The Case Against Ralph Alvarado

Ralph Alvarado represents everything that Kentuckians hate about politics. An ambitious politician who has always been plotting his next career move, Alvarado has used his positions, not to help working families, but to benefit himself, including his key role in a large-scale Medicare fraud scandal. After Kentuckians statewide rejected him and his disastrous running mate Matt Bevin in 2019, he fled to Tennessee, once again choosing personal political expediency over the people of Kentucky. Now, Alvarado was brought back by his D.C. bosses and is desperately hoping that Kentucky voters have forgotten his long history of corruption, failures, and betrayals.

Zach Dembo is everything Ralph Alvarado is not. A ninth-generation Kentuckian raised in a farming family with a service-oriented spirit, Zach is an independent voice committed to fighting corruption and will bring common-sense leadership to Central Kentucky. He has answered the call to serve at every opportunity, working as a teacher in the Mississippi Delta for the Teach For America program, then going on to serve in uniform as an officer in the United States Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. When the call came again to serve as a federal prosecutor to fight crime in the Department of Justice, Zach knew what he had to do. Now, after serving in Governor Beshear’s administration, Zach is answering the call once again as Kentuckians are struggling to make ends meet – refusing to sit by and watch as Congress makes everything worse. 

Kentuckians have been particularly hard hit by Republicans’ disastrous agenda which has negatively affected everything from the trademark bourbon and horse racing industries, to their agricultural sector, and health care system. In a newly open seat that no longer has an overperforming Republican candidate to rely on, Democrats have a unique opportunity to flip this Lexington-area district this November.

Alvarado Abandoned Kentucky, But D.C. Ambitions Dragged Him Back

This November won’t be Kentucky voters’ first time rejecting Ralph Alvarado for a Democrat. As the running mate to disgraced (and now facing criminal contempt charges) Matt Bevin, Alvarado’s scandals continued to follow him wherever he went. Not one to let his failures get in the way of his political ambitions, Alvarado left Kentucky and moved to Tennessee showing no signs of ever returning until it became clear that Republicans in D.C. had failed to attract their top recruit for this newly-open seat. Kentucky should never be a consolation prize, but D.C. Republicans and Alvarado sure do treat it like one.

Kentucky families deserve a representative who understands them, who will fight for them, and who is one of them. This November, Kentucky voters are going to send Zach Dembo to Congress. 

Ralph Alvarado was a Central Player in Kentucky Medicare Fraud Scheme and He Wants Working-Class Kentuckians to Pay the Price

Having grown practiced at looking the other way on bribes and corruption during the Trump Era, DC Republicans have also worked overtime to ignore Ralph Alvarado’s involvement in his own Medicare fraud schemes. During his time in the Kentucky State Legislature, Alvarado was named in a federal case alleging that he “referred patients to a home-health agency that had given [him] gifts, a relationship that federal authorities later alleged was improper.” Alvarado received $12,000 in campaign donations and gifts in exchange for sending patients to their business, resulting in nearly $1.2 million in Medicare payments. These allegations of a quid-pro-quo agreement represent what Kentuckians have come to hate about shady politicians like Alvarado who are more concerned with holding power and padding their own pockets rather than working on behalf of the people who elected them.

Alvarado’s deep history of corruption doesn’t end there. While serving as the medical director for multiple low-rated nursing homes, Alvarado used his position in the Kentucky General Assembly to make it harder for families of patients to hold those same nursing homes accountable for medical malpractice. The nursing homes Alvarado protected faced more than $400,000 in fines and stood accused of over-medicating, neglecting, and abusing their elderly patients. Because of Alvarado, these families were stuck in years-long court backlogs and Alvarado even pushed to limit the amount of money they could receive as restitution. Alvarado has made it clear that his loyalties lie with whomever will help him line his own pockets – Kentuckians be damned.

Now that Alvarado has made his money and his career out of abusing the systems that ensure access to affordable health care for tens of thousands of Kentuckians, he’s aiming to pull the rug out from underneath them entirely. Alvarado opposed Medicaid expansion in Kentucky despite the program’s massive success in the commonwealth. Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion program, Kynect, quickly led to the sharpest drop in uninsured adults in the entire country, improved access to care, and reduced financial strain.

Alvarado continues to promote House Republicans’ disastrous ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ even after its historic cuts to Medicaid forced Kentucky hospitals – particularly rural hospitals – to scale back services and pause renovations that were needed to strengthen care for patients. Thanks to Alvarado’s D.C. bosses, Kentuckians are now left with fewer options for their health care and paying more for it – either facing 200% increases in the cost of their insurance premiums or forgoing health insurance altogether. Once again, Alvarado has put loyalty to the D.C. elitist class he so desperately wants to join above the needs of Kentucky’s working families.

As voters across the country reject this political corruption, Alvarado’s compromised ethics will come to haunt him this November – especially as he faces Zach Dembo in the general election. As a former federal prosecutor Zach has been on the front lines of rooting out and fighting corruption. His anti-corruption record is exactly what led him to quit his dream job in the Department of Justice when D.C. elitists tried to weaponize the justice system. Zach has prosecuted corruption before, and he’s ready to hold accountable anyone who doesn’t have Kentuckians’ best interests in mind. That includes Ralph Alvarado.

Kentucky’s Hallmark Industries are Suffering Under Alvarado-Backed Tariffs – Alvarado Thinks It’s All Working According to Plan 

When people think of Kentucky, nothing comes to mind more than bourbon and horse racing. These industries are so central to the identity of Kentucky that even notoriously out-of-touch Alvarado can’t deny them. However, that hasn’t stopped Alvarado from putting party loyalty above the success and prosperity of these hallmark industries. Despite admitting that Republicans’ chaotic tariffs are having “an adverse effect on both bourbon distillers and farmers,” Alvarado continues to stand by the cost-raising tariffs even as the industry faces losses totaling more than $250 million. Alvarado-backed tariffs are also leaving the farmers that support the bourbon trade out to dry. 

