely a tricky strategy.

We have seen Daniel Cameron throughout this race, really doing a lot of campaign stops, really trying to get around the state, but I think that's true of all the Senate candidates.

So it's hard to say how much advantage that will really give him.

>> And we saw just today there was a posting on X, I should say, not a tweet, where he had discussed that he is out there talking to people and that he is going to vote for them.

He's kind of changing it for I'm going to be the rubber stamp for Trump as opposed to my interests.

Lie with your interests wherever you are.

That's where you can expect me to vote in Washington.

A little bit different language there, possibly the same meaning.

But do you think that's an effective strategy?

>> Well, it's interesting.

It kind of reminds me almost like he's positioning this race to be more like the Mansi Gallrein race, which has really drawn a lot of national attention.

I don't want to call Daniel Cameron a Mansi, Thomas Massie type figure.

I, I don't think we've seen enough of how he would vote to, to really tell if he would be a true opposition figure.

The way that Thomas Massie has been to his party on some of these key issues.

But at the same time, I think he's aligning himself with some of Thomas Massie's historical kind of the people, the Liberty Wing state Republicans who, you know, might also be Trump supporters but still take issue with certain policies.

So I think that's a really interesting kind of dynamic to this race.

I don't know if it will pan out for Daniel Cameron, especially since he started out this race, like you said, saying that pretty much in line with his colleagues that he would be a rubber stamp, rubber stamp for President Trump.

>> Yes.

And your point that you were making is well taken.

You know, you've seen him with some state lawmakers who lean a little bit more on the liberty side of things, who have endorsed him and who've been there when he's been on the road.

And so, you know, maybe that's who he's going to pick up.

You mentioned about polling.

I mean, what do we know about how either wide or close the race is between Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron?

>> All right.

Really quick to that point, I saw actually his one of his surrogates has been Representative Savannah Maddox.

That's one of the leaders of the Liberty Party in the state legislature.

But yes, the polling I've seen now, the most recent poll was from a Barr aligned PAC.

So take it with a grain of salt.

But it did show that since this endorsement, Daniel Cameron has fallen significantly behind and Barr has picked up quite a bit of steam.

I think about a month ago, we saw a poll that had a seven point difference between the two seven points plus on Barr.

Now we see a 19 points plus on Barr.

As always, polling is imperfect, but it is a pretty a big jump for Barr since this.

>> So final just in the minute we have remaining.

Let's just talk about the Democratic side of the ledger.

Anything noteworthy there, particularly when it comes to the race between Charles Booker and Amy McGrath and where this race stands right now?

>> What a familiar primary this is.

It's like.

Deja vu.

And it's for McConnell's seat, too.

But there's no incumbent that they'll have to run against.

But it is definitely very interesting to see.

Democrats are once again, in the polling, at least so far, the limited that we've seen are throwing their support behind these two candidates, McGrath and Booker, who have previously lost in U.S.

Senate races to Republicans.

Now, this is an open seat.

It changes the calculus a little bit.

There's some hope from Democrats that they'll see a blue wave this year because of President Trump's low approval ratings in some states and in many states, I should say.

But at the same time, it's a real uphill battle for these candidates.

There are a few other, you know, less established names in federal politics.

We have State Representative Pamela Stephenson, who's previously run for state office horse trainer Dale Romans.

So that's another definitely interesting race to watch, and it will shape how we spend the rest of our election season.

>> That's right.

With just under a week to go, we'll get there.

Sylvia Goodman, thank you for all your reporting and for taking some time to be with us today.

Appreciate it.

>> Glad to be here.

>> A CIA operations officer claims Doctor Anthony Fauci and other federal health officials engaged in a cover up over the origins of the Covid 19 virus.

That officer testified today before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a committee that's led by U.S.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has alleged a cover up for years.

Senator Paul spoke as the hearing opened.

>> This hearing is about more than one witness, one assessment or one agency.

It's about a federal apparatus that told the American people to trust the science while hiding the machinery that shaped the science.

It's about an intelligence community that relied on outside experts whose conflicts were never disclosed.

It's about public health officials with access to intelligence that Congress has struggled to obtain.

