By McKenna Horsley
Kentucky Lantern
After a slew of candidates dropped off their paperwork, the door to the secretary of state’s office promptly closed at 4 p.m. Friday — marking the deadline for Kentucky’s 2024 election filings.
Voters across the Commonwealth have much to decide this year — races for Congress, General Assembly, Kentucky Supreme Court and most local offices. Americans will also be electing a president in November.
All of Kentucky’s congressional seats will be on the ballot this year, and all of Kentucky’s incumbent congressional members have filed for reelection.
Suspended attorney and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Deters filed Friday to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie in the 4th Congressional District. The seat also has a third GOP candidate, Michael McGinnis of Fort Thomas.
As of Friday afternoon, eight presidential candidates filed to appear on Kentucky’s ballots for the upcoming primary elections. The Democrats are Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson and President Joe Biden. The Republicans are Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and former President Donald Trump — who won Kentucky’s electoral votes in 2016 and 2020.
Republican House Speaker David Osborne told reporters Friday morning that as the state leans toward Republicans, “the battles tend to move more toward primaries.” Osborne is seeking reelection in the 59th House District.
“I think Kentucky tends to or continues to trend toward the Republican Party,” the speaker said. “So I think that therefore more and more seats are determined in the Republican primary. I think that nobody likes to run elections and lose.”
Osborne added that when he was a part of the minority party in Frankfort, “we didn’t have very many people that wanted to sign up and jump in either.”
Shortly after the deadline, the website for the Secretary of State’s Office showed more than 100 Republicans and more than 70 Democrats filed for Kentucky House primary elections. All seats in the House will be on the ballot this year.
In the state Senate, 22 Republicans and 13 Democrats are seeking election.
Two candidates have filed for the 5th Judicial District race for the Kentucky Supreme Court — Court of Appeals Judge Pamela R. Goodwine, of Lexington, and Erin Izzo, an attorney who lives in Frankfort. Judicial races are nonpartisan.
To view a full list of candidates, view filings on the Secretary of State’s website.
