This November, Kentucky’s youngest voters will see the state’s senior-most U.S. Senate seat change hands for the first time in their lifetimes.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, first elected in 1984, will retire at the end of his term after a historic tenure. The youngest voters, age 18 as of Election Day, were born in 2008. Kentucky’s other senator, Rand Paul, was elected when those same young voters were around 2 years old.
Republican Congressman Andy Barr is favored to secure McConnell’s seat. Barr is opposed by Democratic candidate Charles Booker.
A former state representative, Booker was born the same year McConnell was first elected. His campaign has visited seven universities, so far, looking to energize young voters.
“This campaign to me has to be a testament to community, has to be testament to young leaders, to voices across Kentucky who feel ignored and forgotten about,” Booker said at a Sept. 15 event on the University of Kentucky’s campus.
Data from the Kentucky State Board of Elections shows there were more than 290,000 registered voters between the ages of 17 and 24 at the beginning of 2025. That’s 8% of the state’s roughly 3.5 million voters. Of those young voters, 34% are registered Democrats, 48% are registered Republicans and 17% with other parties.
Those young voters likely aren’t numerous enough to sway the race’s outcome, but Kentucky elections have been decided by slim margins in the past. Gov. Andy Beshear won in 2019 by less than a percent and McConnell won his seat in 1984 under a similarly narrow margin.
Former Barr campaign intern Braiden Collett, a 19-year-old University of Louisville student, said that campaign’s focus on the cost of living crisis is appealing to young voters — and not just those at universities.
“A lot of my door-knocking time in Eastern Kentucky when I ran into younger people — especially ones that weren't college educated, that decided to just go straight into the workforce into maybe like a trade or something — I would spend a lot of time talking to them about what they think most economically benefits them,” Collett said.
“What can the Barr campaign focus on to help them? And what really resonates with a lot of those people is the idea that they can just get more money back in their pocket through lower taxes," he continued.
According to a Pew Research Center survey, 89% of adults younger than 40 say homeownership is harder for young people than it was for their parents. The data also shows home costs have significantly outpaced wages, with the costs of homes rising 30% from 2019 to 2024, and the wages increasing by 9% over the same period.
It’s not just young voters. According to AP-NORC data, the cost of living is one of the top issues on the ballot this year.
Barr’s campaign didn’t respond to a request to interview on the topic of Kentucky’s youngest voters, but Booker said he is trying to directly appeal to young adults on economic issues, as well.
His campaign website details his policy on affordability, gas and energy costs and data centers, but also has a dedicated page on supporting young voters.
“I know that the issues before our students require leadership that sees them, that listens to them, that cares about them, and so I got to be present,” Booker said.
“There's a lot of concern about the future, what's happening now with (artificial intelligence) and data centers, and also there's so much hate and division,” Booker said. “There's so much chaos. These endless wars that are touching so many lives. People are afraid of the attacks on humanity, the attacks on identity. There's a lot of division in our politics.”
UK freshman Cesar Garcia attended Booker’s September campus rally to hear that messaging firsthand.
“I really like the things he has to say and what he offers to the table, especially in this election, which is one of the most important in my young lifetime for our generation,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he feels his peers are not as civically engaged, but thinks candidates on the left are doing a good job using social media to reach young voters.
“Things are rapidly changing, and having as many people contribute, especially young people, who have the new ideas and fresh new votes coming in,” he told WEKU.
Collett’s time with the Barr campaign ended in September, but he said he was heartened by how the congressman engaged with college Republican groups and campus Turning Point USA chapters. Campaigns often focus on what Collett calls “the normal voting class" — older generations — but he sees Barr’s appeal to young adults.
“I always felt like Andy Barr made a really big effort to reach out to young people, as well. So it just so happens to be a lot of people populating political events are older people,” Collett said. “But anytime there (were) younger people there, Barr went out of his way to go talk with them, introduce themselves, talk sports or something, and get to know them.”
Collett said he’s seen a lot of interest in this election among his peers and what its outcome could mean for their futures.
“There's a lot of interest in the idea that young people, we can get up to vote and we can affect the future of our state maybe for the next 30 or 40 years,” Collett said. “Just the impact that electing a U.S. senator can have for us when we've had the same U.S. senator for so long. A lot of people look a lot closer at this race than they're going to look at a lot of other races I feel.”
