Kentucky's General Assembly will have plenty of races on Election Day on Nov. 3, 2026. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)
Kentuckians won’t just vote on who to replace the outgoing U.S. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell in the general election on Nov. 3.
In addition to a constitutional amendment and local races, voters will decide who will represent them in the Kentucky General Assembly for the next two- and six- year terms.
While all 100 in the state House seats are up for grabs in the November election, only half of the state Senate’s 38 seats are up for election. And in the last few weeks heading into the general election, there’s plenty of storylines to follow.
In one state House race, for example, the self-proclaimed MAGA Republican dropped out last week, citing a job promotion as the reason, leaving Democratic Rep. Anne Donworth running unopposed for the 76th Kentucky House District seat.
Republicans in the General Assembly have a supermajority in both chambers. Still, there are a handful of legislative races expected to be competitive, and Democrats are hoping to gain a few more seats in Frankfort during the upcoming midterm election.
Here are some of the races to watch.
Former Republican Rep. Killian Timoney is hoping to represent the 45th district again. Timoney, who has often been viewed as a moderate, served in the House from January 2021 through December 2025.
In 2024, Liberty Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson ousted Timoney in the Republican primary. During that election cycle, campaign mailers slammed Timoney for voting against an anti-transgender law affecting medical treatment for youth and public schools, which was a key issue among GOP voters.
But Jefferson lost to then-Democrat candidate Adam Moore in the general election.
Timoney said he wants to represent the district again because he wasn’t done with his work in Frankfort when he left.
“(I felt like) my departure was abrupt and it was premature,” Timoney said. “Anybody that starts something wants to finish it, and that’s one of the tough things about being a legislator, is that your clients can be interrupted by the voter, and that’s part of it.”
Timoney said he has received positive feedback while door-knocking, and he believes voters are looking for someone like himself who will work across the aisle and build bridges instead of burning them.
He also believes being a Republican gives him an advantage to get things accomplished in Frankfort.
“If you’re in the supermajority, you get bills passed and you get projects, and if you’re not, you don’t,” Timoney said. “I don’t make the rules. It’s just the way that they are, and that’s something that is an unmistakable, undeniable advantage, and that’s what a lot of the people in the 45th want.”
The district, which is made up of parts of Jessamine County and and Fayette County, has been seen as purple, which could end up resulting in a close race between Moore and a more moderate Republican like Timoney.
Moore said while he believes he has every opportunity to win again, he’s not going to “count his chickens before they hatch.”
“I know he’s a real candidate,” Moore said. “I’m sure he’s working hard, and that’s why I just have to keep working hard.”
Issues and campaign priorities for Moore include creating good-paying jobs, access to affordable healthcare and fully investing in public schools.
Moore said that he’s received positive feedback from voters and thinks he has been an effective legislator for the district, which is why he should be reelected.
“I’ve been someone who has been very bipartisan, someone who’s worked across the aisle, who’s focused on things like affordable health care and strong public schools and trying to put guardrails on data centers,” Moore said. “I’m not someone who’s out there throwing bombs or trying to be a culture warrior, but just trying to actually, I think, restore faith in politics and government, and I think that’s been received very well.”
Timoney isn’t the only former legislator running for office.
Democrat Johnny Ray Turner, who represented state Senate District 29 from 2001 to 2021, is hoping to make a comeback in Frankfort next year too. In 2020, Johnny Ray Turner lost in the general election to then-Republican candidate Johnnie Turner, who died in October 2024 from injuries in an accident.
Johnny Ray Turner said he’s running because he enjoyed helping people as a state senator, and the race has an open seat. Democrat Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty, who has represented the district since 2019, is not seeking reelection and running for Floyd District Judge.
“When an opportunity came about for me to run for the House of Representatives, which is a smaller district and what I call more my people…I thought I would like to try it and be in a position to help my people in Eastern Kentucky, especially in Floyd and Pike Counties,” Turner said.
While Democrats in the General Assembly represented the urban areas, including Louisville and Lexington, Tackett Laferty was the sole Democrat who represented rural Kentucky.
Turner said it’s important for the district to have someone like himself to work across party lines. If elected, Turner wants to use the contacts he made as state senator to help improve Eastern Kentucky.
Tanner Hesterberg, an attorney who is running as the Republican nominee in the race, did not respond to an interview request at the time of publication.
When Democratic candidate Sarah Cole McIntosh served on the Jefferson County School Board, she said she became aware that community problems were a result of “bad policy coming out of Frankfort.”
That prompted her to launch a campaign for state Senate District 36, which Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, currently represents.
McIntosh doesn’t consider herself a “career politician,” which is a perspective she thinks would help her represent the district.
“I’m living the same issues and problems and struggles as all the other Kentuckians, from figuring out how to pay bills, hoping that my husband and I get to retire someday, (and) taking care of my loved ones through illness to the end of life,” McIntosh said.
In early October, the Kentucky Lantern reported Republican outside groups have spent more than $620,000 to help reelect Adams.
These donations follow a Lantern story from April that reported that Adams was paid $80,500 since 2023 by an inactive political committee, called Kentucky Strong, that she headed and has been funded exclusively by lobbying interests in recent years.
McIntosh said she would represent her constituents instead of “corporate lobbyists,” and work ethic is just as important as fundraising in a campaign.
“I always knew that I was going to be outspent, but I will never be outworked, and so that’s the same kind of work ethic that I think voters can expect from me once I’m representing them in Frankfort,” McIntosh said.
Adams did not respond to an interview request at the time of publication.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, a legislator who has become notable in the far-right “Liberty” faction of the General Assembly, will face a Democrat challenger for the first time in the state Senate District 6 race. The district includes part of Jefferson County, which tends to learn blue, Oldham and Trimble County.
Democrat Christian Furman, a Prospect City Council member and physician, is challenging Tichenor on the November ballot, who has served in office since 2023.
Furman said her experience as a doctor has helped her acquire listening and collaboration skills, which she said are essential for someone who is in public office to have.
“I listen to the patient first of all. I listen to other doctors. I listen to their family,” Furman said. “I collaborate with the whole healthcare team, and together we come up with a care plan, and that same skill set of being a doctor translates to being a senator.
She added that she’s willing to work with Republicans to pass legislation.
“If I have a good idea, some people say you have to kind of turn it over to the Republican to get across the finish line,” Furman said. “That’s fine. I don’t have an ego. It’s not like it has to be my way or the highway.
Issues important to Furman include making Kentucky more affordable, safer and healthier.
Throughout Tichenor’s tenure, she has pushed for legislation that would limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in K-12 public schools, banning minors from “explicit” drag performances and require public school districts to increase transparency on how public dollars are spent.
Tichenor did not respond to an interview request at the time of publication.
Courtesy of Kentucky Lantern
