Kentucky’s primary election is Tuesday May 19, where parties pick their candidates to run in the November general Election.
Compared to say, Vanderburgh County Indiana, Henderson County Kentucky has a lot of contested races.
These include city commissioners and county coroner, jailor and magistrates.
But in Kentucky, the biggest midterm race is the US Senate First district — retiring Republican Mitch McConnel’s seat. Ballotpedia is calling this a “battleground race.”
Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is one of 12 Republican primary candidates on the ballot.
He is one of the leaders in polling, media attention and fundraising, along with Andy Barr. Barr has raised $8.3 million, the most of any candidate so far.
He’s also a US Representative in east-central Kentucky. Another leader, Nate Morris, will instead become an ambassador in the Trump administration. These are just the current GOP leaders.
Democrat Charles Booker leads his party in fundraising — at $6.4 million. Retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath has $2.1 million.
The First District US Representative seat held by Republican James Comer is also up for grabs. He’s running against three others in the primary — but far outpacing any of them in fundraising.
Democrats have no candidates for US House District 1.
The Henderson City Commission has three seats up for reelection, currently held by Robert Pruitt, Nick Whitt and Kelsey Hargis.
There are 10 candidates total in this non-partisan race. The city commissioners are responsible for guiding the city manager in running the city, and they control the purse of the city.
Pruitt has been on the commission the longest at seven terms.
There are several seats open in the Henderson County Fiscal Court. The fiscal court doesn’t actually make judicial decisions — they’re the legislative governing body of the county, like the County Commission in Indiana. It’s comprised of five magistrates and a judge executive.
Three magistrates and the executive have contested primaries. The magistrates are all GOP candidates, but there are also democrats vying for the executive seat.
Another local race is the jailer who is in charge of the jail and care of inmates. Kentucky is the only state that elects a jailer and a sheriff.
The Hendersonian newspaper has a comprehensive guide for county and city candidates on their website. According to them, this race has actually been pretty contentious between Republican candidates Anthony Willett and Eddie Vaught.
The Hendersonian reports candidates “trading barbs” and accusing each other of lying about the other including on social media. Vaught is currently a jail employee in charge of training.
Current Jailer Bruce Todd is not on the ballot.
Less contentious is the remaining race of the County Coroner. Current County Coroner Shelia Patterson has a challenger in Dewayne Reneer.
Patterson ascended to the role of Deputy Coroner last year, finishing out the term of her predecessor. This is also a Republican race.
There are seven polling locations across the county open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Here is the candidate list for the Henderson Kentucky primary ballot