Alvarado’s campaign website drops Trump — five mentions and a photo — as KY-06 polling tightens

🌎 Resumen en español · traducción automática

Ralph Alvarado, candidato republicano para el escaño congressional de Central Kentucky, eliminó todas las referencias a Donald Trump de su sitio web de campaña alrededor del 19 de agosto, incluyendo cinco menciones y una foto del expresidente, después de que una encuesta mostrara la carrera empatada y los demócratas nacionales pusieran a su oponente Zach Dembo en su lista de prioridades. El sitio cambió de enfatizar la agenda "America First" de Trump a presentar a Alvarado como un defensor del "liderazgo independiente" enfocado en soluciones prácticas para familias de Kentucky, como atención médica asequible y reducción de costos.

Traducción y resumen generados por IA a partir del artículo en inglés. Puede contener errores; consulte el texto original.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Ralph Alvarado won the Republican nomination for Central Kentucky’s open congressional seat in May as a self-described “America First Fighter,” with a photo of himself beside a grinning, thumbs-up Donald Trump on his campaign homepage. That page now calls him “Independent Leadership for Kentucky,” and the president’s name and picture are gone.

The rewrite happened on or about Tuesday, Aug. 19, according to file dates on the campaign’s own web server — 13 days after a poll showed the race tied and one day before national Democrats put his opponent, Zach Dembo, on their priority list of seats to flip.

NBC News first reported the changes Tuesday. The Lexington Times independently compared archived copies of alvaradoforcongress.com from before and after the change and confirmed them. NBC reported that Alvarado’s campaign did not return its messages seeking comment. The Lexington Times will update this story with any response from the campaign.

Two screenshots of the top of alvaradoforcongress.com: the June 9, 2026 version headlined — The top of Ralph Alvarado’s campaign homepage on June 9, 2026 (top, via the Internet Archive) and on Aug. 25, 2026 (bottom). *(Screenshots: alvaradoforcongress.com / Internet Archive Wayback Machine)*

What changed

An Internet Archive capture from June 9 — three weeks after the May 19 primary — shows the homepage mentioned Trump five times. The banner read, “President Trump needs more allies in Congress to deliver on his bold vision to Make America Great Again. With your help, I will be that fighter.” The biography called Alvarado “one of President Trump’s earliest supporters” and “a national leader in the America First movement,” and the issues list opened with “Support Trump’s America First Agenda,” followed by “Keep the Border Secured,” “Make America Healthy Again,” “Grow Kentucky Jobs” and “Fight the Woke Agenda.”

The next capture, on Aug. 24, and the live page on Aug. 25 contain no mention of Trump, “America First” or “Make America Great Again.” The banner now quotes Alvarado, a physician: “In Congress, I’ll work with both parties to fight for affordable healthcare, lower costs, and practical solutions that help Kentucky families.” The issues list is retitled “Dr. Ralph’s Plan” and reads “Lower Prices & Inflation,” “Clearer Health Insurance Choices,” “More Affordable Healthcare” and “Grow Kentucky Jobs.” The border and “woke agenda” planks are gone.

The photo of Alvarado with Trump — the image file was named IMG_4375 — was removed and replaced with a portrait of Alvarado alone. The new biography adds a line that was not there in June: that Dembo “is backed by left-wing donors because they know he’ll support higher taxes.”

One trace of the old message survives. The page’s hidden search-engine description — the text Google and social networks display when the site is shared — still reads: “Ralph Alvarado is an America First Fighter for Kentucky’s 6th District. President Trump needs more allies in Congress to deliver on his bold vision to Make America Great Again.”

When it changed

The Internet Archive did not capture the site between June 9 and Aug. 24. But the new portrait and the two new issue icons were uploaded to the campaign’s WordPress server on Aug. 19 between 9:57 a.m. and 10:09 a.m. Eastern time, according to the “last modified” timestamps the server reports for those files. The site’s cached stylesheet carries a build stamp from the same morning, 10:29 a.m. Eastern.

That places the redesign after two events. On Aug. 6, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee poll of 474 likely voters, taken July 29–30, that found Alvarado and Dembo tied at 47 percent each, with Trump’s approval in the district at 37 percent. A June survey had put Alvarado ahead 42–39. Alvarado spokesman Andy Westberry told the newspaper at the time, “We always knew this would be a tough race.” On Aug. 20, the DCCC added Dembo to its “Red to Blue” list and the nonpartisan Inside Elections moved the race from Solid Republican to Likely Republican.

The Trump record

Trump endorsed Alvarado on Truth Social on May 1, calling him an “America First Patriot” and giving him his “Complete and Total Endorsement.” Alvarado replied on X: “Thank you President Trump for your COMPLETE and TOTAL ENDORSEMENT! I will not let you down!” He won the five-way primary on May 19. Trump carried the 6th District by 15 points in 2024, according to NBC News.

Alvarado, of Winchester, spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention in support of Trump, served in the Kentucky Senate from 2015 to 2023 and was Gov. Matt Bevin’s running mate in the 2019 race they lost to Andy Beshear. He later served as Tennessee’s health commissioner. The seat is open because Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican, is running for the U.S. Senate.

The DCCC circulated the NBC story to reporters Tuesday with a statement from spokesman Eli Cousin calling Alvarado “a two-faced, corrupt politician” and saying the website change “is just the latest sign that he is feeling the heat.” Dembo, a former federal prosecutor and Navy JAG officer, is endorsed by Beshear.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Sources

This article was drafted with AI assistance (Claude Fable 5) and reviewed by The Lexington Times. The website changes were verified directly against Internet Archive captures of alvaradoforcongress.com from June 9 and Aug. 24, 2026, the live site on Aug. 25, 2026, and HTTP last-modified headers reported by the campaign’s web server. Polling figures are from the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Aug. 6 report; the endorsement text is from an archived Truth Social post.

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