Kentucky will be sending the exact same Congressional delegation back to Washington D.C. for another two years. Four of Kentucky’s six U.S. congressmen faced challenges Tuesday, and all of them won their contest with significant margins.
Freshman Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Louisville easily won his race against Republican Mike Craven in the heavily Democratic district. Craven, who has run for the seat for three election cycles, has campaigned little this year. He didn’t file any reports with the Federal Election Commission, compared to McGarvey’s $2 million war chest.
As the sole Democrat in Kentucky’s Congressional delegation, McGarvey says he will fight for “progressive values.”
Republican Reps. Thomas Massie and Hal Rogers were assured of their reelection. They won their seats with no Democratic challenger on the ballot.
Rep. James Comer faced off against Democrat Erin Marshall of Frankfort, perhaps the most competitive challenge to a sitting Kentucky congressman this year. Even so, Comer won reelection by a 43.6-point margin with a projected 41% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press.
Marshall, a first-time candidate and single mom, aggressively campaigned against Comer for his opposition to abortion rights and past allegations of abuse that he has denied. But her fundraising lagged far behind the longtime representative’s, with her roughly $235,000 up against Comer’s $7.3 million, as of an October 16 deadline.
Comer has gained national attention as the chair of the House Oversight Committee since 2023, where he led an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden over alleged influence peddling and his family’s foreign business partners. The inquiry has essentially hit a dead end, per Politico.
Comer has cited southern border security and inflation as top concerns for his constituents.
The other two GOP congressmen who faced challengers this election cycle faced poorly financed Democratic candidates (compared to the longtime incumbents they faced). Rep. Brett Guthrie trounced Democrat Hank Linderman and Rep. Andy Barr won against Democrat Randy Cravens.
In eastern Kentucky’s District 5, Rogers easily won with no competition. Rogers is the dean of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving with the longest continuous term since 1981. Rogers is credited with directing large amounts of federal appropriations for his eastern Kentucky district — as well making it a hub for incarceration, with 16 state and federal prisons — by leveraging his past leadership positions in the House budget committees.
Massie won his seat once more with no one else on the ballot. He is a member of the House Liberty Caucus, a libertarian-leaning faction of the GOP that often challenges the leadership of the party by taking a hard line against federal spending and intervention.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
