Republican Rep. Andy Barr wants to take a new step in his political career in Washington, D.C.
At a rally on April 22 in Richmond and in a social media post earlier that day, Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District representative announced plans to run for outgoing Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat, putting an end to months of rumors that he planned to jump into the race.
He’s the second high-profile Republican to announce he’s running, joining former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the GOP’s 2023 gubernatorial nominee. Lexington businessman Nate Morris has also said he’s considering running, though he has not yet announced his plans.
Barr has served in the U.S. House since 2013 and has continually risen in the ranks as a federal lawmaker. He currently chairs the House Financial Institutions Subcommittee and was a frontrunner to chair the House Financial Services Committee this year.
The primary to replace McConnell will take place next May, so you can expect Barr to make plenty of headlines in the coming months. Here’s a quick look at the representative’s career:
Who is Andy Barr?
Barr grew up in Lexington and graduated from Henry Clay High School in 1992. He then completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in government and philosophy at the University of Virginia in 1996. In 2001, he received his law degree from the University of Kentucky.
Barr married Carol Leavell Barr in 2008 and had two children, Eleanor Barr and Mary Clay Barr. In 2020, Carol Leavell Barr died unexpectedly from a heart condition known as mitral valve prolapse, according to The Fayette County Coroner’s Office.
Barr remarried to Davis Huffman in 2023. They have one son, Hale.
Barr’s father, Garland H. Barr III, is the founder of Merrick Management and the accounting firm of Barr, Anderson and Roberts, PSC. Meanwhile, Barr’s mother, the Rev. Donna R. (Faulconer) Barr is a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington.
Barr was first elected to the U.S. House in 2012, but that wasn’t the first time he ran in the 6th congressional district. He ran against Democratic incumbent Ben Chandler in 2010, but Chandler won with 50.1% of the vote. Barr beat Chandler in 2012 with 50.6% of the vote and has held the seat ever since.
What has Andy Barr done while in the House of Representatives?
Serving as chair of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee isn’t Barr’s only role in Congress.
He’s a longtime member of the House Financial Services Committee — he was believed to be a frontrunner to lead that committee last fall, but the role ended up going to Republican Rep. French Hill of Arkansas — and also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the U.S. and Chinese Communist Party.
In his congressional bio, Barr says he supports “families, farmers, and small business owners, fighting to keep taxes low and against overly burdensome regulations.”
How has Andy Barr fared in past races?
Barr lost to Chandler by less than 650 votes in 2010, his first run for Congress. But has been successful in keeping his seat in the years since he beat Chandler to take office in 2012, tying the incumbent Democrat to then-President Barack Obama.
He faced a competitive challenge in 2018 from Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who would later take on McConnell in the 2020 election. That race brought President Donald Trump to Kentucky, with the 45th president taking the stage in Richmond to support Barr’s campaign.
But Barr won that 2018 race with 51% of the vote and has not faced a significant challenge since, pulling more than 60% of the vote in both of the past two elections.
Barr’s recent headlines
Barr hasn’t been the loudest member of Congress in his dozen years in office. But he’s drawn more attention lately as the race to replace McConnell has heated up.
Unlike Cameron, who announced his Senate campaign minutes after McConnell said he would not seek reelection, Barr did not rush to enter the race. When his interest in the seat was reported by CBS News in February, the outlet noted he wouldn’t challenge McConnell if he were to run for the seat again.
Still, he hasn’t been shy about playing up his connection to Trump lately, as candidates seek an endorsement from a president overwhelmingly popular among Kentucky Republicans.
And he’s tried to put some distance between himself and McConnell, a frequent Trump foil. While he’s supported the senator during much of his time in office, he’s noted he has never “served on the payroll of Mitch McConnell.”
He’s defended presidential adviser Elon Musk and the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, posing next to a Tesla in a post on Musk’s X platform in late March. And he frequently speaks up in support of Trump’s policies. He backed each of the president’s cabinet picks and endorsed him during his presidential run in December 2023, the first member of Kentucky’s congressional delegation to do so.
“I’m an Andy Barr Republican who is an America First conservative,” he said in February in an interview with pro-Trump political commentator Benny Johnson.
Still, he hasn’t always been in lockstep with Trump. While he did not vote to impeach him after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol, Barr voted against overturning the 2020 presidential race results (while saying he was “deeply concerned about the abuses and irregularities that occurred” in the election) and said Trump was “not blameless” a week after the riot.
The April 22 video he published announcing his run takes aim at the “woke left,” with images of New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Chuck Schumer, while playing up his connection with Trump.
Reach The Courier Journal’s politics team at cjpolitics@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky’s Andy Barr running to replace Mitch McConnell in Senate