Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 21 Democratic primary)

2026 → ← 2022
Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: January 5, 2024
Primary: May 21, 2024 General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
Poll times: 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Voting in Kentucky
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic DDHQ and The Hill: Safe Democratic Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th Kentucky elections, 2024 U.S. Congress elections, 2024 U.S. Senate elections, 2024 U.S. House elections, 2024 Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

A Democratic Party primary took place on May 21, 2024, in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 5, 2024.

Incumbent Morgan McGarvey advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 3.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies. As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 62.0%-38.0%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 60.2%-37.9%.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
January 5, 2024	May 21, 2024	November 5, 2024

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Kentucky utilizes a closed primary process, in which the selection of a party's candidates in an election is limited to registered party members.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 21 Republican primary)
• Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 3

Incumbent Morgan McGarvey defeated Geoff M. Young and Jared Randall in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 3 on May 21, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Morgan McGarvey	84.1	44,275
		Geoff M. Young	11.2	5,875
		Jared Randall	4.7	2,491

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 52,641
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Jared Randall

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography:  "I want to make Louisville KY into a place young people want to move to and stay!! I feel like our current and past leaders are lame and boring. There is a reason Nashville TN is growing faster than Louisville just saying. Never ran for any office or election before in my life so I am brand new to this. I am from Louisville KY and so was my father John and Grandfather!!! Jared Randall non-establishment Grassroots Democrat for Congress running against Morgan McGarvey in the May 21st 2024 primary. I running to get more Federal Money for better Public Transportation in West and South/Midnight Basketball because the Tarc tax has not been raised since 1974 in Louisville KY. The Tarc Bus Service is always late and sucks for poor people and people with Disabilities sadly to get to jobs so no wants to use Tarc anymore sadly!! Our leaders say there is no money for better public transportation (Tarc) and Modern Tarc Bus Shelters in West, South and East Louisville but the past leaders found a way to fund an 1 billion and half dollar Eastend bridge from Utica Indiana to Prospect KY-2 towns most people never even heard of in America and a 338 million dollar tunnel under some rich guys house in Prospect Kentucky for the Eastend bridge Project. I feel like this whole east Louisville Bridge project and the 338 million dollar tunnel under that rich guys house was a Major INSULT and not FAIR to South and West Louisville!!! We could have spent the money on fast Light Rail transit"

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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I want to make Louisville KY into a place young people want to move to and stay!! I feel like our current and past leaders are lame and boring. There is a reason Nashville TN is growing faster than Louisville just saying.

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Tarc tax has not been raised since 1974 in Louisville KY. The Tarc Bus Service is always late and sucks for poor people and people with Disabilities sadly to get to jobs so no wants to use Tarc anymore sadly!! Our leaders say there is no money for better public transportation (Tarc) and Modern Tarc Bus Shelters in West, South and East Louisville but the past leaders found a way to fund an 1 billion and half dollar Eastend bridge from Utica Indiana to Prospect KY-2 towns most people never even heard of in America and a 338 million dollar tunnel under some rich guys house in Prospect Kentucky for the Eastend bridge Project. The whole east Louisville Bridge project and the 338 million dollar tunnel was an insult to Urban Louisville!!

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I want some kind of Mens NBA Basketball, NFL football or Major league Baseball or some kind of Men’s pro Sports team in Louisville KY something!! I grew up an Atlanta Braves Baseball and Chicago Bulls Basketball fan wearing their hats and jerseys because we have no men’s pro sports and I was born in Louisville KY. I think it is a sense of PRIDE to have a pro Men’s Baseball, Basketball or Football team in a community and feel if Nashville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati and all the midsized cities and states around us can have a pro team then so can Louisville KY!!! I am also running to bring Midnight Weekend basketball to Louisville for young adults and youth like over 20 other cities have in America right now!!!

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Kentucky District 3 in 2024.

Geoff M. Young

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography:  "I have been a committed, effective peace activist and environmental activist since 1976. I moved from Massachusetts to Kentucky in 1982 and worked in Frankfort for the Energy and Environment Cabinet for 15 years. My focus there was improving energy efficiency in all sectors of Kentucky's economy. If I'm elected to the US House in November, 2024, I will be the most pro-peace, pro-diplomacy, antiwar, and anti-genocide Representative in Washington."

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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I will work harder for peace than any other member of Congress. The federal government must stop supporting Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people.

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Wars and excessive preparations for war are making us poor and weakening our national security. Congress must cut the so-called "Defense" budget by at least 75% and help the American people rebuild our economy, our transportation system, our health care system, and our education system.

