United States House of Representatives elections in Kentucky, 2012

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	2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Kentucky took place on November 6, 2012. Voters elected six candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's six congressional districts.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
February 7, 2012	May 22, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Kentucky has a closed primary system, meaning the selection of a party's candidates in a primary election is limited to registered members of that party.

Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by April 23. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 9.^[1]

See also: Kentucky elections, 2012

The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run was initially set for January 31, 2012. The deadline was moved to February 7 due to delays in the redistricting process.^[2]^[3]

According to the New York Times race ratings in October 2012, one of the six districts is considered to be in play, District 6.^[4]

The Center for Voting and Democracy (Fairvote) projected that Republicans would win four seats. It did not make a projection for the remaining two districts.^[5]

Primary competitiveness

See also: National contested primary average during the 2012 U.S. congressional elections

Kentucky was tied with Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and West Virginia for having the 22nd most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 50% of major party primaries having been contested (6 out of 12). The national average was 54.31%.

Five U.S. House incumbents ran for re-election in Kentucky in 2012. 1 of those 5 (20%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Republican Party held four of the six Congressional seats from Kentucky.

Members of the U.S. House from Kentucky -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	2	1
	Republican Party	4	5
Total		6	6

Incumbents

Heading into the 2012 election, the incumbents for the six congressional districts were:

Name	Party	District
Ben Chandler	Democratic	6
Brett Guthrie	Republican	2
Ed Whitfield	Republican	1
Geoff Davis	Republican	4
Hal Rogers	Republican	5
John Yarmuth	Democratic	3

The new congressional maps after the 2012 redistricting were expected to strengthen the incumbents in all districts.^[6] Each of the four Republican incumbents, Brett Guthrie, Ed Whitfield, Hal Rogers and retiring incumbent Geoff Davis's districts were drawn into conservative-oriented seats with the new map.^[6] Democratic representatives John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler's districts were likewise strengthened by the redistricting by shifting more Democratic voters into their districts.^[6]

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 6 seats up for election in 2012 in Kentucky. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

District	Winner	Margin of Victory	Total Vote	Top Opponent
Kentucky, District 1	Ed Whitfield	39.3%	287,155	Charles Kendall Hatchett
Kentucky, District 2	Brett Guthrie	32.6%	282,267	David Lynn Williams
Kentucky, District 3	John Yarmuth	29.4%	322,656	Brooks Wicker
Kentucky, District 4	Thomas Massie	27.2%	299,444	Bill Adkins
Kentucky, District 5	Hal Rogers	55.8%	250,853	Kenneth Stepp
Kentucky, District 6	Andy Barr	3.9%	303,000	Ben Chandler

General election candidates

District	General Election Candidates	Incumbent	2012 Winner	Partisan Switch?
1st	Charles Kendall Hatchett Ed Whitfield	Ed Whitfield	Ed Whitfield	No
2nd	David Lynn Williams Brett Guthrie Craig Astor Andrew R. Beacham	Brett Guthrie	Brett Guthrie	No
3rd	John Yarmuth Brooks Wicker Robert DeVore Jr.	John Yarmuth	John Yarmuth	No
4th	Bill Adkins Thomas Massie David Lewis	Geoff Davis	Thomas Massie	No
5th	Kenneth Stepp Hal Rogers	Hal Rogers	Hal Rogers	No
6th	Ben Chandler Andy Barr Randolph Vance	Ben Chandler	Andy Barr	Yes

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.