Petrey running for Congress as a progressive

In a con­gres­sion­al dis­trict that Republican Andy Barr car­ried by near­ly two-thirds of the vote in 2024, Erin Petrey is run­ning this year as an unapolo­getic progressive.

“I’m the most pro­gres­sive Democrat” in the pri­ma­ry race, Petrey said Thursday night dur­ing a cam­paign meet-and-greet at the Clark County Public Library.

“Right now, we’re see­ing a blue wave, but it’s also a pro­gres­sive wave,” and so now is the time to put pro­gres­sive poli­cies into action, she said.

“We need Medicare for all — not some Band-Aid solu­tion, but a sin­gle-pay­er option. We need a liv­ing wage, not some stepped-up min­i­mum wage. We also know that the Democratic Party is the only thing that’s polling less favor­ably than Donald Trump,” so it is time to “fix the Democratic Party and make it what it actu­al­ly should be,” she said in an interview.

“These cor­po­rate Democrats have sold us out, and I’m the only per­son in the race who is not a cor­po­rate Democrat,” she remarked.

Petrey is one of sev­en Democratic can­di­dates for the 6^th District U.S. House seat being vacat­ed by Barr, who is run­ning for the Senate to suc­ceed for­mer Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is retir­ing at the end of the year.

The Democrats who have raised enough mon­ey or polled well enough to be con­sid­ered lead­ing can­di­dates are Cherlynn Stevenson, a for­mer state leg­isla­tive leader, for­mer U.S. Attorney Zach Dembo, for­mer Lexington Councilman David Kloiber, and Petrey of Lexington, who is a bour­bon writer and businesswoman.

Whoever wins the pri­ma­ry will like­ly face either Dr. Ralph Alvarado or the Rev. Ryan Dotson, both Winchester res­i­dents who have served in the state leg­is­la­ture and are the Republican frontrunners.

Petrey com­pared her­self to President Donald Trump as a businessperson.

“I have nev­er made a busi­ness fail. I’ve made peo­ple a lot of mon­ey. I’ve cre­at­ed a lot of jobs. I’ve export­ed things over­seas and cre­at­ed mar­kets. I’ve built com­pa­nies from the ground up,” she said.

She said she is run­ning not as a politi­cian but as a real rep­re­sen­ta­tive — to rep­re­sent ordi­nary peo­ple. What she said she’s been hear­ing about most is afford­abil­i­ty. Voters are talk­ing to her about the prices of health care, hous­ing, and groceries.

“Everything’s too expen­sive,” she said.

Yet on the Democratic side, can­di­dates are throw­ing up their hands, and on the Republican side, can­di­dates are per­form­ing for the pres­i­dent rather than the peo­ple, she said.

“All they’re doing is talk­ing about Trump and not talk­ing about the issues that actu­al­ly impact people’s lives,” she said. 

“I’m not say­ing we need to make gov­ern­ment big­ger, but it needs to work bet­ter,” she reasoned.

About 10 peo­ple attend­ed the cam­paign stop at the library over an hour and a half, includ­ing Robin Kunkel, a can­di­date for Winchester’s city com­mis­sion, local Democratic Party chair Ronni Tallent, and Vincent Anthony Thompson, one of 20 can­di­dates for the U.S. Senate.