federal government shutdown takes hold and hits home in Kentucky.

In Kentucky's U.S.

Senate race, some candidates appear together, but try to stand out in the crowded contest.

Governor Beshear makes more media appearances amid speculation he will run for president in 2028.

UK health care gets a huge gift for its children's hospital as it plots the future on this.

Halloween 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 Lucas Aulbach reporter for the Courier-Journal, Austin Horn senior political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

And joining us remotely is Sarah Ladd, health policy reporter for the Kentucky Lantern.

Before we jump into tonight's discussion, Laura Cullen Glasscock asks us to clarify something she said about campaign fundraising on last week's program.

Democratic candidate Cherlynn Stevenson, who is running in the sixth Congressional District, has campaign debt of nearly $30,000 but also reported cash on hand of roughly 154,000.

That was at the end of September.

Alright, on to our program.

The government shutdown in Washington demands our attention here in Kentucky tonight.

Uncertainty is the word as paychecks are being missed and a federal food assistance program is about to run out of money.

Governor Beshear has appealed for a solution.

He joined a lawsuit trying to stop the cuts.

And then just a few hours ago, he signed a statement of emergency.

>> A person starving to me isn't a Democrat or a Republican.

They're a child of God.

So because of that, I am signing a statement of emergency today that will provide up to $5 million to our emergency management.

Emergency management will then work with Feeding Kentucky and our food banks across our Commonwealth to increase the supply of food for those that need it in Kentucky.

We look out for each other.

>> Sarah, this is obviously a story with a lot of moving parts.

As we're on the air here on this Friday night.

The governor made his statement just a few hours after a couple of judges made rulings that appear to mean that Snap benefits can continue.

>> Yes, this is a story with a lot of moving parts, and it feels like there's been a new development every day this week.

But basically, the bottom line where we are right now is the government shutdown continues, right?

USDA said that it would not use contingency funds to continue funding Snap food assistance during the shutdown.

And that means that at the start of the new month, which is November 1st Saturday, a lot of people 563,000, roughly in Kentucky, who have SNAP and use that to buy groceries, were not going to have that benefit.

And so Beshear had said a couple different times this week, he was looking at different options, what the state could do at the state level to sort of maybe mitigate some of that impact.

He had said he did not feel that a special session calling the legislature back into Frankfort was quite what needed to happen.

He he did talk about sort of having this big food drive, you know, in the state over the weekend.

But this is then where this ruling today, a federal judge ruled in a lawsuit that Beshear and about two dozen other Democratic officials from across the country were part of trying to force the Trump administration's hand, saying, you have to use funds to keep SNAP going for people.

Beshear joined that lawsuit the other day.

On Friday afternoon, a federal judge said that withholding the Snap funds was illegal, but she gave the Trump administration until Monday to respond.

So that sort of left a question mark over the weekend.

With Snap benefits running out on Saturday.

The Trump administration has until Monday to respond.

This is where the declaration of emergency comes in, he declared.

Kentucky is in a state of emergency, and that freed up the 5 million from the rainy day fund that he is now kind of funneling into feeding Kentucky, which has seven food banks across Kentucky.

And they can use that money to buy more food over the weekend.

>> All right.

So apparently a band aid, while we await some clarity on what these rulings may or may not produce, Austin Lucas, do you get the sense that a lot of Kentuckians and people across the country don't care about the political issues at play, they just know they're doing without something they were expecting?

>> Yeah.

I mean, I think people in Washington and places like Frankfort like to think a lot about the political implications of everything in the news.

And we do know that there is a political tinge to this issue right now.

I think there's an Ipsos poll the other day.

45% of Americans tend to blame Trump and Republicans a little more than Democrats, and 33% blame Democrats more than Republicans.

That said, I think for most people, this isn't so much a red or blue issue.

It's dollars and cents.

It's a green issue.

It's putting food on the table.

So it's just kind of a different category right now, especially when it's such an immediate concern.

>> Yeah, it's an issue of how do I get my food stamps, which were available, you know, yesterday and are no longer going to be available tomorrow.

And, you know, it's an issue of health care, which, you know, open enrollment is a couple of weeks.

And is my bill going to go up by hundreds of dollars.

