Kentucky's Second District Gets a Democratic Candidate

I'd prefer that Leach stood up for some real Democratic principles rather than bleating about bipartisanship, but in the blood-red Second, I'll take what I can get.

Jack Brammer at the Herald

Democrat Ron Leach, a retired military officer from Brandenburg, filed Thursday to run for Kentucky's 2nd District U.S. House seat, which stretches from western Jessamine County to Owensboro.

Leach, 49, is making his first bid for public office. He filed his candidacy papers at the secretary of state's office with his wife, Kelly, and other members of his family.

So far, Leach is the only Democrat to file for the office, now held by Republican Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green. The district includes Bowling Green and Elizabethtown. It primarily covers west-central Kentucky. Last year, state lawmakers moved Garrard, Mercer and Boyle counties from Central Kentucky's 6th District to the 2nd.

Leach said he is entering the race because he "got frustrated while deployed in Afghanistan in 2011 in that it seems we no longer have a functional democracy."

He said he wants to improve working relationships in Congress.