Election Day at the Landsdowne Elementary School precinct in Lexington, Nov. 5, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)
Kentucky’s race for an open U.S. House seat got two new candidates — one from each party — Thursday morning.
Republican Dr. Ralph Alvarado, a former Kentucky lawmaker, and Democrat Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor, announced they’re running.
Alvarado has been Tennessee’s health commissioner since 2023, a post he held until recently announcing that he was considering a run for Congress from Kentucky.
The two new candidates bring the field to six, three from each party. The 6th Congressional District seat is up for grabs because its current holder, Republican Andy Barr, is running for U.S. Senate in hopes of succeeding Republican Mitch McConnell, retiring after seven terms.
Democrat Cherlynn Stevenson, a former Kentucky House Democratic caucus chair, has gained an early fundraising lead according to recent campaign finance reports. David Kloiber, a former Lexington council member, is also running for the Democratic nomination.
Alvarado joins Republicans state Rep. Ryan Dotson who announced his campaign earlier this year and state Rep. Deanna Gordon who launched her bid last week.
In his announcement, Alvarado, a physician, said he would “stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump in Washington, to secure the border, revive the economy, and put America first.”
Alvarado describes himself as “a proud son of immigrants and a relentless defender of the American Dream.”
He said Trump is “under attack from every direction, and he needs reinforcements in Congress.”
Alvarado said in Congress he would “fight to lower healthcare costs, save rural hospitals, and stop illegal immigrants from abusing Medicaid,” as well as fight for Kentucky’s signature industries “including bourbon, thoroughbred horse racing and manufacturing.”
Alvarado was born in California, the son of a father from Costa Rica and mother from Argentina.
He became Kentucky’s first Hispanic legislator after unseating incumbent Democrat R.J. Palmer in a 2014 state Senate race from a district made up of Clark and parts of Fayette and Montgomery counties.
Alvarado spoke at the 2016 Republican National Committee in support of Trump. He was Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s running mate in Bevin’s losing 2019 bid for reelection.
In his farewell speech to the Senate in January 2023, he said, “I love solving problems. … Work is play for me. When I wake up, my mind clicks and I can’t really turn it off until I go to bed. When I am in social gatherings with many of you, I pursue discussions about policy. Some of you have said, ‘Ralph, let it go. We’re not on the clock.’ The problem is that I’m always on the clock. I have a really hard time turning it off. It’s both a blessing and a curse.”
Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee appointed Alvarado commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. He recently left the Tennessee post after saying he likely would run for Congress from Central Kentucky in response to state Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe’s announcement that she would not be seeking the seat.
In his announcement, Alvarado said he and his wife, Dawn, still live in Clark County where they raised their two children and are “active members of their church and community.
Kentucky’s race for an open U.S. House seat got two new candidates — one from each party — Thursday morning.
Republican Dr. Ralph Alvarado, a former Kentucky lawmaker, and Democrat Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor, announced they’re running.
Alvarado has been Tennessee’s health commissioner since 2023, a post he held until recently announcing that he was considering a run for Congress from Kentucky.
The two new candidates bring the field to six, three from each party. The 6th Congressional District seat is up for grabs because its current holder, Republican Andy Barr, is running for U.S. Senate in hopes of succeeding Republican Mitch McConnell, retiring after seven terms.
Democrat Cherlynn Stevenson, a former Kentucky House Democratic caucus chair, has gained an early fundraising lead according to recent campaign finance reports. David Kloiber, a former Lexington council member, is also running for the Democratic nomination.
Alvarado joins Republicans state Rep. Ryan Dotson who announced his campaign earlier this year and state Rep. Deanna Gordon who launched her bid last week.
Alvarado: ‘Shoulder to shoulder with President Trump’
In his announcement, Alvarado, a physician, said he would “stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump in Washington, to secure the border, revive the economy, and put America first.”
Alvarado describes himself as “a proud son of immigrants and a relentless defender of the American Dream.”
He said Trump is “under attack from every direction, and he needs reinforcements in Congress.”
