Mckenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern

LOUISVILLE — Kentucky Right to Life is endorsing in fewer legislative races this year — 45 candidates for the General Assembly received an endorsement from the anti-abortion group, down from 86 in 2022 and 88 in 2020.

Addia Wuchner, Kentucky Right to Life executive director, did not respond to a voicemail and email from the Lantern last week.

Planned Parenthood’s Tamarra Wieder said the decrease in endorsements is a sign that Kentucky politicians no longer want to take the unpopular stands required to win a Right to Life endorsement.

Wieder, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Kentucky, said it’s an “incredible indictment on the brand and on the movement.”

“What this shows is that they have become too extreme, even for their followers,” Wieder said. “They are out of step with Kentuckians, and I think it also shows the legislature is afraid of putting their name on anti-abortion policies.”

In order to be considered for an endorsement, the Kentucky Right to Life Victory PAC requires candidates to answer questions about issues important to the group and sign the survey. The organization also considers voting record, a candidate’s involvement in organizations related to abortion, electability and background.

In 2024, about 50 Republican candidates “declined” to answer the survey, according to the endorsement report. Right to Life endorsed 45 legislative candidates and “recommended” others based on their voting history.

All 100 House seats and half of the 38 Senate seats are on the ballot every two years, although many seats go uncontested.

The Lantern used information from VoteSmart to count endorsements from earlier elections; Kentucky Right to Life Victory PAC’s voter guides from prior elections are not posted on its website.

It’s unclear if everyone marked as “declined” this year received the survey.

Although endorsed by Right to Life at times in the past, the top Republicans in both chambers of the legislature are not endorsed this year. Among those listed as declining to answer the group’s questions: Senate President Robert Stivers, House Speaker David Osborne, Senate President Pro Tem David Givens and Speaker Pro Tem David Meade.

Other prominent Republicans listed as declining to respond are House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy and Senate budget committee chairman Chris McDaniel.

All of them were still recommended by Right to Life based on their voting records.

A Senate GOP spokesperson said Stivers and Givens “agree that their voting record speaks for itself.”

No Democrats answered the Right to Life survey this year and none were endorsed.

Candidates wary of surveys in general

Political considerations about abortion changed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federally-guaranteed right to abortion in 2022. The ruling allowed a near-total abortion ban that Republican lawmakers had already put on the books to take effect in Kentucky. It has no exceptions for victims of rape or incest and a narrow exception to protect the life of a pregnant patient.

Morgan Eaves, the executive director of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said the decline in candidates taking the Right to Life survey shows that “Kentucky Republicans know that their extreme anti-choice and zero exceptions policy is unpopular, and that’s why they’re running away from it now.”

Republicans, however, gave little sign of backing off the abortion ban during this year’s legislative session. Although lawmakers of both parties sponsored bills to loosen abortion restrictions, none of the measures made any headway. Bills protecting in vitro fertilization also failed to advance, after the temporary suspension of the fertility treatment in Alabama stirred a political storm.

Republican Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state, was reluctant to say if the decline in GOP candidates responding to the Right to Life survey signaled a rift with the organization. Candidates, he said, have become more wary of surveys in general. Advocacy interest groups are trying to advance an agenda and elect people who are part of their causes, Grayson said. A lawmaker seeking reelection recently complained to him about “gotcha” questions on candidate surveys.

Challengers are more likely to respond to surveys, Grayson said, while incumbents can point to their voting records, floor speeches and websites.

‘ … not that much more to give’

Last year Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear used the abortion ban to his advantage against Republican challenger Daniel Cameron. Cameron had been endorsed by Right to Life but waffled on abortion after Beshear aired ads attacking him as extreme for opposing rape and incest exceptions. (Kentuckian Hadley Duvall, who spoke in a Beshear ad about being impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12, is now playing a prominent role in the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president.)

The year before, in November 2022, Kentuckians had defeated an anti-abortion constitutional amendment that Republicans put on the ballot before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Republican strategist Tres Watson, a former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said it’s not Republican politicians who have changed but Right to Life. Having gained its long-time goal of outlawing abortion in Kentucky, the organization is “continuing to ask for more when there’s just not that much more to give.”

“I think that the leadership over there needs to reconsider their relationship with candidates and with the legislature if they want to continue to be an influencer in Frankfort,” Watson said of the group.

Tres Watson

Weider of Planned Parenthood said the Right to Life questionnaire “is more extreme than ever.”

Watson said he thinks Republican lawmakers support adding exceptions for rape and incest to the abortion ban. “I think that if you were to remove elections from the equation, I think that an exceptions bill would pass easily among Republicans,” Watson said. “But I think that the threat of Kentucky Right to Life coming out and attempting to make pro-life legislators appear to be pro-abortion liberals is preventing that from passing.”

