Ryan Dotson
Ryan Dotson (Republican Party) is a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, representing District 73. He assumed office on January 1, 2021. His current term ends on January 1, 2027.
Dotson (Republican Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Kentucky's 6th Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the Republican primary on May 19, 2026.[source]
Dotson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ryan Dotson served in the U.S. Army.[1]
Committee assignments
2025-2026
Dotson was assigned to the following committees:
- Health and Family Services Committee
- Small Business & Information Technology Committee
- Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee
2023-2024
Dotson was assigned to the following committees:
- Health and Family Services Committee, Vice Chair
- House Natural Resources and Energy Committee
- Small Business & Information Technology Committee
- Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee
- Natural Resources and Environment Committee
- Small Business & Information Technology Committee
2021-2022
Dotson was assigned to the following committees:
- Health and Family Services Committee
- House Natural Resources and Energy Committee
- Small Business & Information Technology Committee
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2026
See also: Kentucky's 6th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
The primary will occur on May 19, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.
General election for U.S. House Kentucky District 6
Jay Bowman and Pete Lynch are running in the general election for U.S. House Kentucky District 6 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Jay Bowman (Independent)  | |
 | Pete Lynch (Independent) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 6
The following candidates are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 6 on May 19, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Jimmy Ausbrooks | |
 | Harvey Carroll Jr. | |
 | Zach Dembo | |
| Corey Edwards | ||
 | David Kloiber | |
 | Erin Petrey | |
 | Cherlynn Stevenson | |
| ||||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 6
Ralph Alvarado, Ryan Dotson, Adam Perez Arquette, Greg Plucinski, and Steve Shannon are running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Kentucky District 6 on May 19, 2026.
| ||||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Andy Barr (R)
- Deanna Frazier Gordon (R)
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Kentucky House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73
Incumbent Ryan Dotson defeated Rory Houlihan in the general election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ryan Dotson (R) | 60.2 | 12,847 |
 | Rory Houlihan (D) | 39.8 | 8,498 | |
| Total votes: 21,345 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Rory Houlihan advanced from the Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Ryan Dotson advanced from the Republican primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Dotson in this election.
2022
See also: Kentucky House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73
Incumbent Ryan Dotson defeated Thomas Adams III in the general election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ryan Dotson (R) | 56.6 | 8,704 |
 | Thomas Adams III (D) | 43.4 | 6,678 | |
| Total votes: 15,382 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73
Thomas Adams III defeated Rory Houlihan in the Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Thomas Adams III | 53.2 | 1,416 |
| Rory Houlihan | 46.8 | 1,244 | |
| Total votes: 2,660 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Ryan Dotson advanced from the Republican primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73.
2020
See also: Kentucky House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73
Ryan Dotson defeated Kenneth Blair and Jada Brady in the general election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ryan Dotson (R) | 56.9 | 11,923 |
| Kenneth Blair (D) | 30.7 | 6,441 | ||
| Jada Brady (Unaffiliated) (Write-in) | 12.4 | 2,589 | ||
| Total votes: 20,953 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73
Kenneth Blair defeated Rory Houlihan in the Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 on June 23, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Kenneth Blair | 53.0 | 1,842 | |
| Rory Houlihan | 47.0 | 1,633 | |
| Total votes: 3,475 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Pat Banks (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73
Ryan Dotson defeated incumbent Les Yates in the Republican primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 on June 23, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ryan Dotson | 51.4 | 2,356 |
 | Les Yates | 48.6 | 2,228 | |
| Total votes: 4,584 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ryan Dotson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dotson's responses.
| Collapse all
- I'm a Pastor, a family man, and a business man. At one point, I had more than 215 employees in Kentucky. I've created jobs in Kentucky, preached the Gospel in Kentucky, raised my family here, and I've only ever left Kentucky to serve in the Army. I'm the only person in this race that's from Kentucky, and has never left my home.
- I got the Save Women's Sports Act passed in Kentucky, and now KY leads the nation in protecting our women and girls from having men in their private spaces. That fight wasn't easy, but it was right. When I get to Congress, I'll always take up the difficult fights, because what's right is right.
- I have been a Pastor for more than 30 years, and in that time, I've seen all the beauty of life, and all of its hardships. I'm running for Congress because there's only so much you can do from behind the pulpit: sometimes you need to get into the arena and fight.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2024
Ryan Dotson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Ryan Dotson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Ryan Dotson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the Kentucky General Assembly in 2025.
- Americans for Prosperity - Kentucky — Legislators are scored on their stances on conservative fiscal policy.
- Club for Growth Foundation — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Greater Louisville Inc. — Legislators from the Louisville area are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Kentucky Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- The Family Foundation of Kentucky — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to family issues.
- The Freedom Index — Legislators are scored on their adherence to the limited government principles of the U.S. Constitution.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the Kentucky General Assembly in 2024.
- Americans for Prosperity - Kentucky — Legislators are scored on their stances on conservative fiscal policy.
- Club for Growth Foundation — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to economic issues.
- Greater Louisville Inc. — Legislators from the Louisville area are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Kentucky Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- National Federation of Independent Business — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- The Family Foundation of Kentucky — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to family issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the Kentucky General Assembly in 2023.
- Greater Louisville Inc. — Legislators from the Louisville area are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the Kentucky General Assembly in 2022.
- Americans for Prosperity - Kentucky — Legislators are scored on their stances on conservative fiscal policy.
- Greater Louisville Inc. — Legislators from the Louisville area are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Kentucky Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- National Federation of Independent Business — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- The Family Foundation of Kentucky — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to family issues.
Below you can find the scorecards found for the Kentucky General Assembly in 2021.
- Greater Louisville Inc. — Legislators from the Louisville area are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Kentucky Chamber of Commerce — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Kentucky Comeback — Legislators are scored on their votes on bills supported by the organization.
- The American Conservative Union — Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
|
Candidate U.S. House Kentucky District 6 |
Officeholder Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 |
Personal |
Footnotes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Les Yates (R) |
Kentucky House of Representatives District 73 2021-Present |
Succeeded by - |
