🌎 Resumen en español · traducción automática
La campaña de Raquel Carter divulgó una encuesta interna el 31 de agosto que afirma mostrar una contienda cerrada en la carrera por la alcaldía de Lexington contra la alcaldesa Linda Gorton, quien respondió que la encuesta es "el acto de una campaña desesperada", según reportó el Lexington Herald-Leader. En los comentarios de Facebook de la campaña, Carter declaró su apoyo a prohibir los grandes centros de datos en Lexington, posicionándose firmemente cinco semanas antes de que el Consejo del Condado Urbano considere una ordenanza de zonificación para centros de datos el 6 de octubre, cuando vence la moratoria actual el 31 de octubre.
Traducción y resumen generados por IA a partir del artículo en inglés. Puede contener errores; consulte el texto original.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Raquel Carter’s campaign released an internal poll Monday, Aug. 31, that it says shows the Lexington mayor’s race in a statistical tie — and Mayor Linda Gorton’s campaign answered that the survey is “the act of a desperate campaign grasping at straws,” the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
The release came with a second, quieter piece of news. In the comments under the campaign’s Facebook post announcing the poll, a voter asked Carter whether she opposes building data centers in Lexington. The campaign’s reply went further than opposition: “Lexington residents have made their position clear: large data centers do not belong in our community, and I support banning large-scale data centers in Lexington.”
That puts a firm stake in the ground five weeks before the Urban County Council takes up its data-center zoning ordinance at a special committee of the whole on Tuesday, Oct. 6 — a meeting where the rules have been suspended to allow public comment — and about eight weeks before the city’s data-center moratorium runs out on Oct. 31.
What the poll says
The survey was conducted for the Carter campaign by Lake Research Partners, a national Democratic polling firm led by Celinda Lake. Pollsters surveyed 400 likely general-election voters in Lexington between Aug. 13 and 18, by live phone interview and text-to-online methods, with a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points, according to the campaign.
On the first ballot test, respondents chose Gorton over Carter 39% to 34%, with 20% undecided and 6% picking someone else — inside the margin of error, which is the basis for the campaign’s “statistical tie” framing. After respondents heard more about both candidates, the campaign says, Carter led 41% to 31%.
The campaign’s graphics also highlight Gorton’s ratings in the survey: 59% of respondents rated her job performance as fair or poor against 32% excellent or good, and 44% viewed her unfavorably against 42% favorably. “Linda Gorton is in a vulnerable position as voters consider what they want in their next mayor,” Lake said in the campaign’s release. “As soon as Lexington voters hear the alternative they have in Raquel Carter, they move to Carter in droves — not only coming out of the undecided column, but also out of Gorton’s existing support.”
Gorton, seeking her third and final term, told the Herald-Leader the poll is factually wrong and insulting to voters’ intelligence.
What to make of an internal poll
Campaigns release internal polls when — and only when — the numbers help them, and “informed ballot” results follow scripted messaging rather than a neutral read of the race. The Herald-Leader, which reviewed the poll’s questions and confirmed them with the Carter campaign, reported that respondents were read a series of negative statements about Gorton — on the new city hall project, the downtown sculpture, winter storm response, the city’s Flock license-plate cameras and housing costs — while only one negative statement about Carter was tested, alongside several positive ones about her plans.
The paper also fact-checked one of the tested attacks: the “sculpture of balls” line refers to A Common Thread, which sits on the state-owned Robert Stephens Courthouse plaza, not at the city’s government center, though Lexington bonded $900,000 for the project. The council did vote narrowly in December 2025 to approve a multimillion-dollar contract to renovate a Vine Street building as a future city hall; officials have pegged deferred maintenance at the current government center at an estimated $55 million.
“I support banning large-scale data centers”
The data-center answer is consistent with where Carter has been since at least midsummer — she told WUKY in a July interview that “Fayette County is not the place for a data center” — but the word “ban” is more specific than the moratorium-and-caution posture most of city government has taken.
“At a time when we face an affordability crisis, data centers will only worsen the crisis,” the campaign’s comment continued, arguing that higher power bills, cuts to essential services and permanent environmental damage “follow data centers wherever they go.” The reply said the facilities strain electricity, water and infrastructure while offering “too few permanent jobs in return,” and closed with a pledge to instead attract businesses that “complement our community” and invest in local workers.
