Robin Webb, last Eastern Kentucky Democrat in state Senate, switches parties

Austin Horn, Lexington Herald-Leader on May 30, 2025

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State Sen. Robin Webb will no longer be the Democrat from Grayson.

But she’s not leaving the Senate, or Grayson. She’s switching her party registration, leaving her six Democratic colleagues and becoming the 32nd Republican in the 38-member body.

The Eastern Kentucky politician announced her plans to switch parties to become a Republican Friday in a release form the Republican Party of Kentucky.

Webb called the Democratic Party “untenable and counterproductive” to the interests of her constituents.

“While it’s cliché, it’s true: I didn’t leave the party — the party left me,” Webb said in the release. “The Kentucky Democratic Party has increasingly alienated lifelong rural Democrats like myself by failing to support the issues that matter most to rural Kentuckians.”

Webb is a fixture of the Kentucky state legislature, having first been elected to the House in 1998 and earning a seat to the Senate in 2008.

Her move to the GOP leaves the Senate Democrats with members only in Jefferson and Fayette, the state’s two most populous counties.

With the diminishing number of moderate and conservative Democrats in the legislature, Webb stood out in recent years for her more socially conservative votes and pro-fossil fuel stances.

In 2023, she voted with Republicans for Senate Bill 150, a bill barring transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care. She also voted with Senate Republicans in 2024 on a major piece of legislation that made it harder for companies to retire coal-fired power plants, among other bills linked to the coal industry.

Still, Webb has regularly sided with Democrats on labor issues, education and social services.

She hinted at Republican support for the coal industry, which has been in steady decline for decades, as a major reason for her switch.

“First and foremost, I’m a mother, a rancher, and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentucky’s coal country. As the Democratic party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values,” Webb wrote.

“Those who know me best understand that my positions and the policies I champion haven’t changed. The only difference today is the letter next to my name,” she added. “I will continue to be a fearless advocate for rural Kentucky and for the residents of eastern Kentucky who have been so good to me and my family.”

During her time in the Senate, Webb saw the number of Democrats decline steadily — from 16 when she began in 2009 all the way down to six with her departure.

The House has also seen a precipitous drop in the number of Democrats, particularly from rural areas, since becoming the last legislative chamber in the South to flip red in 2016.

Now, the 20 Democrats in the House cluster in the urban areas of Fayette, Jefferson and Northern Kentucky, with the lone exception of Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty, D-Prestonsburg, whose voting record is similar to Webb’s.

Webb’s Northeastern Kentucky Senate District 18 covers Carter, Greenup, Lewis and Boyd, which is home to Ashland. She is next up for reelection in 2026.

In a 2022 Herald-Leader story about the decline of the Democratic party in Eastern Kentucky, once a blue stronghold, Webb described a distant relationship between herself and party officials.

“I don’t ask the party for anything and they don’t ask me for any advice; and I rarely get the feeling that they’re trying to engage people like me,” Webb said. “That’s demographics and I get it. We disagree on a lot of issues. They bypass me and that suits me just fine.”

The state GOP release included some chest-thumping on the part of Kentuckians with national party roles like Republican National Convention Co-Chair K.C. Crosbie, a former Lexington councilwoman, and Republican National Committeeman and lobbyist John McCarthy.

McCarthy, who called Webb a friend, emphasized the “big tent” nature of the state GOP.

“The Republican Party is a big tent — open to anyone who shares our values and wants to make a difference,” McCarthy said. “We’ve seen a consistent decline in rural Democratic lawmakers across the nation, not because of who they are, but because their state and national party no longer values their perspective.”