So, I mean, I think these are things that aren't necessarily always top of mind until you're going to lose them.

And, you know, I had to get up to speed on a lot of this stuff myself, and they pay me to write about it.

So.

>> Well, right.

We all had to find out the numbers of people involved.

It's close to 600,000 in Kentucky who are receiving Snap benefits.

We now know that number.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has pressed for some kind of compromise that can get the government reopened.

And Democratic Congressman Morgan McGarvey of Louisville is underlining the Democrats reason for keeping this health insurance card in play.

>> There are a lot of people running around these days saying, don't ever compromise.

That's absolutely nuts.

You have to compromise and.

>> People are still going to get sick.

People are still going to have emergencies, people are still going to be going to hospitals and getting care.

Even if they don't have health insurance, they're still going to be going, possibly going to the emergency room, maybe not being able to to pay for that care as they are now.

That's the double whammy of looking at what we're doing right now, by not passing the tax credits in advance of open enrollment.

>> Is this health insurance issue on the radar?

So clearly for Kentuckians Austin, as it is, particularly for Democrats, which again, is the is the card they're holding right now?

>> Yeah.

I mean, I think one thing to keep in mind, it's a significant but limited population with the ACA subsidies.

Obviously this is a big deal for the population involved, and it will change premiums for a broad range of people.

But this is something that feels maybe more immediate and more again, kind of dollars and cents and apolitical to most people.

That said, we do know that if you poll the American people, the number one thing they say is the main issue they care about is affordability is dollars and cents.

You hear people talk about it over and over again when they're wringing their hands over who will be the next Democratic presidential nominee.

So I think people will eventually care about a change like this, should it be sustained.

But right now, this is just more immediate for the population affected.

>> Lucas, we heard from Senator McConnell calling for compromise, and you reported Kentucky GOP Senator Rand Paul also proposed a way out of the stalemate, suggesting the government could be reopened in the short term.

And the President Trump could appoint a bipartisan committee to hash out these health care subsidies.

Is the deal breaker for Democrats?

>> Yeah, he was in Louisville on Monday and talked to a few reporters on his way out of town.

And, you know, on his way out of town, he's got to take a flight.

He says, I want to end this thing as much as anybody.

I want to make sure the guy in the, you know, air control tower is getting paid.

So his idea is come together, reopen the government for a month, get everybody who's missing a paycheck paid, and then get three Republican senators, three Democrat senators, get them together and say, hey, we got to figure out these ACA subsidies.

Let's come to a deal.

The problem is that requires bipartisanship, which isn't always easy to come by these days.

So we'll see what happens.

But either way, Senator Paul expressed some optimism that they're getting a little closer to a deal.

Hopefully within the next week or two is the time frame he put on it.

>> Sir, you've also reported on cuts for assistance to kinship care families, where in many cases, grandparents in our Commonwealth are caring for children who might otherwise be in foster care.

In fact, this involves about 15,000 extremely low income families.

And you say this is sort of connected to the whole SNAP issue as well.

>> Yeah, it's all connected.

The Beshear administration did announce recently that families in Kentucky who get Ctap benefits, and that is a cash benefit if you're extremely low income.

So if you're a family of seven, you're making $1,700 a month.

If you're a family of one, you're making 890.

So low income families can get small cash payments.

That benefit is getting cut by 35% starting November 1st.

And the reasoning for that, the administration said, was because they just had too many people, you know, the number of people who needed that help drastically increased in the last few years.

But, you know, this is this is related to SNAP because I published a story this week about families who are kinship caregivers and, you know, a large amount of kinship caregivers get this KET benefit.

And these kinship caregivers are looking at their ctap benefit being cut.

They also have Snap benefits, and they need Snap benefits to buy food.

They need these sorts of cash payments to, you know, buy diapers and formula and all the things you need when you're raising young children.

And they when I was talking to them, we had long conversations about what they need and how they pay their bills and how they buy groceries.

And it kind of goes back to a question bill about where people's priorities are when it comes to the politics of it.

In all those conversations, you know, those people I talked to didn't say, you know, one party or the other party needs to do this or that.

They just said, I want to feed my grandkids.

I want to be able to afford groceries and all the things I need to do to help them succeed.

