Breaking: New DCCC polling first reported on by the Lexington Herald-Leader shows that the race for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District is starting out in a dead heat.
This is now the second public poll in recent weeks to show a toss up race in KY-06. Last month, non-partisan race rater Inside Elections reported on polling that similarly “suggests the race is becoming increasingly competitive.”
A major reason why the race is tight? Republican nominee Ralph Alvarado is corrupt and scandal-plagued. Catch up here:Â The Case Against Ralph Alvarado.
Read the key points from Lexington Herald-Leader:
- A new internal poll obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader shows a dead heat in Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District race with three months remaining until Election Day on Nov. 3.
- According to the poll, conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 47% of likely voters support Republican Ralph Alvarado and 47% favor Democrat Zach Dembo, with 6% undecided.
- “The race starts off as a true jump ball, and the fundamentals show that Dembo has a clear path to victory over Alvarado,” an attached DCCC polling memo states.
- The DCCC poll comes a month after another survey in the 6th District race gave Alvarado a narrow lead over Dembo, 42% to 39%, with 19% either undecided or preferring a third-party candidate.
- Pollsters in both surveys said Dembo is helped by his close association with two-term Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is popular in Kentucky, while Alvarado’s numbers are being dragged down alongside Republican President Donald Trump’s, who is losing Americans’ support over rising prices and the Iran war.
- Dembo, a Navy veteran and former assistant U.S. attorney in Lexington, served as an aide to Beshear during the COVID-19 pandemic and recently was endorsed by the governor.
- Alvarado, a doctor and former Kentucky state senator from Winchester who later went to Tennessee to become that state’s health commissioner, has touted his Trump endorsement.
- Trump — who won the district in 2024 — now has only a 37% approval rating in Central Kentucky, with 53% of likely voters expressing their disapproval in the poll, the DCCC concluded.
- Also, the DCCC said, Alvarado is linked in the public’s mind to “unpopular and disgraced” Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, with whom he ran for lieutenant governor in 2019. Bevin and Alvarado lost that election to Beshear.
- “With popular Governor Beshear’ s endorsement, the environmental tailwinds at his back and the ability to define Alvarado as a corrupt career politician, Dembo is on course to win in November,” the polling memo said.
- In his own statement on the poll, Dembo said: “People across Central Kentucky are hurting, and my opponent represents the same corruption and failed politics that got us here. I’m running to fight corruption, make sure healthcare is accessible for everyone and hold the powerful accountable.”Â
- “I’ve built my career serving people in this commonwealth and country, from my time in the Navy to my work for Gov. Andy Beshear,” Dembo continued. “That’s exactly what Central Kentucky needs in Congress in this critical moment, and I’m humbled the voters of the Sixth District are taking notice.”
|
|
