By Joseph Lord
Contributing Writer
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., has been named Republicans’ pick to replace outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the U.S. Senate.
The Associated Press called the race for Barr at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday, an hour after polls closed. Barr led with 63.8% of the vote to 28.4% for the next closest rival, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
Barr is heavily favored to win the November election in the Republican-voting state, which last sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in the 1992 election.
The primary marks the first time in 16 years that the state has seen a fully open race for a Kentucky Senate seat. The last such primary took place in 2010, when Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., won his first election to Congress.
But the seat specifically held by McConnell — an eight-term political juggernaut who led Senate Republicans throughout the 2010s and 2020s—has not seen a fully open primary since 1972, when former Sen. Walter “Dee” Huddleston, D-Ky., won an open primary for the seat, the first of Huddleston’s two Senate election victories.
McConnell, then 42 years old, was first elected to the seat in 1984, unseating the incumbent Huddleston.
Since his seventh reelection to the Senate in 2020, McConnell, now 84, had faced growing scrutiny over his health, particularly in the wake of public incidents in which the Republican leader appeared to freeze.
McConnell had served as the leader of the Republican Senate conference since January 2007. Before the start of the current 119th Congress, he agreed to step down from the role, giving his blessing to then-Republican Whip John Thune, R-S.D., who has served as majority leader since January 2025.