Alvarado said in Congress he would “fight to lower healthcare costs, save rural hospitals, and stop illegal immigrants from abusing Medicaid,” as well as fight for Kentucky’s signature industries “including bourbon, thoroughbred horse racing and manufacturing.”
Alvarado was born in California, the son of a father from Costa Rica and mother from Argentina.
He became Kentucky’s first Hispanic legislator after unseating incumbent Democrat R.J. Palmer in a 2014 state Senate race from a district made up of Clark and parts of Fayette and Montgomery counties.
Alvarado spoke at the 2016 Republican National Committee in support of Trump. He was Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s running mate in Bevin’s losing 2019 bid for reelection.
In his farewell speech to the Senate in January 2023, he said, “I love solving problems. … Work is play for me. When I wake up, my mind clicks and I can’t really turn it off until I go to bed. When I am in social gatherings with many of you, I pursue discussions about policy. Some of you have said, ‘Ralph, let it go. We’re not on the clock.’ The problem is that I’m always on the clock. I have a really hard time turning it off. It’s both a blessing and a curse.”
Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee appointed Alvarado commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. He recently left the Tennessee post after saying he likely would run for Congress from Central Kentucky in response to state Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe’s announcement that she would not be seeking the seat.
In his announcement, Alvarado said he and his wife, Dawn, still live in Clark County where they raised their two children and are “active members of their church and community.”
A former federal prosecutor and staffer for Gov. Andy Beshear, Dembo, a Lexingtonian, left his job as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Department of Justice earlier this year amid Trump’s return to the White House.
“I couldn’t stand by while the administration was playing politics with the justice system to carry out a personal political agenda instead of protecting the Constitution,” Dembo said in a telephone interview with the Kentucky Lantern. “And I felt like D.C. corruption was getting in the way of helping folks in Kentucky. So I wanted to continue serving my country, but obviously my public service had to take a different path, and that’s why I’m running for Congress now.”
Dembo previously worked in the U.S. Department of Justice during the first Trump administration, but said that “while there were many things I disagreed with, personally and politically, I still felt that everyday line prosecutors were able to do their job at DOJ.”
In February, several federal prosecutors resigned after being directed to drop charges in a corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. More recently, Reuters reported earlier this week that 69 of the roughly 110 lawyers in the DOJ’s federal programs branch, which is tasked with defending legal challenges to the president’s policies, have left the unit since Trump’s recent election or plan to leave.
“This second administration, as we’ve seen through many publicly reported things, is not the same,” Dembo said, adding that “prosecutors are being asked to do things that are immoral, unethical” and facing being fired if they do not go along with it.
In addition to his decision to leave the DOJ, Dembo also has concerns about the recently passed GOP megabill, which included cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding. Barr voted in favor of the bill, and has supported other Trump policies as he seeks the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
“The current congressman is voting very enthusiastically in favor so that he can give tax breaks to his rich buddies and coastal elites, which, again, that’s just not the Kentucky values I was raised with,” Dembo said of Barr.
Dembo plans to distinguish himself from his opponents by focusing on his background as a Navy veteran and federal service. However, he said he is “clear-eyed” that voters may not know him at present. But he remains optimistic that his background in public service, in Kentucky and the district will “connect with voters.”
“Certainly that’s going to be an uphill battle with maybe the name ID, but at the same time, I think it’s a real advantage at a time where people are looking for new and fresh ideas, so I will definitely be looking simply to add to the conversation, not to tear anyone down,” Dembo said.
Dembo has taken some lessons from Beshear. The governor named Dembo as his policy adviser in 2020. Dembo was later promoted to become Beshear’s legislative director.
“Something that I learned from Gov. Beshear is that I don’t think that Kentuckians primarily are waking up thinking about who they vote for or what party they’re registered. I think they’re worried about their families and how they can be successful and have a good paying job and make ends meet,” Dembo said.
“So that’s very much how I’m going to approach it, and it’s not going to be as important to me what party someone identifies with, because if I’m lucky enough to get elected, I’m going to represent all of them.”
