Comer rallies Clark County Republicans ahead of election

James Comer, Republican can­di­date for gov­er­nor, came to Winchester last week to fire up the crowd at the Clark County Republican Women’s Club soup sup­per. Having just come from anoth­er fundrais­er in Springfield, the 1^st District con­gress­man sprint­ed from the back door to the micro­phone just as state Sen. Greg Elkins fin­ished his introduction. 

He apol­o­gized for being late, although he had arrived just in time as the oth­er can­di­dates had fin­ished speaking. 

“First of all, thank you for every­thing you’ve done to make this a sol­id red coun­ty,” Comer said, refer­ring to the Republicans’ dom­i­nance here. 

But he was con­cerned about the pos­si­bil­i­ty that the 6^th District might turn blue if Republican vot­ers think their can­di­date can’t lose and don’t show up at the polls. 

“If Republicans turn out, we will win this elec­tion,” Comer said. 

“I know what the polls say, but the polls are only accu­rate if we pre­dict the turnout,” he explained. “If we get our vote out, I think we’ll be fine.” 

New polls show the con­gres­sion­al race tight­en­ing, with Democrat Zach Dembo hold­ing a slim lead over Republican Dr. Ralph Alvarado, who also spoke at the Oct. 15 fundrais­er at the Cardinal Community Center and left ear­ly for anoth­er event. 

The Republicans have held the Lexington-based dis­trict for 14 years. All that time it has been rep­re­sent­ed by Andy Barr, who is run­ning for the U.S. Senate, leav­ing the seat open. 

“Let’s get out and vote for Andy Barr and Ralph Alvarado” and all the oth­er can­di­dates and get them “across the fin­ish line,” Comer urged. 

Several times dur­ing his talk, Comer was inter­rupt­ed by loud applause and cheer­ing. Comer spoke lit­tle about his own race, explain­ing there would be time enough for that in 2027. But he did say he was excit­ed about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of hav­ing a Republican gov­er­nor as well as a sol­id GOP state leg­is­la­ture after 2027. 

“Every good thing that’s hap­pened in Kentucky in the last sev­en years has hap­pened because of a Republican super­ma­jor­i­ty in the House and a Republican super­ma­jor­i­ty in the Senate, and despite Andy Beshear,” he said, the only time he named the Democratic governor. 

Unlike the last Republican gov­er­nor, Matt Bevin, who angered school­teach­ers by push­ing for changes to their pen­sions, Comer said he loved them. 

“I think we should let our teach­ers teach and focus on the basics — math and read­ing, and stuff that you and I had when we were in school,” he said. “If we do that and get the bureau­cra­cy out of the way . . . I think we can have the best pub­lic school sys­tem in America.” 

He said Kentucky can also cre­ate the best-pay­ing jobs in the country. 

“We can­not only retain our best employ­ees in Kentucky, we can recruit the next gen­er­a­tion of entre­pre­neurs, and pri­vate equi­ty, and ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists to the state,” he said. 

Alvarado began his talk by apol­o­giz­ing for “all the ads,” say­ing the bat­tle for the 6^th District is cur­rent­ly about a $10 mil­lion race. He said there are about 93 ads per day on television. 

Alvarado attacked Dembo more than he talked about himself. 

“I served in the Senate longer than he’s been a vot­ing cit­i­zen in Kentucky; he’s only been here six years,” he said of Dembo, who grew up in Kentucky but served in the Navy and at the Department of Justice as a prosecutor. 

Dembo says he hates pol­i­tics, but in his high school year­book, he men­tions run­ning for office, Alvarado said. 

He also refut­ed ads on behalf of Dembo that have been run­ning against him — ads claim­ing he sup­port­ed Bevin’s deci­sions because he was his run­ning mate in 2019, and that he took a bribe from a home health agency by accept­ing a bas­ket of fruit. 

“This race is close,” he said. “It’s been a mar­gin-of-error race since it began.” 

Like Comer, Alvarado said it’s going to come down to turnout, and he urged his lis­ten­ers to get out and vote. 

Barr, who had been in Springfield that night with Comer, didn’t attend the Winchester event, but Elkins spoke on his behalf. 

“He’s a friend of mine. He has been for a long time,” Elkins said. “He has a work eth­ic that is unmatched by anybody.” 

He repeat­ed Barr’s asser­tion that the choice between Republicans and Democrats is a choice between “com­mon sense and crazy.” 

“If we send the wrong peo­ple to Washington, D.C.,” he warned, there will be “an onslaught of inves­ti­ga­tions” of President Donald Trump. 

Elkins said the high costs of fuel and gro­ceries would be “a tem­po­rary sit­u­a­tion” if Republicans keep con­trol of Congress. 

“It’s a sit­u­a­tion that will end when we get the world back into some kind of order,” he said. 

It got out of order because, instead of send­ing Iran “cruise mis­siles, we sent them cash.” 

The state sen­a­tor sug­gest­ed that if there’s a low turnout, Democratic-lean­ing urban areas such as Louisville and Lexington would have an advantage. 

“We can’t allow Jefferson County and Fayette County to decide who our next United States sen­a­tor is,” he said. “We’ve got to run up the score in Clark County” and in oth­er rur­al coun­ties, such as Montgomery and Menifee, cit­ing two coun­ties that had atten­dees there. 

Daniel Konstantopoulos, Clark County’s District 1 mag­is­trate, who is run­ning for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive against Democrat Chelsea Kirk of Lexington, said he some­times for­gets there’s “anoth­er com­mu­ni­ty” in the district. 

“You all know me,” he said, but some­one he talked with recent­ly asked him if he was an American cit­i­zen because of his last name, which drew laughter. 

Others who spoke at the event includ­ed Scott Hisle, who is run­ning for Konstantopoulos’ seat on the Clark County Fiscal Court; Justin Charles, the Republican can­di­date for coun­ty judge-exec­u­tive; Chris Grant, the GOP can­di­date for jail­er; Joanna Lashbrook, who filled in for PVA Jada Brady; and Tara Asbury, who is run­ning in the non­par­ti­san race for Winchester’s city commission.