Kentucky Political News Headlines

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

KY Primary Election Results


Primary Election Results

Results from last Tuesday's primary election were released this afternoon. You will recall that results were delayed due to the decision to allow mail-in ballots, which were required to be postmarked by election day, because of precautions against COVID-19.

U.S. Senate
The Democratic primary for US Senate came down to the wire with Amy McGrath pulling out a victory over Rep. Charles Booker with 45.1% compared to Booker's 43%.  McGrath will face Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November.

State Legislative Elections
Additionally, there were a handful of close legislative races with unknown outcomes until final vote counts were submitted to the Board of Elections this afternoon. Several incumbent legislators were defeated and for the first time in roughly 10 years a Democrat won a seat which had been held by a Republican in the state Senate. Karen Berg defeated Bill Ferko in the special election called to fill the seat vacated by the retirement of Ernie Harris. Other state legislative results of interest:

Incumbents Beaten in Primary

- Sen. Albert Robinson was beaten by Brandon Storm, an attorney from London, in a three way race. Storm faces Walter Trebolo in November.

- Rep. Travis Brenda lost by less than 100 votes to Josh Bray, a City Administrator. Bray has no opponent in November.

- Rep. Les Yates was beaten by Ryan Dotson, a local pastor in the GOP primary. Dotson faces Kenny Blair who won the Democrat primary.

New State Legislators & Re-Elected Legislators
These folks were elected to new terms in the General Assembly joining the 28 legislators unopposed this election cycle that don't have a general election opponent in November. *Incumbents in Italics

Senate
Karen Berg
Rick Girdler
David Yates

House
Steven Rudy
Josh Branscum
Nima Kulkarni
Charlie Miller
Tom Burch

Pamela Stevenson
David Osborne
Ken Upchurch

Josh Bray
Regina Huff
Shane Baker
Tom Smith

Supreme Court
Incumbent Justice Sam Wright won't be returning to the Supreme Court in 2021, as he ran third in the primary for the 7th District Supreme Court seat, and only the top two vote getters move on to the general election in November. It will be Robert Conley vs Chris Harris in November.

Attached is an updated spreadsheet denoting House and Senate primary winners. More analysis to come in the days ahead.