Alvarado, Kentucky's first Hispanic state legislator, echoes Trump in launching a congressional bid
Alvarado, a medical doctor and the son of immigrants, will compete for Kentucky's 6th Congressional District seat now occupied by Republican Rep. Andy Barr , who is in a hotly contested race to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican Senate leader, in next next year's midterm election.
Seen as a rising conservative star during his years in the Kentucky Senate, Alvarado pledged to align with President Donald Trump's 'America First' agenda as he kicked off his congressional campaign.
'Kentuckians are fed up with open borders, sky-high prices and unelected bureaucrats who trample our freedoms,' Alvarado said in a statement. 'I'm running for Congress to fight for working families, stop the invasion at our southern border once and for all, and fight the woke agenda.'
Republican state Reps. Ryan Dotson and Deanna Gordon entered the House race earlier, also touting their conservative credentials and setting up the prospect of a competitive primary next spring.
The Democratic field also grew Thursday, with former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo entering the campaign. Dembo, also a former policy adviser for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, said his focus will include creating good-paying jobs, fighting back against Medicaid cuts and opposing tariffs that he said are hurting crucial Kentucky industries.
'Central Kentucky deserves to have a representative in Washington who stands up for families, works to lower their cost of living, expands access to affordable healthcare and protects their safety,' Dembo said in a statement.
National Democrats list Kentucky's 6th among dozens of districts nationally that they're targeting in hopes of winning back the narrowly divided House in 2026. Other Democratic candidates for the Kentucky congressional seat include ex-state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson and David Kloiber, a former Lexington city councilman.
Alvarado's campaign said he preserved his Kentucky ties while working in Tennessee, noting that he maintained his longtime home in Clark County in the district and continued to do medical work in the district. He typically returned home multiple times each month.
He was the first Hispanic member of Kentucky's legislature, his campaign said, having been first elected in 2014. He has said his immigrant parents made big sacrifices to get him a good education. His father was from Costa Rica, and his mother is from Argentina.
Alvarado ran for statewide office in Kentucky as then-Gov. Matt Bevin's running mate in 2019, but Bevin lost his reelection bid to Beshear. Alvarado left the Kentucky Senate to step into the role as Tennessee's health department commissioner in Republican Gov. Bill Lee's administration in 2023.
Lee last week announced Alvarado's departure from the state health department, saying Alvarado 'faithfully served Tennesseans throughout his tenure.'
Alvarado's role in promoting Bevin during the 2019 campaign could surface as an issue in next year's congressional race as Bevin's pugnacious style turned off many Kentucky voters.
The 6th District stretches from central Kentucky's bluegrass region to the Appalachian foothills. It flipped between Democratic and Republican representation for decades, but Barr has locked down the seat for the GOP for more than a decade, fending off a tough Democratic challenger in 2018.
Since then, the GOP-led legislature removed Democratic-leaning Frankfort, Kentucky's capital city, from the 6th District during the most recent round of redistricting, seemingly making it a steeper challenge for Democrats. The district includes Democratic-trending Lexington, the state's second-largest city, and covers multiple rural counties that are Republican strongholds.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
8 minutes ago
- The Hill
Greene calls Gaza humanitarian crisis a ‘genocide'
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza a 'genocide' in a social media, appearing to be the first Republican in Congress to use the term to describe the situation. 'It's the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,' Greene said in a post on X on Monday night. Her comment came as part of a larger response criticizing fellow Republican Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), one of three Jewish Republicans in the House who joined the chamber after a special election earlier this year. Greene dug into Fine over his recent social media posts about the conflict, including denying that there is starvation in Gaza. 'There is no starvation. Everything about the 'Palestinian' cause is a lie,' Fine said in a post on Sunday. Last week, Fine posted: 'Release the hostages. Until then, starve away.' Trump on Monday said there was 'real starvation' happening in Gaza and that the U.S. would do more to address it. 'I can only imagine how Florida's 6th district feels now that their Representative, that they were told to vote for, openly calls for starving innocent people and children,' Greene said, before going on to make her comment about the genocide. 'But a Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. His awful statement will actually cause more antisemitism,' Greene said. Fine's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and he has not yet responded on social media. Greene's stance marks a major break with her party, and an escalation of her criticism of Israel — and U.S. financial support for Israel — as the war in Gaza drags on. Over the weekend she posted that 'what has been happening to innocent people and children in Gaza is horrific.' Earlier this month, Greene introduced an amendment to cut funding to Israel's missile defense, which failed in a 6-422 vote. Greene has previously been accused of antisemitism, most famously over a 2018 Facebook post that has come to be known as the 'Jewish space laser' post — though Greene never used that phrase. In the post, Greene in which she floated that a 'laser beam or light beam' from 'space solar generators' could be to blame for wildfires in California, also mentioning the 'Rothschild Inc.' Greene later said she did not know the Rothschilds have long been at the center of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Greene also voted against an antisemitism awareness bill last year, saying it would define antisemitic behavior to include remarks about Jews killing Jesus, which she said went against the Bible.
