By Linda Blackford | Editor
Happy Friday! It’s the start of a crazy weekend: early voting all over the state, Halloween, the fall-back to standard time on Saturday night, and in Lexington, the Breeders Cup.
The 6th District congressional race keeps tightening and the two candidates keep making their cases. McKenna Horsley went out with candidates Zach Dembo and Ralph Alvarado to watch the last stages of the campaigns.
The Kentucky race is part of our DC bureau’s national roundup of the tightest House races in the nation.
On the other side of politics, former London Mayor Randall Weddle was denied his request to move his trial on campaign finance charges from London to Frankfort.
And in Commentary, political moneyman Mitch McConnell may be stepping down, but someone else has already taken his place in the national political scene.
On Thursday, the first day of early voting in Kentucky, people formed a line outside the Tates Creek Library in Lexington to make their choices. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)
By McKenna Horsley
NICHOLASVILLE — With just days left before to sway voters in Kentucky’s central congressional 6th District, Democrat Zach Dembo and Republican Ralph Alvarado are making their final pitches with entourages of fellow party members.
The U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
By Jennifer Shutt
WASHINGTON — Communities throughout the country have been inundated with television ads and outside spending as politicians try to spur voter turnout in the most competitive U.S. House races in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
London Mayor Randall Weddle exits the courtroom at the Laurel County Judicial Center in London on April 15, 2026. Weddle was there to be arraigned on four felony counts of campaign finance violations. He entered pleas of not guilty. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Morgan Hornsby)
By Tom Loftus
Laurel Circuit Judge Michael Caperton has denied former London Mayor Randall Weddle’s motion to move his case – that alleges excess campaign contributions to help Gov. Andy Beshear win reelection in 2023 – from Laurel County to Franklin County.
CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk speaks last year at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. Last week’s SpaceX IPO, which made Musk the world’s first trillionaire, is a vivid illustration of wealth concentration in the United States, which has been accelerating since 2022. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY
By John Schaaf
Kentucky elected Mitch McConnell to the U.S. Senate 42 years ago, and through all those years, McConnell worked relentlessly to radically change American law and politics to allow billionaires and corporations to pour massive amounts of money into election campaigns.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Thanks so much for reading Morning Lantern. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.