Watson said when he worked for the state Republican Party candidates were advised not to respond to a survey from Northern Kentucky Right to Life “because it asked you to take extreme positions that didn’t sit well with independent voters and center right Republicans.”

IVF among the questions

Kentucky Right to Life’s 2024 questionnaire asks candidates about their support for maintaining a ban on assisted suicide, banning mail-in abortion pills, adding a “Human Life” amendment to the U.S. Constitution to include “all human beings, born and unborn” and more. It highlights issues surrounding in vitro fertilization in which unused frozen embryos are discarded.

Questions included:

If you are in a position to do so, would you advocate, support, sign into law and/or defend against legislation that would permit the cloning of human embryos or laboratory-created life for the purpose of the harvesting their stem cells for research or therapeutic cloning? (procedures requiring the creation and destruction of human lives)

Do you believe that embryos created through IVF (in vitro fertilization) should be protected as all other lives?

Do you believe medical schools and nursing programs operating in conjunction with universities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky that receive state funding should have mechanisms in place such as conscience exceptions that permit students to be excused from participating in specific curricular activities and training, i.e. abortion procedures that violate the student’s religious or ethical beliefs?

Are you morally and/or medically opposed to chemical abortions, such as RU-486, the abortion pill, and other drugs known to prevent the newly created human being from attaching (implantation) to his/her mother’s womb or medications that cause the woman’s body to expel her developing child in the early stages of her pregnancy?

Do you agree that the personal protection afforded to every member of the human race under the Fourteenth Amendment should be extended equally to the preborn?

Eaves, the Kentucky Democratic Party chief, said most Kentuckians and Americans “believe in some form of pro-choice policy.”

Is IVF protected in Kentucky? Depends on whom you ask.

In May, the Pew Research Center reported that 63% of Americans “say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.”

Gallup polling also shows the majority of Americans think abortion should be legal in certain cases.

Additionally, 54% of those surveyed by Gallup in May considered themselves “pro choice” and 41% considered themselves “pro life,” the largest gap since 1995.

Weider of Planned Parenthood said the effects of the abortion ban on health care, especially for people who are experiencing miscarriages or nonviable pregnancies, will continue to push politicians away from Right to Life.

“You are starting to see pushback on what was once, I would say, a badge of honor for the majority of conservative politicians in Kentucky,” she said. “And I think it is an indictment on what has happened to Kentucky and health care. And we are seeing the daily fallout.”

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and X.

The League of Women Voters has a history of organizing debates and forums from elections for U.S. president to Kentucky governor to local school boards. But this year Republicans in Kentucky’s largest city are not accepting a local chapter’s invitations to appear on stage with their opponents.

Some of the candidates aren’t replying to inquiries at all, while others have refused and said they think the League is partisan, according to LWV Louisville leaders.

The League says that out of contested races for 10 state House seats, two state Senate seats and seven spots on Louisville Metro Council, only one Republican — Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell in the 41st House District — has agreed to a candidate forum. Cottrell will appear alongside former Democratic state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian in an Oct. 7 forum.

Because of a LWV policy to avoid a one-sided event, both candidates must agree to participate in order for a forum to be scheduled.

Dee Pregliasco, former president of the Louisville LWV, said one candidate accused her personally of partisanship because of a letter to the editor that she had penned. She said the letter had nothing to do with the LWV.

“My bottom line to these people is if you want people to accept your view of government, your view of the community, your view of what needs to be done, then you need to engage them,” Pregliasco said.

Democratic candidates are “willing to do it” when contacted about forums, Pregliasco said.

Gail Henson, a co-president of the Louisville chapter, said some Republican candidates responded by saying they prefer to meet constituents one-on-one or that they are busy when a specific date had not yet been offered.

Henson read a response to the Kentucky Lantern from one Republican representative, but did not identify them.

“I do not consider the League of Women voters to be nonpartisan,” the candidate said. “Thank you for thinking of me, but I am not inclined to participate in your event.”

The local chapter is part of a national nonpartisan public policy organization founded amid the women’s suffrage movement. The statewide chapter is a regular advocate in Frankfort for government transparency and civic engagement.

Ahead of the 2024 legislative session, LWV released a report that found the General Assembly has increasingly fast-tracked bills in a manner that makes citizen participation nearly impossible. That report came up in a floor debate over changing rules in the House to loosen leadership’s control.

Henson said two candidates declined to participate because of the LWV’s stance against Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment on November’s ballot that if approved would allow the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools with tax dollars. Henson said that the League takes positions only if they align with the organization’s national guidelines. LWV does not endorse candidates for elected office but under its guidelines may take positions on ballot issues.

Opportunity to stand before voters and compare policies

Cottrell, the GOP candidate in the 41st House District race, said she was looking forward to her forum. She added that while the district is “very heavily Democratic,” she wanted to offer an opposing viewpoint for voters. Cottrell said she had not been directed to decline participating in the forum bya lawmaker or the Republican Party.

