Blue Dot
Northern Kentucky’s premier Political Podcast.
This is your ultimate source for in-depth analysis, lively discussion, and comprehensive coverage of the political landscape in Northern Kentucky.
Brought to you by the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee.
Blue Dot
Weekly Round Up: Kentucky Primary Recap: Key Races, Surprises, and What’s Next
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The Kentucky primary election shook things up—and we’re breaking it all down. We dive into the biggest surprises across Northern Kentucky and beyond, from high-profile congressional shakeups to key local races that could shift the balance of power in Frankfort.
They unpack the impact of Trump-backed wins in District 4, what to expect in the Booker vs. Barr Senate matchup, and why Democrats are feeling energized heading into November. Then it’s a county-by-county breakdown—highlighting standout Democratic nominees in Kenton, Campbell, and Boone counties, including competitive House races, commissioner contests, and a key state Senate matchup.
You’ll also hear about controversial Republican victories, emerging candidates to watch, and the growing bench of local leaders focused on education, healthcare, infrastructure, and transparency. Plus, a quick look at how statewide Democratic policies are already delivering results—and what more could come with stronger local representation.
Welcome to the Blue Dot, Northern Kentucky's premier political podcast, brought to you by the Kent County Democratic Executive Committee. Welcome back to the Blue Dot Podcast for our weekly roundup, where we deliver all the news you need to know in ten minutes or less. Thanks for joining. I'm Natalie McDonald.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Brian Cale. Hey Natalie, I sure am glad we had some voting this week because there really hasn't been anything else going on. Psych. As usual, to quote one commentator I recently heard, it's been a century this week.
SPEAKER_01A century. You can say that again, my goodness. But the primary is over, and I guess you can say there were some surprises, especially in Kentucky.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the big one in Kentucky happened in our congressional district, which is district number four, where Trump was able to buy uh Ed Galrine the primary seat to beat Thomas Massey in the primary. But it doesn't look like Massey is going to go down without causing a commotion. And hey, I am here for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I am too. It's going to be interesting to see what he does because he's not one to uh just toe the line for sure.
SPEAKER_00Go away quietly. I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01He's not. But this is gonna set up an epic race between Gallarin and Democratic candidate Melissa Strange. And I think Melissa's gonna mount one heck of a campaign. I mean, Gallarin is an unknown, he hasn't showed up for any debates. His acceptance speech was a couple minutes long. So I just don't see what he has to offer the people of his district. And I've been hearing that the massey libertarians are gonna come out pretty strong for Melissa. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's awesome. And Melissa, you know, she's super smart and she has a lot of policy ideas and is very good at uh, you know, communicating those ideas, and Galrine's gonna probably sit there and go, I'll do whatever Donald Trump tells me to do. So looking good for the Dems in that one, I think. And on the Senate side, you know, I wasn't surprised that Andy Barr won that race, but it is notable that the oligarchy backed candidate Nate Morris left the race, and this was after Elon Musk dumped ten million dollars to back him. Um, and if you remember, Nate Morris is a Republican tech entrepreneur and friend of J.D. Vance, boy, who initially impressed Elon, but once he was viewed as not viable, Trump got behind Andy Barr instead and offered Nate an ambassador position to leave the race.
SPEAKER_01Because that's what they do. But I guess that's kind of like winning the Mega Miss Congeniality Award.
SPEAKER_00I don't know, like you're Yeah, true. Or in the case of MAGA, instead of Miss Congeniality, it's Mr. Vienality as Morris joins Trump's bribery and corruption crew. The Republican primary winner, Andy Barr, will face Democratic primary winner Charles Booker in the general midterm election this November.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and there are a few more surprises across northern Kentucky, and we'll break it all down for you. I'll start out with Kent and Brian, since you are a Campbell resident, I'll let you take the lead on that one.
SPEAKER_00All right, sounds good. Let's roll with Kenton County.
SPEAKER_01All righty, three is the magic number in Kenton County as we will have Democrats running in three House Districts, and we'll also have commissioners running in all three districts for those seats. So starting off in House District 64, Democrat William Whalen will face off against Kim Mosier, who fought off her primary opponent and won by just 84 votes, proving that every vote does count.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Moser was hit really hard with PAC money attacking her corruption. William Whalen is a fantastic candidate. We've had him on the pod. And uh he's great to run against Moser with strong union ties and the ability to really connect with voters.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he sure does. And then we have House District 65, where Aaron Curran will face Stephanie Dietz. Aaron is a policy scholar. He literally reads every bill thoroughly and is an expert in the legislator. He knows about all of those good bills that got buried under the supermajority before seeing the light of day. And he's so he's gonna be out there to to fight to change that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's gonna be great to have an analyst with his types of skills in there working on those bills. Hopefully uh we can pull that one out. And lastly, there's House District 69 where Democrat Will Ann Stangle will take on Steve Doane. And for those who may not be familiar with good old Steve, he was accused of campaign doxing in 2022 when he ran against Republican incumbent Adam Koenig. He runs really toxic campaigns and has co-sponsored a few pretty controversial bills.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but if you know Will Ann, she is not someone to mess with. She spent 18 years in education and is a staunch supporter of public education, access to health care, and support for working families, including child care and housing. So there's really no comparison on what those two have to offer their constituents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's for sure. And uh we do have one state senate seat that touches Kenton and Boone, and that is District 20, where fan favorite Stella Pollard will take on a very stagnant Gex Williams. Stella knows her district inside and out and connects on the ground with people better than almost anyone I've ever seen out there. I mean, when you look up People Person in the Dictionary, you see Stella's picture.
