Congressman Andy Barr visits Monroe County on campaign trail for senate seat

MONROE COUNTY, Ky. – As 2026 is just beginning, the race for the Senate seat that Sen. Mitch McConnell is leaving behind is now heating up.

Congressman Andy Barr made a stop in Monroe County as he campaigns across the state. Supporters packed the upstairs of the Marigold Market in Tompkinsville to hear his goals for the Senate. Barr says that he’s the right choice for the state due to his track record of winning in Congress for the people of Kentucky.

“A lot of politicians like to talk about supporting President Trump, but with me, they know they’ve got someone who’s doing it every single day, and someone who has a track record of delivering and being effective for the people of Kentucky. I know this job, and I’ve already been doing it for the last seven terms in the U.S. House. I can do it even better statewide for for the entirety of the Commonwealth,” Barr said.

Barr also mentioned his history of defeating Democrats who have opposed him.

Barr currently represents the sixth district in Kentucky, which includes Lexington and Fayette County, an area which has repeatedly voted Democrat in the past. In 2012, Barr defeated incumbent Democrat Ben Chandler to flip that seat. Barr says that it is this experience that proves that he’s the best for the job.

“I’m the only candidate who’s battle tested. I’ve won a district in central Kentucky that’s really a purple swing district. Fayette County is a blue county. It’s, Obama, Obama, Clinton, Biden and Kamala Harris won that county. And yet I won that congressional district seven straight times. I flipped the seat. It was held by a Democrat. I flipped it to a Republican, and I’ve held it ever since,” Barr said.

If Barr does win, he says that his goal is to position Kentucky in a competitive role for the jobs of the future, like that in computing and artificial intelligence, while also helping to keep the United States ahead of adversaries like China.

“I want to position Kentucky for the jobs of the future, and to reconnect our past, which is manufacturing and mining with those technologies of the future. We can grow jobs by becoming that energy dominant state again. And powering artificial intelligence, powering quantum computing, powering digital assets. These technologies of the future that will allow us to win the race in the competition with the Chinese Communist Party,” Barr explained

The primary election will be coming up later this year on May 19.