It's about researchers and advisers cycling through grants, contracts, classified briefings, federal service and advisory committees, and presenting the results as independent even though they weren't.

The cover up is not just about protecting one research grant.

It's about protecting an entire network of labs, grants, intermediaries, and bureaucratic architecture quietly engineered to outlast any moratorium, any congressional inquiry and any election.

After millions died, children lost years of learning, small businesses were destroyed, civil liberties were restricted, and dissenting Americans were censored and smeared.

The government owes its people the evidence.

>> We then heard from the whistleblower.

Senator Paul has talked about James Erdmann, the Third, a CIA senior operations officer.

Erdmann told the committee that Doctor Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, improperly influenced intelligence, analyzes about the origins of Covid 19 to downplay findings that Covid probably came from a laboratory accident in China.

>> I'm here today to discuss the Covid cover up the national security implications associated with the investigative findings, and CIA refusal to comply with lawful oversight, as well as how we remedy these problems.

Intelligence, community leaders and senior analysts downplayed the possibility that the Covid pandemic originated as a result of a lab incident.

Motives are difficult to define given the scope of the review.

Intentional or not?

The ICE actions resulted in a cover up, wasted resources, and a failure to properly inform policy makers.

Public health policy would have been very different had the American public been made aware that a virus from a lab in China was going to serve as the foundation for an emergency use authorization?

MRNA products being mandated by the former administration.

Doctor Fauci's role in the cover up was intentional.

Doctor Fauci influenced the analytical process and findings by leveraging his position to ensure the ICE consulted with a conflicted list of curated subject matter experts, public health health officials, and scientists.

This included some of the authors of the paper, The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, and other public health experts who have been in his orbit for the last 20 plus years.

>> Doctor Anthony Fauci has denied wrongdoing.

He says Senator Paul has distorted information about him for political gain.

May 11th, just two days ago was the last day for the Justice Department to indict Doctor Fauci for allegedly lying to Congress before the five year statute of limitations expired.

He was not indicted.

In other news, law enforcement officials in Louisville have made five arrests as they investigate a multi-state human trafficking operation.

Mayor Craig Greenberg announced the arrests are part of a crackdown on businesses operating as fronts for sexual exploitation, namely illicit massage establishments.

>> Fraudulent massage establishments posing as legitimate parlors are often fronts for organized trafficking operations.

They exploit women who are trafficked into the country.

They evade taxes, ignore our labor, health, safety, business laws, and harm our neighborhoods and neighbors.

This successful operation is a direct result of our strengthened efforts to locate and shut them down.

We are not going to tolerate illegal establishments that harm our community.

>> The investigation remains active as law enforcement continues to review evidence from today's operation.

Now, some business news.

Louisville based spirits company Brown-Forman is rejecting a massive takeover bid from another Kentucky spirits giant.

Brown-Forman is the maker of household whiskeys like Jack Daniel's and Woodford Reserve, according to Reuters.

The company turned down a $15 billion deal from Sazerac, which controls major bourbon brands like Buffalo Trace and Pappy Van Winkle.

Experts say the merger could have reshaped the U.S.

whiskey market.

The failed deal means as spirit comes rather as spirits companies face slowing demand and growing pressure to scale back.

[MUSIC] Louisville's Walden Conservatory is celebrating 50 years of youth theater education this year, but it hasn't come without its challenges.

In 2004, Walden merged with stage one Family Theater to keep both organizations afloat after financial challenges following the Covid 19 pandemic.

Our Kelsey Starks sits down with the student and the Walden Conservatory director to talk about 50 years, and why this anniversary is a full circle moment.

>> Charlie Sexton is the director of the Walden Conservatory, and we also welcome James Finch, who is a senior at Walden Conservatory.

Thanks so much for being here.

Thank you.

So, Charlie, I want to start with you.

Tell us about this anniversary 50 years, which is incredible for an arts education organization in these times, right?

But it is a full circle moment.

Tell me why.

>> It really is.

Walden Theater was founded in 1976 by my mother, Nancy Sexton, on the campus of Walden School, and after Walden School left Walden Theater, then leased space with Saint Francis High School until 1997.

And then we moved into the building that we're located in now at 1123 Pine Street in Louisville.

And we've been there ever since.

