We continue our Meet the Candidates series with a former state senator who made history as Kentucky's first Hispanic lawmaker.

In 2019, the Clark County Republican ran as lieutenant governor on the ticket with then Governor Matt Bevin.

Ralph Alvarado most recently served as Tennessee health commissioner.

He's now running for this nomination in the sixth Congressional District.

He stopped by our studios earlier today to talk with Rene Shaw about why he's running in this race.

Mr.

Alvarado, which sounds odd for me to say since I've called you commissioner and senator before.

It's good to see you.

Likewise.

It's great to be with you here.

I'm appreciate you taking the time to interview me.

Absolutely.

So you just can't stay away from Kentucky politics, Well, yeah.

I mean, I've back in the political saddle, but it's, You know, Kentucky's home.

So we've been, you know, we've been, in Kentucky the whole time.

So for us, it's it's just fun.

And it's, Yeah, a lot of made a lot of friends over the years.

I enjoy public service.

I enjoy helping people out, solving problems.

What opportunity you see with the sixth Congressional District and what really prompted or motivated you to want to get in at this level of politics?

Back in March, I got a lot of phone calls from people nationally saying, listen, Andy Barr's running for Senate.

You're the natural person to fill this role.

We think he should run for it.

The next day, I got calls from doctors and people in the district, saying, please come back, do this.

We want you to do this role, get back into the political cycle.

My wife and I prayed about it, which is something we've always done, is relied on prayer to guide us on things.

And it's an opportunity, I think, in a moment of transition in our country where the expertise that I have is going to be able to be applied well.

Had you wanted to work in the Trump administration and the Department of Health and Human Services with RFK.

Jr, I had a chance to interact a lot with Secretary Kennedy in that role.

And I was interviewed, really for senior positions in HHS.

I got a chance to meet Doctor Oz and, Secretary Kennedy, and we talked for about an hour.

A lot of discussions.

I gave my opinions on a lot of things and how things could be done.

You know, and I think, again, a lot of the Make America Healthy again, movement is something that's crucial for our country, that I think if we can focus on better foods, young moms feeding their children, if those comfort foods become fruits and vegetables and preparing natural foods for them when they get older, the health of this country is going to improve drastically in the next 30 years.

So a lot of the discussions they did interview me for some senior positions, they didn't select me, which is okay.

I know they interviewed a lot of folks, but I got a chance to meet Doctor Bhattacharya, who's head of NIH.

Akari also, and the deputy secretary as well.

O'Neill.

So they were there that same day interviewing.

And I've had dinner with those guys and talked about a lot of health care policies and ideas.

And again, hoping to to use those relationships to advance a lot of, good concepts on fixing health care.

And since you already have an end with the administration, are you already courting the endorsement of President Trump, or have you heard from the president or folks in his team that says they are willing to back you?

Yeah, we've we've had discussions.

Obviously, we've had a chance to meet with folks inside the white House.

And we've had, I've gotten a lot of people that are close to the president.

We've had chances to interact with them.

You know, really, I think the president typically when he endorses anybody, it's typically done get to earn that role.

So it's not one of those things where it's just an automatic, I think, they're very they want to have people that are going to be working hard.

They want to see people that are raising money, people that are, working in the community.

They want to see all that kind of effort.

I think we're the best positioned person in right now in the race, to earn that endorsement.

We know that there is a current state representative, Ryan Dotson, who I interviewed just a couple of weeks before.

And when he was asked to describe who was main rival, was in this primary, he said it was you.

And he said that, he classified himself as the grass roots guy.

And you, perhaps more currying favor with the elite.

Yeah.

And there have been called elite.

You know, I've, you know, for me, I've taken care of a lot of patients over the years.

I've gotten to meet a lot of people.

So I consider, you know, politics is typically, you know, we can we can think about all the the fancy stuff we see on TV and all the debates and all that.

It's ultimately about public service, about serving other people.

And it's about helping people navigate a very complicated, federal system in government and in the state.

It's the same thing, very complicated state government system.

How do you get people connected to the resources that they need as a doctor?

I've done that for my entire career.

I continue to do that.

I've done it.

I've never stopped.

I've done it for 30 years.

Health care can be a very complicated system, and people are sometimes at their most vulnerable moments, at their worst moments, seeking the advice of that individual.

So I think really a lot of this is not about it's not about grass roots, it's about trust and about proven results.

I'm an individual, that when I was in serving in the, in the state Senate, even when a divided government of Democrats controlling the House, Republicans controlling the Senate, I got a lot of bills through in that kind of a divided environment.

And when it was unified, I'm the only person who has that experience and has those proven results for things.

So I don't think I peel, I think I peel to a lot of grassroots folks.

You know, for me, this is not a social division.

It's, you know, the person.

I think I've been a Republican my entire life, my entire voting life.

I'm an individual, who understands.

I think the party understands a lot of the values that we have here.

And I understand Kentucky and the values that we have in our state.

So I don't I don't view it as that kind of a division.

And I've got a pretty good grassroots, campaign ready to go to.

So I feel confident in what we can do.

So let's talk a little bit about, the Trump administration, particularly as it comes to, the immigration enforcement surge that we've seen in American cities and particularly the lives that were claimed of two American citizens by you, the Border Patrol or Ice federal agents.

Do you favor the approach that the Trump administration has taken up to this point?

Do you have any qualms with what you've seen in terms of messaging or actions or both?

Do you agree with what they're doing now?

So you have to remember that they're doing these actions all over the country, and we're only seeing a lot of these problems in one city in particular, in one state.

I know for a fact that Memphis, the mayor there is a Democrat.

I've met him, interacted with them before.

A lot of these same interactions are occurring there, and they're occurring in a much different fashion because there's cooperation between law enforcement, between local officials and federal enforcement.

And some presidents have deported many more people than the Trump administration has.

I know there's some people who just despise the president.

And so we'll look at any action that he has in question.

And with that, I and say this is being done and they're hoping to catch a moment.

That doesn't look good.

Obviously, on camera now, two people have lost their lives.

It's a tragedy, of course.

And it's one of those things that I have a son and I have a daughter.

And if they're upset about something, there's a way that you protest things and you voice your opinion.

It wouldn't be to take loaded weapons and to go into environments where the police are trying to do their work and hope that we have a good outcome from that.

You know, if local law enforcement was involved, I would argue probably would not have had the same.

It would have been a separation.

You can protest actions that are there.

Now.

Some of the things we've seen, there's things we can learn from obviously if, you know, some of the actions and how they're being done in the aggressive fashion, they're being done, I don't think it's a good optics.

I don't think it treats people with some dignity.

So there's some things that could be probably learned from and improve there.

And I think those things are being reviewed by the Trump administration now, to say, hey, how do we need to approach this in a different angle?

But we are a country of law and order, and I think a lot of immigrants who've come to this country come because we have law and order and we have we follow our laws.

Renee, we'll have more with Ralph Alvarado on tomorrow's edition of Kentucky Edition.