SPEAKER_01That is absolutely true. We love Stella for sure. And I don't want to forget uh longtime Democratic incumbent Steve Hoffman, who everyone knows and loves as well, and he's running for magistrate in district one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, onward to the county commissioner seats. Again, Kenton has Democratic candidates covering all three districts.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So uh Democrat Sarah Fralich will be running in District One. She's currently on Park Hill City Council and is extremely involved with the city. She also has a wide breadth of knowledge about the commissioner position, and I think that she's just gonna knock it out of the park. She's already off and running. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. A District 2 Democratic candidate is Ben Bach. Ben is another extremely involved citizen and is an expert in economic development, planning, land use, zoning, and infrastructure, and he really represents South Kenton well. He'll be an excellent representative and resource for county residents, specifically in navigating the pitfalls of the Site Readiness Initiative, or SRI.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that is a hot button issue that's getting a lot of attention. And lastly, we have Jordan Baldridge for District 3. Jordan is a rising star in the party and has extensive knowledge in the tech IT data center world and is focused on more transparent and modern county government and has criticized gaps in public financial information systems. And Jordan has also come out against SRI and currently stands and attends to get that economic development power and decision making back into the hands of Kenton County residents.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, can you imagine the amount of knowledge and expertise out there, all these candidates all working together?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what a powerhouse for sure. But if three commissioners working together isn't enough, what about the power of three counties working hard to flip seats in northern Kentucky? And that's exactly what's going to happen here. So let's go over to Campbell.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, another one of those crossover districts is House District 63, and Republican Kim Banta lost to newcomer Cole Cusick, who is quite extreme. So that was a shocker.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was really surprised with this one. And I think the more people learn about Cole, the more shocked they'll be, and maybe regret this one. And his website is full of this anti-woke garbage. He attacked uh Banta for her decision to join local Republican re representatives, Mosher and Deets, and voting against the egregiously inaccurate anti-transgender bill. All three of them spoke with mess medical personnel parents and schools and concluded that the bill infringed on parental rights and ignored current medical standards, uh, among other things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we have candidates in two House districts and one state Senate seat. Joshua Baker will be running against Republican incumbent Shelly Funky Fromeyer. Democratic incumbent Matt Lehman will be running again for House District 67, and Amy Amin will be running in House District 68. So plenty of room for Democrats to make a big impact in the state legislature. And our followers will get the opportunity to hear from Matt Lahman on the podcast in a couple of weeks. And we will be working to get both Baker and Amin scheduled so our followers can hear directly what each of these excellent candidates bring to the table in terms of experience, expertise, and commitment to improve the lives of all Kentuckians.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and Campbell also has a Brent Owens running for County Commissioner in Campbell District 3. And as you know, he's going to be on the podcast pretty soon. So we'll have to do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we got it. We've got a great lineup, lots, lots of good stuff coming up. And let's see. Finally, we have Boone County, who has uh Democratic candidates running in House District 60 and 66. Tracy Reed is going to be the Democrat in House District 60. She too is a lawyer and has specialized in tax, finance, and unclaimed property management.
SPEAKER_01And then we have Jason Ellis, who's going to be the Democrat in 66, taking on TJ Roberts. Yes. Jason describes himself as a libertarian Democrat focused on individual freedoms with responsible government at a local level.
SPEAKER_00Sounds good. He's a much different candidate than TJ Roberts, who has posted several anti-Semitic and white nationalist rhetoric posts on social media. He's also done pretty heinous things like releasing state employees' home addresses, you know. So wow. You know, we've got some opportunity there, I would hope.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he and Chad Hann are like the perfect match in that department.
SPEAKER_00So right on.
SPEAKER_01Um, but another extremist out there is Republican Savannah Maddox, who will go unopposed on the 61st, despite posing with the Three Percenters, which is an anti-government militia group that was connected to a 2020 protest at the Kentucky Capitol, where an FG of Governor Bashir was hung from a tree. Apparently, the Republicans in her district seem to really like all of that kind of stuff and her many racist, homophobic, intolerant social media posts. So it's a real shame that uh people of her district uh just allow that to happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, that may work well in a primary or in your little corner of the world, but in a general, I think a lot of people are really getting tired of that type of rhetoric. The good news is when Democrats get elected, they deliver results and govern well. If we look statewise, statewide under the Bashir administration, Kentucky has gained more than 70,000 good-paying jobs, had its best five-year period in state history for economic growth, hit record low unemployment, expanded access to health care for for over 400,000 Kentuckians, and launched pre-K for all in two rural counties, all while Republicans refuse to work on statewide pre-K for all, and they're already promising to defund several of these new pilot programs.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and just wait until we have the power to do more locally, which is what we're going to do. And we're going to continue to be right here connecting with all of our listeners, elevating the voices of our community, and getting out there talking to people. But that is all we have for today. Because our 10 minutes are up. Until next time, stay curious. That's it. Stay curious, keep keep the facts in focus and never stop fighting for what matters. Peace out, everybody.