And now, you know, through a pandemic and through two different mergers, we've survived.

And, you know, we're celebrating our 50th year.

So we wanted to mark that occasion.

That's a pretty significant occasion for us by having a celebration on May 17th.

So the first merger was 2015 with Blue Apple players.

That's when we became Commonwealth Theater Center.

And then in 2024, we just merged with stage one Family Theater.

So we've gone through a lot over the past 50 years, but we're so happy to keep providing the highest quality arts education in the region.

>> Yeah, the mission remains the same.

The mission.

>> Remains the same no matter what.

And it's always about the kids and the experience the kids get and the learning that they get through theater education.

>> Yeah.

That brings us to you, James.

You've been involved with Walden Conservatory.

Tell me about the impact it's had on you.

>> Warren Conservatory.

When I joined, I didn't think it would matter and be that important in my life.

But over time, it's helped to become critical to my identity.

It's helped me speak up more, be more charismatic with people, and it's improved my confidence greatly.

And I've made many friends because of it.

So it's become very important to my life.

>> And now you're going on to study theater.

Tell us where?

>> I'm going to Liu Brooklyn for acting.

Wow.

This August.

>> Yeah.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

That's so exciting.

So whether they are going into professional theater or not, we know the importance of arts education.

As you mentioned, the confidence that it builds and the leadership collaboration, all of those things.

At a time when arts organizations are having a rough time.

Talk about that impact.

>> Yeah, that's one of the things that we emphasize is that if you do, if you are considering this as a career, it's a great place to be.

But if you're just looking for a place to be that, you know, feels like you're home away from home, that Walden is a great place.

And it's because because of what you mentioned, it's like theater education over a long period of time, really.

Imbibes a lot of those qualities like critical thinking skills, teamwork, collaboration, concentration, and confidence to these are all 21st century skills that we pride ourselves on imparting on our students.

And we assess students at the end of each semester.

So we're really able to track their progress through these different skill sets that are imparted through theater education.

>> It is a nationally renowned program too.

>> Yeah, we just had our assessments reviewed and studied by George Mason University, and they've published a book entitled Why Theater Education Matters, because they were so interested and impressed with our assessment system, they wanted to sort of do a deep dive on that, because to be able to calculate and show these positive results has been elusive.

But now that we've been able to track people over a long period of time, you can actually see those results.

>> Yeah, that's that's incredible.

And how is it for you to, to see some of these professionals who are coming back for this anniversary celebration to see what is possible?

>> It's going to.

>> Be cool.

>> It's very exciting.

I, I'm nervous.

I got to show off for them a little bit, I feel.

>> Yeah.

>> James is in one of the Shakespeare shows.

So he's going to be presenting as well as all the current students now are both in the two Shakespeare plays that will be presenting.

>> Yeah.

Tell us about those.

The American.

>> Young American Shakespeare Festival is continuing this week, and we're doing Much Ado About Nothing, which James is one of the stars of that.

>> And wonderful.

>> We're doing A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The reason being that was the first show that we produced in 1976.

So we thought it would be there would be some synergy there to to doing it again here on the 50th, almost exactly 50 years to the day that when we first did it.

>> So amazing.

A real full circle moment.

Thanks so much.

We appreciate you all being here.

And again, the Young American Shakespeare Festival continues this weekend.

And of course, that 50th anniversary celebration is coming up on May the 17th.

Back to you.

>> Thank you so much, Kelsey.

You can find ticketing information for both events online at stage 1.org.

It's now been a year since a tornado killed 19 people in Russell, Pulaski and Laurel counties.

We will look back on that deadly event last May and hear from survivors that story and much more tomorrow night on Kentucky edition, which we hope you'll set your timer for.

630 eastern 530 central, where we inform, connect, and inspire.

We hope that you'll subscribe to our Kentucky edition email newsletters, and watch full episodes and clips@ket.org.

You can also find Kentucky edition and a lot of great programing on the PBS video app, on your mobile device and smart TV.

We encourage you to send us a story idea or just a shout out by email at public affairs@ket.org and follow us on the social media channels, Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

We will see you on practice Friday, which is Thursday.

Tomorrow night I'm Renee Shaw.

Have a good one and I'll see you soon.

[MUSIC]