Editor’s Note: The NKyTribune is offering one free op-ed posting from NKY candidates in major races in which there is opposition for the November 3 General Election. Today’s commentaries are the last in the series for 2026. All submissions have been printed as of today. Open voting continues today (see the schedule for options near you. The polls are open on Tuesday, Nov. 3 from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. To find how where to vote, see govote.ky.gov.
I grew up the son of a truck driver and a billing clerk in a hardworking Southern family that taught me faith, perseverance, and personal responsibility. We didn’t have much, but we had each other, and the expectation that you work hard, treat people with respect, and take care of your own. I’m not a career politician. I’m a Christian, a Libertarian, husband, and a dad who got into this race because I watched something happen in Kentucky’s 4th District — and across the country—that I couldn’t tolerate. Our federal government being sold off to the highest bidder.
Not in my backyard.
More Americans than ever are fed up with the two major parties. Polls and conversations on the ground show the same pattern: people know the system no longer works for them. Both parties talk about fiscal responsibility while the debt climbs. Both have supported endless foreign commitments that cost us blood and treasure. Both have watched affordability erode for working families while special interests and big donors get rich. The result is a politics of division and stalemate in which ordinary voters are left choosing between options that feel pre-selected by money and party machine rather than by the people who live here.
That frustration is real, and it is growing. After May’s primary, it became clear that outside money had shaped the outcome before most voters fully weighed in. I decided to run not out of political ambition, but obligation.
Obligation to give people a better alternative — one that isn’t owned by billionaire donors, foreign lobbies, or the permanent political class.
People are ready for something different. The same sentiment shows up in every interview and conversation I’ve hafd: voters are tired of the false choice between two parties that often agree on the big things that make our lives worse. They want a reset.
They want representatives who answer to constituents first, not to the highest bidder—and who are willing to put those commitments in writing.
That’s why I signed a contract with the people of Kentucky. It is a binding pledge. If I break any of these eight promises, I am ineligible to run for reelection and face financial consequences. The promises are straightforward: no stock trading while in office; never vote to restrict the Second Amendment; never fund abortion clinics; never take money from a foreign lobby; never advance warrantless surveillance; never increase federal spending; never voter for foreign aid; and always vote to put war powers back in Congress. These are not slogans. They are concrete commitments that address the exact failures people are tired of seeing from Washington. They put accountability first and make clear that I will not trade principles for power or donor access.
Affordability is my top priority because the numbers don’t lie. A two-person household earning $140,000 a year in Kentucky can still struggle once daycare, housing, and basic costs are factored in. Young people are getting squeezed by currency debasement, endless money printing, and taxation that transfers wealth from those who work to those who already own assets. The median age of a first-time homebuyer has climbed dramatically to over 40. FORTY! This is the result of a government that spends far more than it takes in and a central bank that quietly depreciates the dollar. Inflation functions as a hidden tax that hits working families and savers hardest. My goal in Congress is straightforward: cut spending across the board, shrink the debt rather than just slow its growth, restore sound money principles, and reduce the tax burden so people keep more of what they earn.
On foreign policy, I draw a clear line between national defense and a permanent war state. Americans understand that freedom sometimes requires a strong military capable of protecting the homeland. What we have instead is an expensive global policing mission that costs well over a trillion dollars a year while our own borders and infrastructure need attention. Endless foreign entanglements make us poorer without making us safer. I will work to bring the troops home from unnecessary wars, end empire-building abroad, oppose reinstituting the draft, and return foreign policy to a defense-first posture grounded in the Constitution.
Peace and restraint are not weakness; they are how we improve American citizen’s lives and become a city on a hill. The same principle applies to rejecting foreign lobby money and ensuring that war powers remain with Congress, not the executive or outside interests.
I also believe American elections and American policy should belong to Americans. No foreign government, foreign-funded organization, or international lobbying network should exercise disproportionate influence over our representatives. These positions, and the binding contract that locks them in, come from people in the district who are tired of watching Washington spend their money, send their neighbors’ children into open-ended conflicts, and treat elections as auctions. The growing dissatisfaction with both major parties is not a threat to democracy; it is a demand for better representation.
We will no longer tolerate the lesser of two evils that got us here. Instead we will support greater good. What if we did and changed American politics forever. A grassroots campaign powered by small donations from working people can show that a seat in Congress does not have to be purchased. It can show that voters still have the power to change Washington — one district at a time.
My son and every other child in this district deserve a future in which the American dream is still reachable — where hard work is rewarded rather than punished by inflation and debt. I am running because more Americans are recognizing that the two-party system has left them with fewer real choices, and because principles matter more than party. Kentucky has a chance to send a clear message: we value liberty, accountability, and self-government more than any donor’s check or party label. That is the goal. America First. America Only. America FOREVER.
Jeremy Todd is a Libertarian candidate for the Congress is Kentucky’s 4th District