So that's what I hear.

>> Yeah, well, a lot to watch.

Is this government shutdown continues and the story develops day by day.

Let's turn to Kentucky's U.S.

Senate race, which is one to watch this week.

Three Republicans, Daniel Cameron, Andy Barr and Nate Morris appeared at an event in Lexington.

Also, there was one of the Democratic contenders, Amy McGrath.

The subject of the day was future jobs, but they also got into the shutdown and tariffs.

The news of the day Austin.

The one clear takeaway the Republicans defend President Trump while McGrath attacked his policies and leadership.

>> Yeah, I think McGrath kind of played the sort of straight talk angle she called the tariff policies stupid, which I think probably plays somewhat well to an audience of manufacturers right now.

The tariffs were supposed to be this kind of protectionist policy, and they could end up working in that way long term.

But right now the data shows that they're not necessarily working in a protectionist way.

On the Republican side, you saw what we've been seeing most of the whole campaign, which is unanimity with President Trump.

They are not breaking in basically any way with the president's policies.

So it'll be interesting if and when that ever happens.

And they try to differentiate themselves on a policy standpoint.

But for now, it's just little issues here and there.

And they're all singing from the same hymnal of Trump right now.

>> Each hoping for his endorsement.

Still.

Right.

>> Oh, absolutely.

It's seen as the golden ticket by a lot of people.

And, you know, I think given Trump's standing in the party right now, it's hard to see it any other way if he gives one.

>> Lucas McGrath is probably the best known of the Democrats in the race right now.

Are you hearing any more about the possibility that Charles Booker gets in that race, which is already crowded?

>> Right, right.

And he's not talking about it publicly, but he's talking about a lot of other things publicly.

You know, you go to his Facebook page, you can see him talking about Ice raids on Halloween.

You can see him talking about financial aid going to Argentina.

You know, things like Trump suggesting we test nukes for the first time in so many years.

You know, these are these are federal issues.

You know, this is a guy talking like he's keeping an eye on federal issues and might be interested in a federal race.

>> Austin, we're watching the congressional races, including the open seat in the sixth, and that is where Andy Barr is running for the Senate seat.

So Democrat Cherlynn Stevenson held a roundtable this week on health care.

Do candidates just sort of have to create opportunities like that?

>> Yeah, I think Cherlynn Stevenson holding that event is kind of a good example and a reminder that, you know, people who follow Frankfort closely definitely see Cherlynn Stevenson as the favorite at this point, and they know her well.

But a state representative, for the most part, is still just a state representative in terms of name I.D.

in a congressional district.

It's just hard to translate that into a much broader voting population.

So you see, with her hosting that roundtable, she's got to look for opportunities any way she can to get that TV hit, to continue to get her name ID out there.

Because, you know, most of these candidates are starting much closer to zero than they are to a really significant high name ID number.

>> What are you seeing on the Republican side of that sixth district race?

>> It's it's kind of a mirror image with Alvarado playing the the favorite among the insider class is, is a little better known throughout the district than maybe the other two are right now, but the other two have put a good amount of money into this race.

They've signaled a willingness to advertise, a willingness to really beat the bushes when it comes to going to events.

And those other two are representatives Deanna Gordon and Ryan Dotson of Richmond and Winchester.

>> Several of the candidates on both sides have some indication they can open their own personal finances to to assist in their campaigns.

Right?

>> Yeah, Gordon and Dotson have both put in quite a bit.

You've got David Kloiber on the Democratic side.

So I mean this could be a very expensive race, could be very lucrative for television stations like KET.

Right.

>> And others.

Right.

Lucas.

In the fourth district, there's this newly minted race between Congressman Thomas Massie and the president Trump's chosen challenger, Ed Gallrein.

Any indication you had on how that is playing out?

>> I have indications that a lot of money has been spent and a lot of money will be spent.

You know, there's a pro-Trump PAC that's already pushed seven digits into ads attacking Massie and Massie, turning around and saying, hey, I raised close to $800,000 in the third quarter alone, which would be a new record for him.

So, yeah, I mean, it's going to be an expensive race, just like we were just talking about.

Now, Gordon, he's got to introduce himself to the district outside of just the state Senate district.

