Republican leader suggests mid-decade gerrymandering all but dead in Kentucky

Austin Horn, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 7, 2026

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — During legislative sessions in Frankfort, no bill or idea is ever 100% dead.

But, according to a Republican legislative leader who has spoken with White House representatives, the prospect of gerrymandering Kentucky’s congressional map to draw out its only Democrat in Washington is not going anywhere.

President Donald Trump has sought to shore up the GOP-led U.S. House’s 2026 midterm prospects by pushing states to redraw their maps well ahead of schedule for GOP advantage. He has succeeded in Republican states like Texas, but recently failed in getting Indiana lawmakers to follow suit. Some Democratic states like California have gerrymandered their own maps in response.

State Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told reporters Wednesday that he’s stood against the idea in Kentucky and the White House has not pushed back.

One of the longest-serving members of the state legislature, Stivers said he cited some history to staffers at the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

In the early 1990s, Democrats in the state legislature redrew Rep. Hal Rogers’ district in a way they thought could lead to his defeat. That didn’t work — Rogers, 88, is the Dean of the U.S. House and its oldest voting member — and in the process Democratic support was diluted in two Western Kentucky districts, which helped two Republican candidates flip them in 1994.

“You’ve got to be careful when you do things like that,” Stivers said.

He also said that Republicans claiming redistricting out the only Democrat, Rep. Morgan McGarvey, would be politically savvy are leaning too heavily on the appeal of “inside baseball.”

“You always hear this about, ‘well, the base is fired up,’... It’s not something that, the people you try to appease, excites them that much. It’s inside baseball. So we’ve explained the position to people at the federal level, and we’ve not heard any objections to our course,” Stivers said.

So, is it done?

“As much as anything can be,” Stivers replied.

Another complicating factor is the filing deadline for all Kentucky candidates seeking office in 2026 is Friday, Jan. 9. Legislators would likely have to reopen the filing period and move the deadline back if they were to pursue mid-decade redistricting.

All of this comes with the caveat that the state legislature can, essentially, do whatever it wants — and political winds can always change. Stivers compared that dynamic to the famous parable of Jesus raising the dead.

“Lazarus has a great way of living around Frankfort,” Stivers said.

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