In Madison County, several local government positions were decided the day the candidate filing deadline passed. Even more positions will be decided by the time the primary election results are certified.
That’s because these are uncontested primary elections. Madison County also has a handful of nonpartisan positions on the ballot this year.
Madison County Clerk Kenny Barger has been the county’s top election official for the past 16 years.
“To have contested races just on the Republican ballot is never happened in my memory, and I don't think it's happened in anyone's memory living,” Barger said
In the past, he said the Democratic ballot used to be filled with contested races and the Republican ballot was home to the uncontested candidates. When he first ran in 2010, he was uncontested in the Republican primary election.
In the May 19 primary, Barger and other uncontested races will not appear on the ballot.
This means that Madison County Democrats will only see candidates for U.S. senator and U.S. 6th Congressional District in partisan races and candidates for a nonpartisan district judge. Residents in city voting limits will also see Richmond mayor and city commission in the nonpartisan races. Nonpartisan races for the city of Berea will be on general election ballots.
Madison County Republicans will see the two federal candidate elections as well as the state representative for their district, county judge-executive, jailer, district magistrate, district constable and the nonpartisan races relevant to their precinct.
Independent voters will only see the nonpartisan races, since Kentucky has closed primaries.
However, every position will be on the general election ballots — even if those races are uncontested. Barger said there are statues that come into play at the general election if a candidate withdrawals or dies. There’s also write-in campaigns that can’t occur at the primary election.
He said political party affiliation is like a pendulum — it swings one way and then the other — and Madison County was majority Democrat back in the days of FDR. Now, it’s swung to be majority Republican. Barger said there have also been candidates who ran as Democrats in the past running as Republicans in more recent elections.
What are primary elections?
Primary elections always have a lower turnout than general elections.
Stephen Voss, political science professor at the University of Kentucky, said before primary elections, party leaders decided the nominees for each position. These days, there’s something Voss described as the “shadow primary” where people decide if they’re running for a position.
“A lot of the time, who shows up on the ballot has been decided by people in power or by possible candidates before the voters ever get to weigh in,” Voss said. “It's relatively rare to have a primary or nominating election really be what decides the outcome.”
This can look like potential candidates asking for the possibility of endorsements or contributions before officially deciding to run. It could also be talking to party leaders about whether they think it’s a good idea to run for a position.
“To have a competitive primary election, either the people who have the power to shape a party have stayed out of it and have allowed multiple candidates to fight over the job to see which one can appeal to the voters better, or one of the candidates is a challenger working outside the system, not cooperating with the party leaders, but hoping to pull an upset,” Voss said.
The practice of allowing a competitive primary is more common in whatever party is dominant, Voss said. A minority party primary is less common because the party wants to unite behind a candidate to beat the majority party.
Kentucky leans majority Republican, so across the state, it’s more likely for there to be contested Republican primaries than Democratic primaries.
“We don't generally have a good sense of who could have been running or who could have been on the ballot, but never showed up for reasons that happened behind the scenes,” Voss said.
In cases like Madison County, Voss describes the situation as “politically lopsided” and said it’s hard to recruit a "sacrificial lamb” to run for a position they feel they won’t win.
“Running for office takes a lot of your time,” Voss said. “It can take your money, or at least force you to beg other people for money. It's not easy to find an A-list potential leader to run a doomed campaign.”
What people are doing locally
The Madison County Democratic Party is focusing on getting people to vote ahead of the primaries, said Kate Bixler, chair of the party’s executive committee.
“We're currently canvassing the entire county to make sure that we turn out our base,” Bixler said. “May votes are November votes, and the more that we get our party excited about voting in the primary, the better chance we have of turning out the vote in November.”
Madison County is a part of the 6th Congressional District of Kentucky. There’s an effort to turn the seat to a Democratic candidate since Republican incumbent Rep. Andy Barr is running for a Senate seat instead of re-election. Bixler said the primary is the best time for different parts of the Democratic Party to have a say in which candidate will lead general election efforts.
“We're getting the word out there that at local levels, municipal levels, county levels, state levels, federal levels, that our party's values and our platform are what is best for Madison County,” Bixler said.
The lack of local Democrat candidates shows local party leaders the “chilling effect” of a majority Republican government in the state, Bixler said. She described it as a “big ask” and a commitment people aren’t ready for without strong party support.
Bixler said the party is working on getting the Democratic base out in greater numbers at the polls and letting people know they’re not the only Democrats in their area. There are also efforts to get more Democrats in the statehouse and possibly in future local elections.
Efforts to flip the 6th Congressional District have been in coordination with other local Democratic parties. Bixler said it’s been interesting to hear other parties talk about how downballot races in other places might bring out more primary voters.
“That's where we as a party have to get out and remind our members and our base that whether they've got two races to vote for on their primary ballot or six, that vote is important for the work that we're going to be able to achieve in November,” Bixler said.
The party’s focus ahead of the primary has been on the voting turnout of the base. But at the general election, Bixler said the party will shift to include others and try to convince them that Democratic values are good for them.
What to know ahead of the Madison County primary
“Most folks, I think their mindset on it is, ‘It's not really deciding who will be the winner of the race,’” Barger said. “In eventuality, they think that happens in the general, and most times it does, but the situation we're talking about today with having a very one-sided primary ballot, that means that these offices will be decided in … the primary.”
Barger said don’t really understand how many races are being decided in the primary this year. There are also people looking for candidates they want to support but aren’t on their ballots due to the state’s closed primaries.
People also can’t change their parties at this point and still vote in the primary election. The party switch deadline for this election was Dec. 31, 2025.
Barger said every election is important, even the primaries, and that the “real” election isn’t just in November.
“Every time we have an election, we're not having it just to go through the motions,” Barger said. “They're all important, so as a citizen, your responsibility, technically, is to show up and cast your ballot.”
If someone gets to the polls and doesn’t like the candidates available to them or feel underinformed, Barger said people can cast blank ballots. He encourages people to be informed before going to the polls about when is best for them to vote — early or on election day — and to look at a sample ballot before coming to the polls.
Voss, the UK political science professor, said in downballot races like local elections, voters have less information about the candidates and “need to rely on shortcuts to figure out what candidate they like.”
In bigger races, candidates have more money and resources which makes it easier for voters to learn about them.
“The easiest shortcut for a voter to make, so that they can vote rationally, so that they can vote correctly based on their own preferences, is party, whether the candidate has a 'D' or an 'R' behind the name,” Voss said.
Other shortcuts Voss mentioned include stereotyping based on job, gender, race or ethnicity. People may use endorsements as a shortcut to make decisions when voting. Those endorsements may even come from well-informed friends and family.
Election day is May 19. Madison County uses a poll center model, which means people can vote at any precinct during the day and their information will be accessible through the electronic poll book.