“I’m excited about it,” Cottrell said. “I welcome the opportunity to stand in front of voters and people who are interested in the district and compare policies between two candidates.”

Cottrell said she understands why some candidates may choose to not participate in a forum or a survey because of how questions are worded. But she said has attended previous events hosted by the LWV and did not “expect there to be any bias.” She did say she has pushed back at some of the League’s stances, including its position on Amendment 2.

“Democrats are people and Republicans are people. We have different priorities, and that causes us to take different stances,” Cottrell said. She said “we need to push back on this sense that because we’re so emotionally charged about one issue or another, that it has to turn to some sort of battle.”

Pregliasco said the League has encountered difficulties getting candidates to agree to forums the last couple of election cycles. A trend she sees is that once candidates become incumbents, they do not feel they need to participate in forums. However, the winners of any election — whether Metro Council or seats in the General Assembly — represent everyone in that district, she said..

“So in that sense, our strong feeling is you have an obligation to be out there and letting the public see you against whomever wants to take your job away from you,” Pregliasco said. “There needs to be some comparison.”

In Lexington last year, the local League sponsored a televised gubernatorial debate between Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and former Republican Attorney General Danield Cameron only to be refused by GOP candidates for lower offices.

Study: Kentuckians increasingly excluded from lawmaking process by fast-track maneuvers

The Lexington LWV published an opinion piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader last October addressing the lack of participation from local GOP candidates for its forums.

“We firmly believe that the success of our democracy relies on an informed electorate,” Lexington LWV said at the time. “Therefore, we urge candidates running for office in future elections to participate in our community forums for the benefit of voters.”

Jonathan Levin, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Democratic Party, said in a statement that Republicans aren’t participating in the forums because they do not want “to talk about their record because they know it’s indefensible” citing policies “from removing a worker’s right to overtime pay to attacking basic reproductive freedoms.”

“Voters deserve to know where their representatives in Frankfort stand on the issues that matter most,” Levin said. “One out of 19 Republicans being willing to talk directly to voters about their positions is sad but not much of a surprise.”

Andy Westberry, a spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, told the Lantern that he “can’t speak to any specific individual’s schedule or whether or not they had prior commitments or scheduling conflicts on the proposed dates and times for the forums.” He also said that “Democrats frequently decline to participate in legislative forums, so I don’t think this is particularly newsworthy or unusual.”

“The most critical aspect of running a successful campaign is knocking on doors and engaging directly with voters in the district,” Westberry said. “Regardless of party affiliation, that should be a candidate’s top priority.”

Decline in civic participation

Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, said that Republicans’ suspicion of the League “is just one symptom of what’s happened as American politics has become more polarized, especially by gender and social class.”

Stephen Voss

In the past, local chapters had members who were usually “upper status women,” both Republicans and Democrats, Voss said. But by taking positions on various issues, particularly in Kentucky politics, “there’s no doubt that they’re a progressive organization.” In addition to opposing this year’s Amendment 2, the Kentucky LWV previously opposed an anti-abortion ballot measure in 2022.

In the past, candidates were “seen as basically obligated to appear” in front of LWV chapters and other neutral organizations, Voss said. However, as Republican voters grow suspicious of such organizations, GOP politicians refusing to speak with them “resonates with voters.”

“Being progressive politically, and therefore opposing conservative issue positions isn’t necessarily the same as being ‘partisan,’ but for a Republican to doubt they’d get a fair shake in front of an organization that’s already on record taking positions at odds with their party’s positions on a whole range of issues seems like a pretty legitimate excuse to give.”

Participation in civic events in general is on the decline, Voss noted.

“If you live in a city and you go to a series of political events, it’s dominated by the same set of retirees,” Voss said. “These events are rarely an effective way to broaden your exposure to the voters.”

Pregliasco said the best times to host candidate forums are from Labor Day to the third week of October, as excused in-person early voting begins Oct. 23. She said the League would “be glad” to hear from the candidates it hasn’t gotten a response from yet as there is time left to schedule forums.

The Louisville LVW has scheduled some forums in nonpartisan races — three Jefferson County Public School board districts and a family court judicial election.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and X.

FRANKFORT — What speakers hailed as “the house that Mitch built” will be doubling in size — thanks to more than $3 million from special interest donors and a change of state law in 2017 that legalized such donations.

A slew of prominent Kentucky Republicans joined U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to break ground Thursday on an expansion of the party’s headquarters which is named for McConnell.

The Republican Party of Kentucky has been headquartered for 50 years in an old house about four blocks down the hill from the Kentucky Capitol.

McConnell and other speakers said the building’s expansion symbolizes the growth of their party over those five decades as Republicans gained political dominance in Kentucky, a change that many credit in no small part to McConnell’s leadership and fundraising.

