Charles wins GOP nod for county judge

Justin Charles will be the Republican nom­i­nee for Clark County judge-exec­u­tive in the gen­er­al elec­tion. He will face off against Democrat Vaché King, who did not have to run in the pri­ma­ry because she is unop­posed for her party’s nomination.

“We’re only halfway. I still have work to do. The real chal­lenge starts now, and we’ll see what the peo­ple decide. But I’m very appre­cia­tive and look for­ward to the new chal­lenges fac­ing me,” Charles said out­side the coun­ty court­room when it became evi­dent that he had won.

Charles best­ed his clos­est com­peti­tor, County Magistrate Steve Craycraft, by 327 votes, 1,420 to 1,093, accord­ing to the unof­fi­cial results.

Craycraft had made his expe­ri­ence and Charles’ inex­pe­ri­ence a cam­paign issue, sug­gest­ing dur­ing a debate this month that Charles had nev­er held a lead­er­ship position.

The oth­er can­di­dates were Winchester City Commissioner Shannon Cox, who got 841 votes, and retired Navy Capt. Eric R. Vetter, who fin­ished last with 645.

Charles ran for coun­ty judge-exec­u­tive once before, as a Democrat, win­ning that party’s nom­i­na­tion against King in the 2022 pri­ma­ry elec­tion. Neither Charles, an elec­tri­cian, nor King, a trans­for­ma­tion pro­gram man­ag­er, has ever held an elect­ed office in government.

Two incum­bent Fiscal Court mem­bers who were on the pri­ma­ry bal­lot lost their re-elec­tion bids. They were both Republicans: Ernest Pasley in the 2^nd District and Chris Davis in the 5^th.

In the 2^nd, retired fire­fight­er Bryan Howard got almost 57 per­cent of the vote in a three-way Republican pri­ma­ry, gar­ner­ing 462 votes to 278 for Pasley and 76 for Kelley Nisbet.

In the 5^th District, inter­im Winchester City Manager Mike Flynn got 296 votes to 214 for Davis, a lawyer and land agent.

Ben Moberly, a mechan­ic, beat long­time school admin­is­tra­tor Christy Bush, 529 to 335, to fill the vacan­cy in the 3^rd cre­at­ed by Craycraft’s deci­sion to run for judge-exec­u­tive instead.

Howard, Moberly, and Flynn face no oppo­si­tion in the gen­er­al elec­tion unless some­one files as a write-in can­di­date this summer.

Also unop­posed are Magistrate Mark Miller, a Republican, and Magistrate Robert Blanton, a Democrat. Neither faced a chal­lenger for their party’s nom­i­na­tion and have none in the fall race.

In the 1^st District, Democrat Jeannie Gwynne and Republican Scott Hisle were unop­posed in their par­ties’ pri­maries, but will face each oth­er in the fall.

Daniel Konstantopoulos is vacat­ing that seat to run for state representative.

The only oth­er coun­ty gov­ern­ment race on the bal­lot was for prop­er­ty val­u­a­tion admin­is­tra­tor. Incumbent PVA Jada Brady won the Republican pri­ma­ry, best­ing Allan Curtis, the for­mer coun­ty road super­vi­sor, by 2,162 to 1,771.

Curtis had made his cam­paign theme low­er­ing prop­er­ty val­u­a­tion assess­ments across the coun­ty. The PVA is required to assess prop­er­ty at fair mar­ket value. 

Brady will face Democrat Jason Neely in a rematch in the fall after hav­ing won in 2022 by a razor-thin margin.

Caldwell gets the most votes

Jim Caldwell, a for­mer TV mete­o­rol­o­gist, was the top vote-get­ter in the non­par­ti­san, at-large race for Winchester Board of Commissioners, receiv­ing 1,643 votes.

The three incum­bent com­mis­sion­ers came in sec­ond, third, and fourth: Hannah Toole, 1,301; Kitty Strode, 1,267; and Joe Chenault, 1,048.

The top eight will advance to the Nov. 3 gen­er­al elec­tion. The oth­er four are: for­mer Commissioner Kenny Book, 763; James Bowman, 621; Ralph Harrison, 484; and Tara Asbury, 466.

The two elim­i­nat­ed were Tim Cornett, 442, and Robin Kunkel, 350.

