Candidates for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A big race Kentuckians have their eye on is the 6th Congressional District. Governor Andy Beshear endorsing Democrat Josh Hicks who is hoping to unseat long-time incumbent Rep. Andy Barr.

It’s been a heated race with attack ads. When it comes to spending, Barr’s campaign has raised about twice the amount as Hicks, something Hicks says can “drown out your voice.”

Barr meanwhile says it’s fair game to call out your opponent to point out the differences.

“It’s about getting results,” said Rep. Andy Barr.

Representative Andy Barr branding himself a solid choice as he seeks reelection in the race for Kentucky’s sixth congressional district, highlighting what he calls accomplishments over his past four terms, “Whether its responding to the virus, getting more personal protective equipment from the strategic national stockpile, or literally hundreds of millions of dollars to local area hospitals and doctors to combat the virus, or expanding tele-health services so we’re protecting healthcare workers.”

Barr’s opponent, Josh Hicks, calling attention to his background as a kid who grew up on a farm, serving as a U.S. Marine and working as a practicing attorney, “I have dedicated a large chunk of my life to public service and its something I think is currently missing. I think my voice is one that can encompass the wide variety of folks in the sixth district.”

When it comes to some of the issues like the coronavirus pandemic, Hicks calling out a lack of federal guidance.

“We’re seeing developed countries all over the world who are having full attended sporting events and concerts and have everything wide open because they presented a unified front against this virus early on,” said Hicks. “And we’re still here in a political tug of war over whether or not we’re gonna do the things that keep people safe and get us back on track to be back open again.”

“We have really responded in a way that I think can enable the economy to open up,” said Barr.

Barr meanwhile says we’ve learned a lot about balancing safety measures with getting people back to work and can now focus on more testing to reopen schools and additional legislation, “reload the paycheck protection program for those businesses in distress and we also need liability protection for colleges, universities, schools and small businesses so frivolous lawsuits do not impede reopening the economy.”

When it comes to safety and law enforcement, we asked each candidate how to best balance keeping the community safe and also policing.

“I spent five years up in Maysville and I was a police officer there, I had a number of jobs as a police officer, including helping to train police officers when they were fresh out of the academy,” explained Hicks.

Hicks says he understands police have a tough job and believes officers are underpaid.

“Where we have good police officers as public servants doing the right things in their communities, we should boy them up. We should make sure that they’re getting all the support they need,” said Hicks. “But we also have to recognize that where you have officers that are not doing the right thing that don’t have that dedication to public service at heart, that are doing the things that we have unfortunately seen on camera, we have to be a voice to stop that as well.”

Barr agrees, in part, “I think the vast majority of law enforcement officers are heroic, brave people.”

However, Barr believes more funding is needed for police to maintain that standard and to improve morale.

“Rather than defunding the police, we need to actually support policies that would provide more resources, more training, more body cameras. That’s why I support a police reform bill that would increase funding for law enforcement for $1.75 billion and provide 500,000 body cameras,” said Rep. Barr.

Barr talked a lot aobut his future plans from giving Kentuckians another stimulus boost to implementing a China task force to hold what he called the Chinese Communist country responsible for the pandemic. Hicks meanwhile, focused on a change in leadership, touting himself as a voice for the people.