“We’ve come a long way, and the people here today had a lot to do with it,” McConnell said. “Thanks for all the praise for me, but it’s a team sport, and many of you have contributed a lot of years and a lot of dollars over the years to bring us where we are today.”

Plans for the project released earlier this summer show it will add about 6,800 square feet of meeting and office space. The new addition is being designed by Stengel-Hill Architecture, of Louisville, to conform with the surrounding residential neighborhood. It will include a 160-seat auditorium.

Pfizer Inc. gave $1 million

Reports filed by the party with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance reveal that the project is being paid for with donations by a small number of large contributions from special interests that lobby in Washington and/or Frankfort.

State law caps how much a person can give to a political party in Kentucky, and corporation contributions to candidates and most political committees are illegal. But a 2017 state law allowed Kentucky’s two political parties to establish building funds which could accept corporation donations of unlimited amounts.

The financing of the expansion of the Mitch McConnell Building has relied on those super-size corporate contributions. Party Chairman Robert Benvenuti thanked the 16 donors who together gave $3,212,500.

Kentucky Lantern first reported last year that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., of New York, made the largest contribution for the project — $1 million.

The second largest donor is NWO Resources, a small Ohio gas distribution utility, which gave $500,000. The president and director of NWO Resources is James Neal Blue, who is also chief executive and chairman of the General Atomics Corp., a defense contractor which the Forbes website says is best known as the manufacturer of the Predator drone.

Telecommunications companies AT&T and Verizon have each given $300,000 as has Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

In his years in Washington, McConnell has worked to dismantle federal limits on political giving and spending and, thanks to Supreme Court rulings, has largely succeeded.

‘Future dominance of our values’

McConnell, 82, is both Kentucky’s longest serving senator and the Senate’s longest-serving party leader. Speaking on the lawn of the party headquarters, he recalled his humbler beginnings in Kentucky politics then dominated by Democrats. In 1984, he rode President Ronald Reagan’s reelection coattails and a campaign commercial featuring hound dogs to victory over a Democratic incumbent.

McConnell shared one of his favorite anecdotes, the time he was on stage with Reagan who referred to him as “Mitch O’Donnell.”

“I couldn’t be prouder at this stage of my career to look at the Kentucky Republican Party today,” McConnell said. “It’s a great experience to watch that grow and develop over the years. … A whole lot of people deserve the credit.”

The Republican Party now holds supermajorities in the Kentucky House and Senate and every statewide office except governor and lieutenant governor, both U.S. Senate seats and five of Kentucky’s six seats in the U.S. House. In February, McConnell announced he planned to step down as the Senate’s Republican leader at the end of this year.

U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, who represents Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, said the senior senator laid the foundation for the modern state party and floated the idea of putting a statue of McConnell in the Kentucky Capitol rotunda. The Republican supermajority recently passed legislation giving the General Assembly authority over permanent displays in the rotunda.

“This is a groundbreaking for the future dominance of our values and our policies in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Barr said.

Kentucky Senate Republican Floor Leader Damon Thayer, of Georgetown, said he was “proud that it was legislation that I authored that allows for corporate contributions to state party building funds.”

Afterward, Thayer said in an interview, “These buildings are expensive to operate and maintain and build. Modern day politics is expensive.” He said the contributions “are all reported, you’ve written about it —which I think is wholly appropriate. People know about it and can make their own judgment.”

‘Steadfast leadership’

State House Speaker David Osborne, of Prospect, likened the status of the party’s headquarters to McConnell’s rise in politics. Osborne said he could remember walking into the building when ice was hanging from the ceiling and space heaters were on because the furnace didn’t work.

“One thing that has not changed along the way is the steadfast leadership of Leader McConnell. … With the evolution of Kentucky politics, we would’ve gotten the majority eventually, but it certainly would not have been as quickly and as productive as it has been with Sen. McConnell’s leadership,” Osborne said.

Thanking donors, Benvenuti, the party chair, said, “Your generosity has provided more than just the bricks and mortar. It has laid the foundation for future success and growth of our community.”

Thayer and McConnell both contrasted the expanding GOP headquarters with the headquarters of the Kentucky Democratic Party along Interstate 64 on the outskirts of Frankfort — the Wendell Ford Building named for the late Kentucky governor and U.S. senator.

Jonathan Levin, Kentucky Democratic Party communications director, said the party is in the process of selling its headquarters and plans to move to more modern office space more centrally located in Frankfort.

The Republican fundraising effort for its expansion has lasted nearly two years. McConnell’s longtime fundraising consultant Laura Haney has led that effort. Reports filed by the RPK Building Fund show it has paid Haney Consulting $100,000 in consulting fees since the beginning of 2023.

This summer the fund began paying design and construction costs. As of June 30 the fund reported it still had $3 million on hand.

RPK spokesman Andrew Westberry said he was not certain when the project will be completed.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and X.