Konstantopoulos beats Yates

Konstantopoulos end­ed for­mer County Judge-Executive Les Yates’ hope of return­ing to the state House of Representatives next year by win­ning the Republican nom­i­na­tion for the 73^rd District seat, 2,558 to 1,444.

Yates had resigned his seat in January to devote his time to run­ning for the leg­isla­tive position.

Konstantopoulos promised repeat­ed­ly dur­ing the pri­ma­ry: “I won’t quit on you.”

The GOP nom­i­nee will face Democrat Chelsea Kirk, a polit­i­cal new­com­er, who won her party’s nom­i­na­tion for the 73^rd House District. In Clark County, which makes up most of the dis­trict, she received 1,701 votes, com­pared with 1,215 for Rory Houlihan, who has run for the seat sev­er­al times.

Part of the 73^rd District is in Fayette County, where Kirk lives.

Dotson loses to Alvarado

The 73^rd District seat is open because the incum­bent, Rep. Ryan Dotson, R‑Winchester, was run­ning for Congress in the 6^th District. But he lost by 795 votes to his neigh­bor, for­mer state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R‑Winchester, 2,393 to 1,366.

During the cam­paign, Dotson made an issue of the fact that Alvarado, a physi­cian, had left the state Senate to become head of Tennessee’s Department of Health. But Alvarado, who main­tained his prac­tice in Winchester and his pri­ma­ry res­i­dence here, com­mut­ed to Kentucky every oth­er weekend.

“You know, it’s tough to get attacked by a friend,” Alvarado said, but he added that he had a “thick hide,” and said he had a “good con­ver­sa­tion” with Dotson, who con­ced­ed and said he wouldn’t oppose him.

Alvarado had received the endorse­ment of President Donald Trump. Asked how big a fac­tor that was, he said the race was already trend­ing his way, but the president’s endorse­ment val­i­dat­ed that real­i­ty and added to his support.

There were three oth­er can­di­dates in the Republican race, but they didn’t receive many votes.

Alvarado also won dis­trict-wide by more than a two-to-one mar­gin. Alvarado will face Democrat Zach Dembo, a for­mer U.S. attor­ney who left the Justice Department because he felt the pres­i­dent was weaponiz­ing it to go after his polit­i­cal enemies.

Dembo won the Democratic nom­i­na­tion in a sev­en-can­di­date race with near­ly 40 per­cent of the vote.

In Clark County, he got 1,178 votes out of a total of 2,912 cast.

Barr to face Booker

President Trump’s endorse­ment most like­ly helped pro­pel 6^th District U.S. Rep. Andy Barr to a lop­sided win in the race for the Republican nom­i­na­tion for the U.S. Senate over for­mer Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

In Clark County, Barr got 3,022 votes out of a total of 4,048. Cameron received only 786.

The oth­er nine can­di­dates were not fac­tors in the race.

Nate Morris, a busi­ness­man who had been a seri­ous can­di­date, bowed out in the final stretch at Trump’s request in exchange for being offered an ambassadorship.

The Democratic nom­i­nee for the Senate is Charles Booker, who was also the nom­i­nee in 2024, when he lost to Republican Sen. Rand Paul.

He won the nom­i­na­tion this time with almost 42 per­cent of the vote.

In Clark County, Booker received 1,283 votes com­pared to 1,080 for Amy McGrath, 315 for Pamela Stevenson, and 163 for Dale Romans. The oth­er three can­di­dates got only dou­ble digits.

McGrath had beat­en Booker in the 2022 pri­ma­ry, but then lost to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who is retir­ing at the end of this year.

District judge race

There was a dis­trict judge’s race on the bal­lot, but one of the three can­di­dates, Micah Johnson, dropped out after the bal­lots had been print­ed. The oth­er two can­di­dates, Judge Tyler S. Frazier and attor­ney Darrian D. Botts, will advance to the Nov. 3 gen­er­al election.

State Senate: Elkins

Also up for re-elec­tion this year was Republican state Sen. Greg Elkins of Winchester in the 28^th District, but he drew no oppo­si­tion in the pri­ma­ry or the gen­er­al elec­tion. Unless a write-in can­di­date files this sum­mer, he will be re-elect­ed unopposed.

Related: Clark County pri­ma­ry elec­tion results