Kentucky: who should earn your vote for Congress in 2026
Opinion · The paper’s scorecard
Kentucky: every race for Congress on the 3 November 2026 ballot, and how the candidates measure up against our standards.
Sitting and former members are scored on the same key votes, read from the official House and Senate roll calls; each vote links to the record. Candidates who have never served in Congress have no votes to score, and outside the battlegrounds we have not researched them, so they are marked as not scored. Where only one candidate could be measured, the mark rates that record on its own; it is not a verdict on the opponent. How the marks work · All states
U.S. Senate R+15
Leans our way: Andy Barr
Mitch McConnell (R): incumbent retiring.
Leans our way
Andy Barr
Republican
Scored on 26 key votes · total +1
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (14)
Charles Booker
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 1 R+23
✓ Meets our standards: James Comer
Meets our standards
James Comer
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +3
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (18)
Drew Williams
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 2 R+20
Leans our way: Brett Guthrie
Leans our way
Brett Guthrie
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +1
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ✓Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (16)
Megan Wingfield
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 3 D+10
No mark
Morgan McGarvey
Democrat · incumbent
Scored on 21 key votes · total -3
- ✗Smaller government
- ✗Small business over giants
- ?Live and let live
- ✗Light touch on tech
- ✓Free speech
- ✓No surveillance state
- ✓Home first, open trade
- ✗Checks on power
- ✗Right to bear arms
- ✗Hard on violent crime
With us (9)
- Voted against the 2024 law forcing TikTok's sale or ban. Source
- Voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which civil-liberties groups opposed as a limit on campus speech. Source
- Voted for the amendment requiring a warrant to search Americans' communications under FISA Section 702 (it failed 212-212). Source
Maria Rodriquez
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 4 R+18
No mark
Thomas Massie (R): incumbent lost renomination.
Ed Gallrein
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
Melissa Strange
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
District 5 R+32
No mark
Ned Pillersdorf
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Hal Rogers
Republican · incumbent
Scored on 27 key votes · total +0
- ✓Smaller government
- ~Small business over giants
- ✗Live and let live
- ✓Light touch on tech
- ✗Free speech
- ✗No surveillance state
- ✗Home first, open trade
- ~Checks on power
- ✓Right to bear arms
- ✓Hard on violent crime
With us (14)
District 6 R+7
No mark
Andy Barr (R): incumbent retiring to run for u.
Ralph Alvarado
Republican
No congressional voting record; not scored
Zach Dembo
Democrat
No congressional voting record; not scored
Photo credits. Official congressional portraits are works of the U.S. government and in the public domain.