The timing matters. The council pulled its data-center text amendment off an August work-session docket and scheduled an informational presentation for Sept. 8 and the special Oct. 6 committee of the whole, at 5:30 p.m. with public comment allowed. The moratorium on data-center applications runs only through Oct. 31 — meaning the council is set to adopt rules about three weeks before the window closes, in the final month of the mayor’s race.
The money race has favored Carter all cycle
Carter, a real-estate broker who owns Guide Realty, had raised more than $104,000 by Dec. 1, 2025 — before Gorton had reported a dollar for her re-election. By the final pre-primary report Carter had raised $174,148 to Gorton’s $80,397, with Gorton’s late surge powered by horse-industry donors — including $15,200 in a single day from the Goodman family of Mt. Brilliant Farm and relatives. Kentucky Registry of Election Finance filings through the primary showed Carter at roughly $238,800 raised to Gorton’s $96,500.
Carter’s donor base leans on builders and real-estate interests, and her husband, Bishop Carter, owns the Central Kentucky construction firm Elaine Allen — the connection the poll’s lone anti-Carter test question leaned on, asking voters about a claim that she wants to build housing to enrich herself and her family. The first general-election finance reports are due in early October.
In the May 19 primary, Gorton took about 46% of the vote in a seven-way field to Carter’s 28%, per results reported by the Herald-Leader; Carter spent nearly $167,000 on the primary campaign.
The tested attacks track real records — partly
Two of the negative statements the poll read to voters sit on ground The Lexington Times has reported independently.
On Flock: a Lexington Times review of all 27 published audits of the police department’s license-plate-reader program found more than 400,000 searches across the quarters that report totals, no Public Integrity Unit audit published for any quarter of 2023 — the year the camera network grew from 43 to 100 — and a quarterly review sample that has shrunk to 60 entries. Gorton has stood by the program as opponents packed the Aug. 27 council meeting, where 17 of 20 speakers asked the city to cancel the contract.
On winter weather: at an Aug. 27 committee of the whole, city officials acknowledged that seven of the city’s eight snow-plow contractors have no retainer obligating them to show up in a storm, and said a rewritten snow plan will come to the council in October — with a re-bid the current budget cannot yet fund.
An already-heated race
The poll landed days after the two campaigns traded attacks over the city’s new Public Service Commission complaint against Kentucky American Water, with each side implying the other was compromised; finance records showed the only Kentucky American-linked money in the race was a single $100 gift to Carter from a company employee.
Carter has campaigned on housing affordability, public safety and emergency preparedness — themes that mirror the positive statements her poll tested. Gorton, a former nurse and longtime council member, won her 2018 and 2022 races comfortably.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Sources
- Lexington Herald-Leader (Adrian Paul Bryant), Aug. 31, 2026: Lexington mayoral challenger says new poll shows she’s within striking distance of Gorton
- Raquel For Lexington (Facebook), Aug. 31, 2026 — poll announcement graphics and campaign reply on data centers
- WUKY (Karyn Czar), July 16, 2026: Mayoral candidate Raquel Carter makes case for change in Lexington leadership
- Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, contributor exports, 2026 Lexington mayor’s race
- LFUCG Council Work Session, Aug. 25, 2026 — data-center ordinance moved to Oct. 6 special committee of the whole (clip 6862)
- The Lexington Times, Aug. 31, 2026: Lexington rewrote its snow plan. Seven of its eight plow contractors still don’t have to show up.
- The Lexington Times, Aug. 29, 2026: Gorton and Carter trade barbs over Kentucky American Water
- The Lexington Times, Aug. 28, 2026: Twenty people came to tell the Council what they think of Flock
- The Lexington Times, Aug. 26, 2026: Flock audits review — 400,000+ searches, sample of 60
- The Lexington Times, May 10, 2026: Horse-industry money lifts Gorton’s reelection in last pre-primary report
- The Lexington Times, Dec. 13, 2025: Lexington mayor’s race heats up early with challenger leading in fundraising
- The Lexington Times, July 16, 2026: Mayoral hopeful Carter pitches housing, safety reforms
This article was drafted with AI assistance (Claude Fable 5) and reviewed by The Lexington Times. Poll figures are as reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader and shown in the Carter campaign’s own announcement graphics; the two match. The data-center statement is transcribed from the campaign’s public Facebook comment, screenshotted Aug. 31, 2026. Fundraising figures are from Kentucky Registry of Election Finance filings and prior Lexington Times reporting.
Republishing: This is original Lexington Times reporting, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0. You may republish this article, in full and unaltered, for free — including commercially — with credit to The Lexington Times and a link to the original.