Newsweek
9 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Ron DeSantis Predicts NYC Cops Will Flee to Florida if Zohran Mamdani Wins
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has predicted that New York City could see an exodus of police officers relocating to Florida if Zohran Mamdani wins the city's mayoral election this November. Why It Matters The comments by DeSantis come as New York City grapples with ongoing debates over police reform, taxation, and the possible impact of progressive leadership under Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who has surged ahead in polls following his victory over Andrew Cuomo in the city's Democratic primary. The potential for a significant migration of law enforcement officers and affluent residents could have broader implications for both New York and Florida, particularly in terms of public safety and economic growth. Florida, which has historically attracted individuals leaving states with higher taxes and stricter regulations, has witnessed a marked increase in real estate values—especially in Palm Beach—driven in part by previous population shifts from the Northeast. Over 151,000 New Yorkers relocated to Florida between 2018 and 2022, resulting in an estimated $9 billion loss in income for New York and further intensifying the sociopolitical divide between the two states, according to CL Tampa Bay. Newsweek has reached out to Mamdani for comment via email. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attends a roundtable discussion after touring a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1, 2025. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attends a roundtable discussion after touring a migrant detention center, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1, 2025. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images What To Know DeSantis invoked Mamdami during a speech Tuesday at the 2025 Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference in Orlando, where the longtime Florida governor DeSantis emphasized his claim that Mamdani's policies could drive NYPD officers to seek employment in Florida, citing the state's $5,000 law enforcement sign-up bonus as an added incentive. "I think you're going to end up at this conference next year, potentially, be talking about, hey, they elected some anti-law enforcement mayor in New York City, and now all these NYPD cops want to come work in our agencies and get the $5,000 bonus, and I think that that's, unfortunately, may happen if they do this (in New York)," DeSantis said in his speech. DeSantis continued: "Would you want to put on a uniform and go out and serve if the mayor doesn't even think your agency should exist or get any funding at all, doesn't think police should go in dangerous areas, that they should send social workers in there? That ain't my cup of tea, and I don't think anybody who wears the uniform thinks those policies will succeed." Mamdani, a former state assemblyman from Queens, has campaigned on progressive initiatives including rent freezes for over two million residents, free public transit, city-run grocery stores to stabilize prices and free child care for toddlers. His key public safety proposal is the establishment of a Department of Community Safety to increase spending on subway outreach and violence prevention, while raising the city's minimum wage to $30 by 2030. Mamdani has called for corporate tax hikes, a higher levy on millionaires, more tax auditors, the elimination of no-bid contracts, and actions against corrupt landlords, projecting up to $10 billion in new annual revenue to fund his platform. Mamdani's views regarding policing and the NYPD have seemed to evolve in recent years, notably as he runs in a general election. During the Black Lives Matters protests that engrossed the country in the summer of 2020, Mamdani posted on X that the NYPD was "wicked and corrupt" and should be defunded. His stance has perhaps changed, with him now publicly stating that he will not defund the police. He said he also better recognizes the role of the NYPD in the community. In June, as Mamdani gained on Cuomo in the polls ahead of the primary election, DeSantis made similar remarks about Mamdani and the impact his hypothetical victory could have on both New York City and Florida. "I will tell you, if that leftist does win, you're going to see Palm Beach real estate go up another 20 percent," DeSantis said at a press conference in Clearwater Beach. "That will happen very quickly. Because as bad as some of what they've had, this is like [former New York City Governor Bill] De Blasio on steroids." President Donald Trump has called Mamdani a "100% Communist Lunatic." New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has also expressed concerns about higher taxes driving New Yorkers to move to Florida. What People Are Saying Zohran Mamdani on X on Monday following the fatal shootings in New York City: "I'm heartbroken to learn of the horrific shooting in midtown and I am holding the victims, their families, and the NYPD officer in critical condition in my thoughts. Grateful for all of our first responders on the ground." What Happens Next The New York City mayoral general election is scheduled for November. Mamdani, now the Democratic nominee, faces challenges from independent Andrew Cuomo, who the former Democratic governor of the state, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams (also running as an independent), and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Florida officials continue to promote their state as a destination for law enforcement professionals and high-income individuals seeking lower taxes.
Bloomberg
9 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Senators Urge White House to Release Community Lenders' Funds
A bipartisan group of more than two dozen US senators is asking the Trump administration to release hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for loans to people and businesses in poor and rural communities. In a letter seen by Bloomberg News, lawmakers led by Senate Banking Committee members Mike Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, and Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia asked White House Budget Director Russ Vought to release $324 million in funds appropriated to the CDFI Fund, a Treasury office that makes grants to lenders operating in communities that are not served by traditional banks.
