🌎 Resumen en español · traducción automática
Los demócratas de Kentucky ven en Zach Dembo, un exfiscal federal, la oportunidad de conquistar el distrito congresional 6 del estado, históricamente republicano, en la carrera para suceder al representante Andy Barr quien busca un escaño en el Senado. Dembo enfrenta al republicano Ralph Alvarado, exsenador estatal, y cuenta con el respaldo del gobernador Andy Beshear y otros líderes demócratas tras ganar casi todos los condados en las primarias. Aunque Barr ganó con el 63% de los votos en 2024, los demócratas esperan que Dembo pueda conectar con votantes en áreas rurales del distrito que históricamente ha sido territorio republicano sólido.
Traducción y resumen generados por IA a partir del artículo en inglés. Puede contener errores; consulte el texto original.
LEXINGTON — Zach Dembo is the guy to flip Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, the state’s top Democrats say. However, Republicans believe Central Kentucky is solid red territory.
Dembo, an ex-federal prosecutor, is facing Republican Ralph Alvarado, a former state senator who was Gov. Matt Bevin’s 2019 running mate. The candidates are hoping to succeed U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate who has been in Congress since 2013.
Dozens of supporters turned out for a Tuesday rally for Dembo at The Burl in Lexington — despite a downpour of rain. Speakers included Gov. Andy Beshear, former Gov. Steve Beshear, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, Beshear adviser Rocky Adkins, former Lexington Mayor Jim Gray and former 6th District U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler.
The current governor announced his endorsement of Dembo on stage, saying that Dembo’s record of service has prepared him for Congress. Dembo is a former Beshear staffer who left his job with the U.S. Department of Justice last year amid President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“While so many people in Congress are refusing to follow that oath of office, refusing to do their job, refusing to be a separate branch of government and a check on an out-of-control president, Zach Dembo believes in that oath,” Beshear said to the crowd.
State Democrats are putting on a unified front after the past two elections in which Barr easily defeated two lackluster candidates — perennial candidate Geoff Young in 2022 who was repudiated by Beshear. In 2024, Barr won 63% of the vote over Democrat Randy Cravens.
In the primary election held last month, Dembo won nearly every county within the 6th Congressional District except Scott County, where he still got 35% of the vote. Democrats had several candidates on the ballot. Meanwhile, Alvarado won all counties in the district, and most of them — 14 counties — by with at least 50% of the vote.
Two Scott County voters, Vickie and Rich Aurelius, said they had backed Dembo in the primary. He “seemed to have the most momentum,” Rich said. The Aureliuses also believe he can reach “little blue specks” in rural areas of the district.
“We’re just so excited that there’s a chance, and we just need new direction in so many ways,” Vickie said.
A national mirage
Tres Watson, a former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, told the Lantern ahead of the rally that the 6th Congressional District is “a mirage for national Democrats.”
“If you’re sitting in Washington, D.C. and you don’t know the demographics and the geography of Kentucky, it looks like the sort of district that the Democrats have been flipping in other parts of the country, a district anchored by a liberal college town,” Watson said. “However, the actual way the district is laid out — I think there’s more rural and more kind of conservative votes in it than it appears.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has previously deemed the district in play for this year’s midterm elections. Nationally, Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress for the remainder of Trump’s second term.
The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, organizations who track elections across the nation, still predict the 6th District to stay in Republican hands.
Watson said that a Democrat winning the 6th District in the fall looks like a possibility “on paper from afar” but is much more of a challenge on the ground.
“If a Democrat’s going to win it, they have to run a perfect campaign, because if you go too far to the right or too far to the center, you lose the money and kind of the volunteer base and the activity you need in Lexington. If you go too far to the left, you lose votes in the rural areas, and you have to run a perfect campaign,” Watson said. “You’re going to have to have your Republican opponent make a few mistakes, and you’re going to have to have some luck.”
Alvarado, a doctor, has held elected office in the Eastern part of the congressional district. More recently, he served as the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health.
Alvarado’s campaign agreed that Republicans have better stakes in the 6th Congressional District. His campaign manager said in a statement to the Lantern that “Central Kentucky voters have rejected the radical agenda of Washington Democrats” over and over again. Barr has had seven terms in the U.S. House.
“Yet once again, some of the most extreme leftist donors in America are pouring money into the KY-06 race for one simple reason: they know Zach Dembo shares their values and would serve as a rubber-stamp vote for their far-left agenda in Congress,” Westberry said.
However, Dembo vowed to not be a “rubber-stamp” on Tuesday. In a gaggle with reporters and Beshear, Dembo said that when it comes to deciding to support policies: “It doesn’t matter what party the idea is. If it helps Central Kentucky, I’ll be for it. If it hurts Central Kentucky, I’ll be against it.”
Dembo also doesn’t plan on changing his messaging from what he has said in the primary for the upcoming general election. He referred to some advice a Democratic judge-executive gave him on the campaign trail.
“He said, ‘Never seen a red or blue pothole.’ I’ve never seen a red or blue pothole. So I’m not going to be changing my messaging at all. I’m going to be looking for common sense solutions,” Dembo said.
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