He ran for unsuccessfully a year ago when he lost narrowly to Aaron Reid and a three candidate race.

And you know, Massie, he's shown no hesitation going after Gallrein already.

And he's got Senator Paul in his corner on the campaign trail with him.

And I'm interested to see that one, too, and just see how Senator Paul's I wouldn't call it a rift, maybe a rift at this point with President Trump.

How him supporting Massie continues if it continues to affect that relationship.

>> Well, Kentucky is filing window will open this coming Wednesday.

It runs through January 9th.

There will be contests up and down the ballot, and that includes the congressional races, legislative races, local contests.

Voters decide who will control the courthouses and the city halls across the state.

In Louisville, incumbent Mayor Craig Greenberg announced this week he will run for reelection.

>> I'm asking you to stand with me one more time.

We need your time, your talents and your energy for our campaign.

We need all of you spreading the word to your family, to your friends, to your coworkers in real life and online.

This is our campaign.

This is our cause.

This is our city.

>> Greensburg says one more time.

He got term limited after he went into office by the legislature.

Right.

Which also made the change that there would be the nonpartisan race in Louisville, when other cities can make their own decisions about that.

What case does Greensburg make for a second term?

>> Money.

The money he's bringing into Louisville.

You know, he's close with a lot of legislators out in the state Capitol who set the state budget.

They're setting a state budget again in a couple of months, coming up on election season.

So I'll be really interested to see how much time Mayor Greenberg spends out there and just how how involved he is again.

And if he comes back with big $100 million check for downtown like he did two years ago.

So I think he would also point to improving violent crime rates touted by LMPD as a reason he should be brought back into office, which LMPD also, they just brought in one of their biggest recruiting classes in years.

>> You hear no names, but you hear there's likely to be a challenger or two.

>> I would expect some people to jump in the race.

I'm just curious if they'll be on the Republican side, because Republicans I've talked to have said they might spend more time in 2026 focusing on Metro Council races, races they've had a lot more success in in recent years.

They've almost flipped to 5050 at this point, which is unheard of in Louisville.

So, you know, like you said, it's a nonpartisan race.

Now.

You could see a challenger to Greenberg's left come in.

And then in that case, you know, if those are the two candidates on the ballot, who were the Republicans in Louisville going to support, probably Mayor Greenberg.

So a lot, a lot to watch.

>> Special Senate race to watch that will be in December in Louisville.

That's where the incumbent or the senator, David Yates, who was the senator there, has resigned to become the interim county clerk in Jefferson County, a job which he is going to seek for the long haul.

What are you seeing in that district that leans Democratic?

>> Yeah, it I mean, it does not look competitive.

If you just look at voter registration.

Democrats have a very, very solid lead in that regard.

But Republicans would tell you, look at the success we've had in these Metro Council races in the South End and on the outskirts of Louisville.

So we have three candidates in it right now trying to replace David Yates, who is very popular.

You have Calvin Leech, the Republican who lost to him in the election a year ago.

Who's hoping?

Hey, now, I'm not running against a popular incumbent.

Now I'm running against Democrat Gary Clemons, who is the Democrats nominee.

He's a union leader, which you would think would help in a district like the South End.

And we'll see.

And then former Louisville Tea Party, I think President Wendy Higdon is also in the race as a libertarian.

And she said she wants to focus on reining in government spending.

So, you know, it will be a sprint.

The race is December 16th.

>> Governor Beshear continues to make some high profile appearances around the country, often in left leaning spaces, as he is looking at the 2020 presidential race.

But a moderate leaning group has given him some encouragement in a survey.

Austin.

>> Yeah, it was done by Welcome Pack, which is kind of this centrist Democrat group.

They they ranked all the prospective 2028 candidates on a scale of how they overperformed or underperformed on their last election.

And Beshear was the highest.

I think he was somewhere around 23% Overperformance notably, they did not take into account having a family name in politics.

You know, that's something that I think everybody acknowledges.

Beshear benefits from at least a little bit.

Also notable is last on the list was Gavin Newsom, who governor of California, who's often the first person that people talk about when it comes to the 2020 Democratic nomination.

>> Well, Senator Rand Paul keeps a mentioning that he is not ruling out the possibility that he may run as well.

