Andy Barr makes Senate pitch at Hancock County meet-and-greet

Hancock County community members heard from U.S. Rep. Andy Barr on Wednesday, Jan. 28, during a meet-and-greet at the Hancock County Administration Building in Hawesville.

Barr, a Republican representing Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District since 2013, is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is retiring after more than 40 years in office.

He is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and previously led its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, giving him a platform on banking, markets and regulatory issues.

One of his main focuses has been veterans policy, including work on the Forever GI Bill and services for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Barr opened by saying Kentucky has a strong chance to build on its existing strengths in agriculture and manufacturing.

Georgetown, one of the communities he represents in the 6th District, is home to the world’s largest Toyota manufacturing plant. He said the auto supply chain is a major driver of Central Kentucky’s economy and added that the state also has significant energy resources, including large coal reserves in Western and Eastern Kentucky as well as nuclear, natural gas and pipeline infrastructure.

He said those assets, along with abundant water and untapped hydropower, position the commonwealth to support data centers and become a leader in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital assets and quantum computing.

He believes large technology companies are eyeing Kentucky for private investment that could strengthen the electric grid. He said utility providers such as Big Rivers are interested in adding more coal-fired generation after many plants were retired early.

If Kentucky can rebuild its coal industry and reduce industrial utility costs, communities like Hancock County could attract more manufacturing while lower energy costs would also benefit residential customers, Barr said.

He has spoken with senior federal officials about using the Defense Production Act to spur more private investment in power generation, including coal. The idea is to create a fund offering loan guarantees and other backstops for investors in coal-fired power plants, which he believes would help rebuild the customer base for coal miners.

He pointed to the River View mine in Union County, along with the company’s expansion in Henderson County, and noted that this region is part of the Illinois Basin, while emphasizing that Eastern Kentucky still has substantial coal reserves.

He also cited uranium enrichment activity in Western Kentucky and the Department of Energy’s view of that work as a major potential power source, saying it could put Kentucky in a strong position for the future.

Hancock County’s role as a manufacturing center reflects Kentucky’s broader reputation for advanced manufacturing, particularly in Central Kentucky, he said. He wants to advocate for the area in the Senate, recruit additional manufacturing jobs and help create more local opportunities in partnership with the community.

Barr said seeing the John Hancock historical marker when he arrived underscored the county’s deep ties to American history and the founding era.

He asked whether Hancock County students still learn about John Hancock and feel pride in the county’s namesake. He pledged that, if elected, he wants every local elementary, middle and high school student to visit Washington, D.C., where he would take them to the National Archives and show them the original Declaration of Independence with Hancock’s prominent signature, which he described as a bold message of defiance to King George.

Barr said he has four children, including a 2-year-old son named Hale after Revolutionary War patriot Nathan Hale. Hale is also Barr’s middle name, and he said it reflects honoring figures who sacrificed for the country. He compared Hancock and Hale as young patriots who challenged the British monarchy and said that connection makes it especially meaningful that the county bears Hancock’s name.

“Nathan Hale was the guy who said, ‘I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country’ when the British hanged him. He was right up there with John Hancock,” Barr said. “Hale was a young man. He was only 21 years old when he died. He and Hancock were fighting the monarchy. That’s a really big deal. It’s a source of enormous pride for your county to be named for John Hancock.”

Judge-Executive Johnny “Chic” Roberts said the Senate race is especially important because party control in Washington could easily shift with just a few votes.

Barr said his staff provides him with extensive election statistics and that those numbers show Republicans cannot assume Kentucky will automatically vote for them, even though it is a conservative, pro-Trump state.
“We’re losing a senator. It’s the first time this seat has been open in 42 years. If it flipped to a Democrat, it would be the first time since Wendell Ford,” he said. “You can kiss the Senate goodbye. If we can’t hold Kentucky in the midterms, we’re not going to win Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Maine and other swing states in the Senate. My argument is to block their path and nominate the Republican who will win in the 6th District.”
He said it’s important for voters to realize that he is already in Washington doing the work every day and could move into the Senate role without needing time to get up to speed. He emphasized that he understands the job, has existing relationships with senators and Cabinet officials he has served with in Congress, and regularly works with figures such as Lee Zeldin, Kristi Noem and others, including Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, on policy and governance.
He said he focuses on delivering tangible results for counties by working closely with county governments. He encouraged voters to ask the county judges and magistrates in the counties he serves about the federal funding and constituent services his office provides.

