Following her announcement, Kentucky House Minority Leader Democrat Pamela Stevenson has been running unopposed for the Democratic nomination since February. That was until this month, when in the span of two days, two more Democrats joined the race hoping to represent the Commonwealth in 2027.
The first was on Sept. 16, when former Secret Service Agent Logan Forsythe announced his candidacy for the Senate. Forsythe, 36, is a personal injury lawyer based out of Lexington and announced his candidacy through a video posted online. “My name is Logan Forsythe and for years I was a special agent for the United States Secret Service,” Forsythe’s video said. He continued, “I protected a Republican president and a Democratic president, and you know what? I would have taken a bullet for both.”
Later in the video, he gives an explanation for his run. “Recently, my son asked me ‘Dad, what’re you going to do to fix what’s going on?,’ and his question hit me like a ton of bricks. So today, I am announcing that I’m running for the United States Senate, because politicians have forgotten about families like mine and places like these.” Forsythe also cites the recent passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” through the US Congress as a reason for his run. “It cuts veterans benefits, and it slashes food assistance for groceries. These programs helped my family through the toughest of times, and it decimates medicaid in our rural hospitals. All of this to hand billionaires another tax break.” He finished by saying, “That pisses me off, and it should piss you off too.”
The announcement came with curiosity but reservation to experts and former elected officials. Stephen Voss, who serves as a professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, told WHAS11 that “Democrats often run candidates with some kind of law-enforcement background when the public is upset about crime.” He continued by saying, “It’s how they undermine Republican ‘issue ownership’ in the law-and-order category. It can help a little.”
Trey Grayson, a Republican and former Kentucky Secretary of State, told WHAS11 that Forsythe’s video announcement was “good.” However, the Republican followed with “but unless Andy Beshear enters the race, let’s face it, no one in the Democratic primary has a chance in the fall.”
A day after Forsythe’s announcement, another Democrat joined him in taking on Pamela Stevenson in the primary. Joel Willett, who is an ex-CIA agent, launched his campaign on Sept. 17 following his CIA-clearance being revoked by current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this summer. Following this, according to Willett’s campaign, Republican-aligned activists online, such as Laura Loomer, sent him messages which included death threats.
“I’ve seen firsthand how the Trump administration and their far-right allies are trying to weaponize the government against anyone who disagrees with them,” Willett stated during a video announcing his candidacy. He finished by saying, “That just made me more determined to run.”
Willett, like Forsythe, is also basing his campaign largely on criticizing President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Willett stated, “This budget legislation will transfer $4 trillion out of much needed government services and put it in the pockets of billionaires.”
He is also using his campaign to fight fentanyl addictions in Kentucky, an addiction that affected both of Willett’s parents and caused his father’s death from an overdose in 2019. “Fentanyl didn’t care that I worked at the White House. It affects all families, truly without fear or favor.”
The two announcements are the sixth and seventh major candidates running for retiring Senator Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat, with Stevenson and Republicans Andy Barr, Daniel Cameron, Nate Morris and Michael Faris also running for the seat. Whoever wins their respective party primaries next May will compete in the November election, and whoever wins there will take office on Jan. 3, 2027.
Photo courtesy of Logan Forsythe.