Could we have two presidential contenders from Kentucky in 28?

>> It's possible he's not ruling it out.

He's not ruling it in, but he's not ruling it out.

And, you know, he's not a never Trump type of guy.

He's a guy who supported President Trump for most of his career.

But but yeah, no he's not shut the door on running.

And he's been open about his differences with the president.

You know, bombing boats off Venezuela, the tariffs.

So that could give him a lane against whoever kind of inherits the MAGA throne, be it JD Vance, be it anybody else.

So he's not ruling it out.

>> All right.

Some other news, Sarah, a committee the governor appointed to study universal pre-K has essentially said it should happen.

>> Yeah.

This was a Beshear appointed committee.

They've spent the last four months going across Kentucky and having, I believe it was 54 different sort of meetings.

And I know they've had town halls in different cities, basically researching the benefits of universal preschool in Kentucky.

Unsurprisingly, the recommendation that came out this week was that Kentucky should expand access to preschool, which right now about 27% of children have access to was their finding.

They recommended that happen slowly over the next few years.

And, you know, this is something Beshear has pushed for for a while.

I think it's worth noting that members of the committee were both Democrat and Republican, and they did hear from Republicans.

So it was bipartisan in some ways.

The next step, you know, is to convince enough Republicans in the legislature that this is worth a big investment.

What that dollar amount is, I don't know, but you'd have to convince enough Republicans that this is something they really need to do.

And up until this point, that's not that's not happened.

>> Sir, you also did a story recently that shed some light on why Kentucky is seeing more C-section births.

>> We know Kentucky has had high rates of cesarean section deliveries higher than the national average, and that has concerned a lot of health advocates and birth workers.

And they've been sort of looking at ways to decrease that.

And part of the one of the factors driving our higher number is that a lot of people, once they have a C-section, they always have a C-section.

And so the push lately has been to have more vaginal births after cesarean.

So be back is what they're called.

And so the study came out this this week from U of L and a couple of other institutions that found that a lot of providers in Kentucky actually want to provide more vbacs, and a lot of women want them.

But the barrier that a lot of providers expressed was insurance.

Their liability insurance would go up if they offered that.

And then there's also the concern that if you're going to offer a VBAC, you need to have the tools to intervene if an emergency C-section is necessary.

And a lot of hospitals maybe don't have 24 over seven or or anesthesia.

So there are some barriers there.

But the willingness is also there.

>> Yeah, a huge gift for UK Children's Hospital $50 million from New York philanthropist Tom Golisano.

>> Mr.

Golisano just doesn't hand money out.

He looks carefully at the recipients and I think he has trust in us.

He has confidence in us that we're going to do what he's done in life.

And that is if you find something, a challenge you need to meet, that challenge.

You need to make things better for the community.

>> Sarah.

The Children's Hospital will now add Golisano's name, and the gift of that magnitude will certainly be a big boost.

>> Yeah, I believe it's the largest ever in UK Healthcare's history and the second largest in UC's history.

They are renaming the hospital, and they said they're going to use the money to sort of improve the hospital's work itself, and also maybe strengthen and expand other programs throughout the state.

>> Also, many in the judicial community and beyond are remembering Judge Lewis Paisley.

He was a district judge, then a circuit judge, then on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, remembered for some landmark rulings, including striking down Kentucky's law in 1986.

>> Yeah, I mean, he's kind of a Lexington legend.

And that ruling was sort of the main exemplar, but included in his obit in the first sentence, I think, in the Herald-Leader was he was a lover of the Rolling Stones and horse racing.

So may we all be so dedicated to our loves, to have our to have them be included in the first line of our.

>> There you go.

And the Kentucky Book Festival is underway and continues this weekend.

It brings authors and their fans together.

Founded by journalist Carl West, it was held in Frankfort for 30 years.

Now it's shifted to Lexington.

The main events are Saturday at Joseph Beth Booksellers.

That's comment on Kentucky.

We thank you for joining us.

Have a good week ahead.

Okay Sarah, thank you so much.

Awesome I think we.

Good show.

We covered a lot of ground didn't we.

>> Yes, we certainly did.

>> Yeah.

>> Fun time.

>> A little more hectic this time.

Getting it together