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The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 was the best Supreme Court decision in my lifetime, but six reckless, totally corrupt, Constitution-shredding, Republican, partisan hacks on the US Supreme Court overturned it in June 2022 for no valid reason. They simply had the votes. If all abortions are made illegal nationwide, which is the goal of the “Right-To-Life” political movement, thousands of women will die every year for lack of reproductive health care.

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Kentucky District 3 in 2024.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Kentucky

Election information in Kentucky: May 21, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

• In-person: April 22, 2024
• By mail: Postmarked by April 22, 2024
• Online: April 22, 2024

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

No

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

• In-person: N/A
• By mail: N/A by N/A
• Online: May 7, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

• In-person: May 21, 2024
• By mail: Received by May 21, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

May 16, 2024 to May 18, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (EST/CST)

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Morgan McGarvey	Democratic Party	$2,184,236	$1,141,875	$1,263,417	As of December 31, 2024
Jared Randall	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Geoff M. Young	Democratic Party	$16,987	$14,977	$10	As of December 21, 2024
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

• District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
• Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
• Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
• State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

• District map
• Competitiveness
• Presidential elections
• State party control

Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Kentucky.

Kentucky U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested Democratic primaries	Contested Republican primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	6	6	0	23	12	3	3	50.0%	3	50.0%
2022	6	6	1	31	12	3	5	66.7%	4	80.0%
2020	6	6	0	21	12	2	5	58.3%	4	66.7%
2018	6	6	0	28	12	5	3	66.7%	2	33.3%
2016	6	6	1	18	12	1	4	41.7%	2	40.0%
2014	6	6	0	16	12	4	0	33.3%	1	16.7%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Kentucky in 2024. Information below was calculated on 2/5/2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Twenty-three candidates filed to run for Kentucky’s six U.S. House districts, including 11 Democrats and 12 Republicans. That’s 3.8 candidates per district, lower than the 5.2 candidates who ran in 2022, but higher than the 3.5 who ran in 2020.

No seats were open in 2024, meaning all incumbents ran for re-election. There was one House seat open in 2022 and another one in 2016, the only two election cycles this decade in which House seats were open.

Six candidates filed to run for Kentucky’s sixth congressional district, the most candidates who ran for a district in 2024. The candidates who ran included Republican incumbent Andy Barr and six Democrats.

Six primaries—three Democratic and three Republican—were contested, the fewest since 2016. Eight primaries were contested in 2022, and seven were in 2020.

Three incumbents—one Democrat and two Republicans—faced primary challengers. That’s fewer than 2022 and 2020, when four incumbents faced challengers, but more than 2018 and 2016, when two incumbents did.

The 4th and 5th districts were guaranteed to Republicans because no Democrats ran. Republican candidates filed to run in every district, meaning none were guaranteed to Democrats.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+9. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 9 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Kentucky's 3rd the 136th most Democratic district nationally.

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Kentucky's 3rd based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
60.2%	37.9%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district. The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline	Republican Baseline	Difference
61.6	37.4	R+24.2

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Kentucky, 2020

Kentucky presidential election results (1900-2020)

• 16 Democratic wins
• 15 Republican wins

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
Winning Party	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	D	R	R	D	R	R	R	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R

See also: Party control of Kentucky state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Kentucky's congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Kentucky
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	0	1	1
Republican	2	5	7
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	6	8

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Kentucky's top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in Kentucky, May 2024
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Andy Beshear
Lieutenant Governor	Jacqueline Coleman
Secretary of State	Michael Adams
Attorney General	Russell Coleman

State legislature

Kentucky State Senate

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	7
	Republican Party	31
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		38

Kentucky House of Representatives

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	20
	Republican Party	78
	Other	0
	Vacancies	2
Total		100

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Kentucky Party Control: 1992-2024
Eight years of Democratic trifectas  •  Three years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Governor	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
House	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Kentucky in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Kentucky, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Kentucky	U.S. House	Ballot-qualified party	2	$500.00	1/5/2024	Source
Kentucky	U.S. House	Unaffiliated	400	$500.00	6/4/2024	Source

See also

• Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024 (May 21 Republican primary)
• Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024
• United States House elections in Kentucky, 2024 (May 21 Democratic primaries)
• United States House elections in Kentucky, 2024 (May 21 Republican primaries)
• United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2024
• United States House Republican Party primaries, 2024
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2024
• U.S. House battlegrounds, 2024

External links

Suggest a link

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Footnotes

[show]

Kentucky's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Mitch McConnell (R)

Rand Paul (R)

Representatives

District 1

James Comer (R)

District 2

Brett Guthrie (R)

District 3

Morgan McGarvey (D)

District 4

Thomas Massie (R)

District 5

Hal Rogers (R)

District 6

Andy Barr (R)

Republican Party (7)

Democratic Party (1)

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