In House District 95, Democrats still heavily outweigh Republicans in registrations — but that’s not uncommon in eastern Kentucky. In a few surrounding districts, more than half of registered voters identify as Democrats, yet they are all represented by Republicans in the state House of Representatives (see Districts 92, 94 and 84).
In fact, Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty is the last House Democrat standing in eastern Kentucky. Despite the trends in her part of the state, Tackett Laferty has held onto her seat for three terms, winning by significant margins each time. This year will be a rematch between Tackett Laferty and GOP challenger Brandon Spencer, a former Democrat who served in the seat for just one year nearly two decades ago. Spencer ran against Tackett Lafferty in 2022 as well, but lost by a nearly 20 percentage point margin.
Spencer is counting on excitement around the presidential election to sway the district, which voted by a large margin for former President Donald Trump in 2020. However the district also voted to reelect Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear last year by about 1,200 votes.
Here’s what you need to know about the two candidates.
Brandon Spencer
Spencer sought and won office in Floyd County in 2006, but that time, he ran as a Democrat — a Southern, conservative one. Now he’s running as a proud “Trump Republican.” In an interview with Kentucky Public Radio, Spencer said he was only in office for half of his two-year term because his daughter was born that year, and he chose to stay home with her instead.
Spencer said he’s long felt more like a Republican than a Democrat, and he even registered as a Republican right out of high school. But Republicans didn’t make it very far in eastern Kentucky at the time.
“If you're going to be in office in eastern Kentucky and Floyd County in particular, the Democratic Party is what you had to navigate,” Spencer said. “I kind of feel that I missed my calling by not taking up that mantle and trying to grow the party from that period of time. But I really wanted to be a part of the process, and to do so, I felt that I had to be a part of the Democratic Party.”
Spencer said he hopes to harness the excitement around the presidential election to beat “the last Democrat in the state House east of 1-75.”
Spencer said he believes the 95th House District is left out of funding discussions because it's not represented by a member of the Republican supermajority.
“I don't think it's the intent on the part of the current representative. I just think it's just the fact that she is on the wrong side of the supermajority, and they get what they want first, and we're left with the scraps,” Spencer said.
He said he would hope for more road funding and believes more needs to be invested in Jenny Wiley State Resort Park to encourage tourism.
“Being that our coal industry is decimated, we're basically left with no industry here. I feel that our way forward in the future is probably going to be tourism,” Spencer said. “I'd like to have plenty of funding and navigability to accomplish those goals and increase tourism.”
Spencer also said that, if elected, he would file a bill to put dealers in possession of a single lethal dose of fentanyl, which is as little as 2 milligrams, in jail for life, “even if it's a first-time offense.” He dubbed it a “one strike and out” law.
“I do think that it's a very, very serious issue, and it's ravaged our communities, and we have to take action,” Spencer said.
Spencer said he also wants to lower or eliminate vehicle and property taxes for disabled veterans and seniors.
Ashley Tackett Laferty (incumbent)
Rep. Tackett Laferty did not respond to numerous interview requests for this profile nor does she appear to have a current website associated with her campaign. Like all sitting lawmakers, however, Tackett Laferty has a significant voting record, and the eastern Kentucky lawmaker frequently does not vote along party lines.
On some of the most controversial bills of the session, Tackett Laferty joined Republicans. For example, she voted in favor of House Bill 5, whose sponsors dubbed it the Safer Kentucky Act, which increases penalties on a number of crimes and makes “street camping” illegal. She also voted in favor of Senate Bill 6, which would limit or ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at state colleges.
However, Tackett Laferty also has fiercely opposed some GOP-backed policies, like the bill that put Amendment 2 on the ballot this year — it's a state constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature to divert state dollars to education outside of public schools.
“When it comes to constitutional amendments, I typically vote to let our commonwealth decide, but today, I voted no for eastern Kentucky,” said Tackett Laferty as she cast her vote. “I voted no because so many people across this commonwealth have never even visited eastern Kentucky … the place where public education is our largest employer, not Toyota, the place where public schools are practically the sole source of educators for our children.”
She has also opposed a couple of unsuccessful bills this year that would have rolled back worker protections to federal minimums and another that would have rolled back some SNAP benefits.
In an interview earlier this year, Tackett Laferty told Kentucky Public Radio that the reason she ran for office in 2018 was because of her frustration over the so-called “sewer bill,” a Republican attempt to overhaul the retirement system in the guise of a wastewater services bill, and legislation that limited who was able to diagnose black lung claims for workers’ compensation.
“I am a state representative for eastern Kentucky. Black lung is a major issue in my neck of the woods,” Tackett Laferty said. “[These bills] basically compelled me to want to come to Frankfort to try to help my friends.”
It appears Tackett Laferty has significantly outraised and outspent her opponent, although Spencer has yet to submit his most recent fundraising numbers with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. She has nearly $50,000 in her general election war chest and has spent almost half of it on campaign ads, signage and the like.
Much of her funds come from political action committees and the Kentucky House Democratic Caucus Campaign Committee. Some of the PACs are union groups, like Iron Workers Local 70 and Better Schools Kentucky, the Jefferson County Teachers Association’s PAC, which is spending heavily to defeat Amendment 2.
She’s also received donations from the United Mine Workers PAC as well as Speak Up for Rural Electrification, the political arm of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
