Kentucky Republican Lawmakers Remove Democratic Governor’s Role in Filling U.S. Senate Vacancies

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Friday removed the Democratic governor from any role to fill future vacancies in the U.S. Senate — a move that advocates said was unrelated to recent scrutiny over the senior senator’s health of the state, Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

The Republican Party’s supermajority Legislature easily overruled the Gov. Andy Beshearveto of the measure. The legislation requires a special election to fill any vacancy in the Bluegrass State Senate. The winner of the special election would hold the office for the remainder of the unexpired term.

“The people should decide who is the United States Senator always by election,” said House Majority Leader Steven Rudy, a Republican and the bill’s lead sponsor, during a brief House debate on Friday.

The Senate succession project was approved by the Legislature at a time of pending transition for 82-year-old McConnell. In February, the venerable Kentucky senator announced that he would step down from his longtime Senate leadership role in November.

Aides said McConnell’s announcement was not related to his health. The senator suffered a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes in which his face briefly froze while he spoke.

How a Senate vacancy is filled has greater importance at a time when the Senate is closely divided along party lines. In 2021, Republican Party lawmakers in Kentucky ended the governor’s independent power to name a successor. Now they have completely blocked the governor from filling a vacancy.

The Senate succession project was among a set of measures rejected by the governor. Republican lawmakers spent much of Friday overriding those vetoes.

They rejected a veto of a criminal justice bill that would have imposed harsher penalties for a range of crimes. Beshear said it would burden the state with significantly higher incarceration costs and criminalize homelessness by creating a crime of “illegal camping.”

Lawmakers also overrode a veto on a measure promoting nuclear energy in Kentucky’s coal-producing region.

Beshear said he supports an “all of the above” energy policy that includes nuclear energy, but objected to how members would be selected for an advisory board designed to foster the development of nuclear energy. Many of them would be appointed by private sector groups, bypassing the appointing authority of the governor or other state constitutional officials, Beshear said.

Regarding the Senate succession bill, McConnell spoke favorably about it during a recent radio interview in Louisville, calling it a good idea that would allow voters to decide on a successor should a vacancy occur.

McConnell says he will do his duty seventh Senate termadding in the same interview on WHAS-AM: “I don’t know how many times I can say this. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” He has given no hint as to whether he will seek re-election in 2026, but McConnell has continued raising campaign funds for himself.

Rudy has previously said the legislation has nothing to do with McConnell but reflects his political stance on how an empty Senate seat should be filled.

Rudy said he has talked about changing the way a Senate vacancy is filled for more than a decade, since the conviction of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich for crimes that included trying to sell an appointment to Barack Obama’s former seat. Obama in the Senate. Rudy’s district, in far western Kentucky, borders Illinois.

Beshear, who won reelection last year over a McConnell protégé, noted that lawmakers have changed their minds for the second time in recent years about how to fill a Senate vacancy.

“Before these maneuvers, the same system had existed since 1942,” Beshear said in his veto message. “This administration deserves the same authority as previous administrations.”

The criminal justice bill that GOP lawmakers supported with their override vote would introduce a series of changes to the state’s criminal code, improving many current penalties and creating new crimes.

A prominent feature of the bill creates a “three-strikes” penalty that would jail criminals for life after committing a third violent crime. It adds to the list of violent crimes that require offenders to serve the majority of their sentences before becoming eligible for release.

Supporters portrayed the bill as a necessary policy change that would do more to hold criminals accountable and make communities safer. Opponents warned that the measure would come at a high price for taxpayers, with no guarantee that the tougher approach would reduce crime.

The fiscal note attached to the legislation stated that the overall financial impact was “indeterminable” but would likely lead to a “significant increase in expenses, primarily due to increased incarceration costs.”