Barr highlighted his Sixth District Veterans Coalition, which helps former service members, and said he wants to expand that model statewide.
He said local officials know best what projects and infrastructure their communities need and that Kentucky requires at least one senator who will work directly with counties to secure federal resources for water systems, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. He pointed to judges such as Reagan Taylor, Joe Pat Covington, Mike Williams and Chris Haddix as local leaders he has partnered with to obtain federal money and projects.

Magistrate John Mark Gray, who served nearly two decades as Kentucky’s state highway superintendent, asked, “Why doesn’t Rand Paul do more projects? You can see things McConnell has done and has helped Hancock County with. I don’t know of anything Rand Paul has done to help the county.”

Gray significantly improved the state’s transportation infrastructure during his tenure and was a huge asset to the county in that role. His leadership was marked by the successful management of key road and bridge projects, earning accolades for enhancing safety and efficiency across Kentucky’s roadways.

Barr answered Gray’s question by saying that he is a fiscal conservative who believes the nation’s $38 trillion debt is a serious problem that directly affects families through higher interest rates on credit cards, vehicle loans and mortgages. He said rising federal borrowing costs crowd out funding for roads, bridges, water and sewer systems and other infrastructure needed to attract industry, and he praised Rand Paul for pushing to reduce spending.

He said he wants federal tax dollars returned to communities like Hancock County rather than sent to big cities through federal agencies, and that his goal is not to overspend but to ensure residents see a return on the federal taxes they pay.

“We need water lines and everything in Hancock County,” Gray said. “We have a lot of needs that would make you sick when you see $9 billion being thrown away in Minnesota.”

Barr said he can help secure funding for water and utility infrastructure, which in turn can attract factories to the area, grow the tax base, support jobs and spur economic development, creating a real return on the investment.

Roberts said economic development is a major challenge and increasingly depends on reliable, affordable energy, a point he said Magistrate Brent Wigginton understands well from his work with Kenergy. He said that over the next five to 10 years, attracting and keeping industry will hinge on energy costs, and that low-cost coal power is what originally drew plants to the area decades ago.

As more coal plants are shut down, he said, it will become even more difficult to sustain economic growth locally, and noted that he agrees with Barr that too many coal facilities have already been closed.

“We have shot ourselves in the foot,” Barr said. “China is building two new coal plants a week. We’ve taken 120 gigawatts of power offline, 290 coal plants have retired, and most of them were prematurely retired. Now we’re really at risk because we’re in a race with China on AI, and at the very base of the AI stack is energy. You need reliable, dispatchable, firm, meaning uninterrupted, power. There’s really only one way to get firm power. You can’t get it from wind or solar. You can get it from nuclear and coal. There are a lot of those data centers running on gas, but gas depends on transmission. If you have a pile of coal, that’s reliable. That’s dispatchable baseload power.”

He continued, saying he wants to expand coal production in places like Henderson and Union counties in order to restore a larger customer base for Kentucky coal and then pitch the state to major technology companies such as Meta, Oracle and Microsoft as a place for new construction and manufacturing jobs built on low-cost energy.

He said advances in AI will allow coal to be mined with robots that human workers control, reducing risks like black lung and making it possible to recover coal left behind in older mines, while also shifting jobs toward programmers, coders and technicians who operate and maintain automated equipment and AI-driven factories.
He acknowledged that this vision of AI and robotics can sound unsettling, and when Gray said no one wants a “Terminator”-style scenario, Barr said he shared that concern, but that the U.S. must still develop advanced AI and autonomous military technologies because China is already militarizing AI.

China is producing large numbers of drones and learning from conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, he said, and argued that building autonomous drones, ships and other systems will require significant energy and that putting Kentucky coal miners back to work to supply that power is an important part of meeting those national security and economic needs.

“Maybe they can send me back in time so I can stop all this,” Gray said jokingly. “I’m going back to 1984.”

The remark drew laughter and briefly lightened the tone, but Roberts then steered the conversation to the issue of males competing in female sports, noting that he has two daughters of his own.

Barr said that debate is personal for him as well because he has three daughters and his oldest plays high school volleyball. He sees it as an issue of safety, fairness and privacy for girls and women.

The special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant by McConnell’s retirement is set for Nov. 3, 2026, following primary elections on May 19.

Voters can learn more or reach his campaign through his website at barrforsenate.com, or via his Andy Barr and Barr for Senate pages on Facebook and X.