The 2026 United States Senate election in Kentucky will be held on November 3, 2026, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Kentucky. A primary election will be held on May 19, 2026. Incumbent seven-term Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who was first elected in 1984, and most recently re-elected with 57.8% of the vote in 2020, declined to run for re-election. This decision follows his earlier announcement to retire as Senate Republican Leader after the 2024 Senate elections.
This will be the first open Senate election in Kentucky since 2010, and the first to this seat since 1972. Kentucky has been represented by Republicans in the U.S. Senate since 1999, Democrats have not won there since 1992.
Kentucky, a Southern state in the Bible Belt, is generally considered to be a Republican stronghold, having not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1992. Republicans control both U.S. Senate seats, all but two statewide executive offices, supermajorities in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly, and all but one seat in Kentucky's U.S. House delegation. Democrats control both the governorship and lieutenant-governorship, which flipped from Republican control in 2019.
McConnell was first elected in 1984, defeating then-incumbent Walter Dee Huddleston, and was re-elected in six subsequent elections.
Aggregate polls<br />
Aggregate polls<br />
Andy Barr vs. Charles Booker
Daniel Cameron vs. Charles Booker
Nate Morris vs. Charles Booker
Generic Republican vs. Charles Booker
Generic Republican vs. Amy McGrath
Partisan clients<br />