Farmers create the backbone for Kentucky’s most critical industries and they’re being squeezed at every angle thanks to the people funding Alvarado’s campaign. D.C. Republicans’ war of choice in Iran is spiking diesel fuel prices for farmers, leading to higher prices at every point in the supply chain. Tariffs are even increasing the costs of fertilizer, and soybean farmers are in the midst of the worst economic “crisis in decades.” Despite admitting that he has talked to farmers who have expressed their concerns with his party’s disastrous economic agenda, Alvarado still maintains that they just have to “understand the President’s vision” and claims that the country is “seeing success,” not because working families can make ends meet, but because “the [stock] markets have continued to do very, very well.” The reality facing farmers does not matter to Alvarado; he only cares about padding his and party bosses’ bottom line.

Kentucky farmers and distillers need a real advocate in Congress, not more false promises and betrayals. Working families know that they will have a real fighter in Zach Dembo. The fight for Kentucky’s economic success and agriculture community isn’t abstract to Zach, he lived it. For generations, his entire family made their living by tobacco farming. He has promised to get to work to fight for the small family farms like the one his family had so they can continue to serve as the lifeblood of Kentucky culture.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Lexington Herald Leader: KY Republican Congressional candidates agree with Trump, each other in debate [Lexington Herald Leader, 3/3/26]

“Dotson said he and Alvarado probably agreed on 90% of the issues. Still, he made quick reference to Alvarado leaving his state senate post to run Tennessee’s health department — a post he left just before declaring his run for Congress last year. ‘To see any type of weakness in him is the fact he did leave Kentucky for a season, and then he came back,’ Dotson said.”

Spectrum News: GOP hopefuls for Kentucky’s 6th District face off in first debate [Spectrum News, 2/27/26]

“‘…But we’re seeing success [with the tariffs]. I think, again, people predicted the market would collapse under his policies, and the markets have continued to do very, very well.’”

Lexington Herald Leader: Bevin running mate Ralph Alvarado mentioned in Medicare fraud case settled in 2015 [Lexington Herald Leader, 2/6/19]

“State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, a physician running for lieutenant governor of Kentucky, was one of two dozen doctors who referred patients to a home-health agency that had given them gifts, a relationship that federal authorities later alleged was improper.
…
But prosecutors alleged in the 2011 complaint that Nurses Registry and the Houses provided ‘illegal remuneration and kickbacks’ to Alvarado and others, and that the doctors referred patients to the agency “in violation of federal law,” according to a court document.”

Lexington Herald Leader: He writes laws that help Kentucky’s low-rated nursing homes. He also works for them. [Lexington Herald Leader, 1/7/19]

“State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, is a doctor who works at nearly a half-dozen substandard nursing homes while he fights in Frankfort to protect the nursing home industry from personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits.
…
Alvarado has skin in the game. He is employed as the medical director at five Central Kentucky nursing homes whose quality was rated this year as “below average” or “much below average” by the U.S. Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services based on annual inspections. 
…
These five nursing homes racked up $416,903 in combined fines over the last three years after state inspectors cited them for serious problems, such as mass scabies outbreaks among residents, medication errors and accidental choking deaths.”

Lexington Herald Leader: Zach Dembo: I’m the KY-6 Democrat with a record of rooting out corruption [Lexington Herald Leader, 5/1/26]

“Last May, Zach Dembo says, he reluctantly quit his dream job prosecuting public corruption as an assistant U.S. attorney based in Lexington. Dembo said he grew disgusted by Republican President Donald Trump forcing out thousands of career employees at the U.S. Department of Justice and changing the weakened agency’s focus to immigration crackdowns, prosecutions of his political adversaries and pardons for his supporters.

Politico: Can Democrats actually flip this red Kentucky district? [Politico, 3/13/26]

“Dembo, meanwhile, is pitching himself as a “Beshear Democrat” — a nod to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who performed well in the 6th District during his 2023 reelection campaign.
…
He has emphasized his experience as a Navy JAG officer and former federal prosecutor, arguing his resume gives him crossover appeal in a Republican-leaning district. Dembo resigned from his position at the Justice Department during Trump’s second term, saying he could no longer remain in his role amid what he described as corruption and the Trump administration’s ‘abuse of the criminal justice system.’”

Path to Victory
With Congressman Andy Barr’s decision to vacate Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, Democrats have a unique opportunity to flip this district blue in November. While Barr routinely overperformed Donald Trump, Ralph Alvarado is a proven loser who’s already been rejected by Kentuckians. Governor Andy Beshear won this district twice by double digits proving a genuine openness to supporting Democrats. Last year, sensing Democratic momentum in KY-06, election prognosticator Sabato’s Crystal Ball, shifted its rating for the district towards Democrats. With a significantly weaker Republican candidate, a political environment seeing double-digit swings towards Democrats in deep-red territory, and a former member of the Beshear cabinet as the candidate, Zach Dembo has a real path to flipping this seat in November.

This district is also anchored by the Lexington metropolitan area with a large number of young voters as home to the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University – voters Democrats have historically overperformed with and who are increasingly souring on Republicans’ cost-raising agenda. With the right candidate in Zach Dembo who can speak to this diverse district, Governor Beshear’s margin in KY-06 proves that House Democrats can take this open seat in 2026.