Sen. Katrina Shealy headed to runoff against Carlisle Kennedy in Republican primary

Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, will head to a runoff against Republican challenger Carlisle Kennedy. With 97% of the precincts reporting, Shealy lead with 40%, compared to Kennedy who received 36% of the vote.

The third Republican challenger, Zoe Warren, received 23%.

At her watch party in Lexington at Bubba’s Pub and Grub, Shealy’s family and supporters gathered to wait for results. The bar was decked out in red, white and blue as Shealy made her way around, continuing to watch her computer as results came in.

She told her supporters and family around 9:30 p.m. at the watch party that she believed the race was going to a runoff.

“We gotta take this crazy guy down, because he’s not nice and he’s really bad,” she told the crowd about Kennedy.

She added that he’s a trial lawyer and the state house does not need any more of those.

“We gotta get out and work hard to make sure he doesn’t get there,” Shealy said to the crowd. “We can pull and milk this cow as long as we want to but were not going to milk enough milk out of it to get us there. So we’ll be back in two weeks to get all the milk out of this cow and win this election.”

Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment by phone or text messages.

Whoever wins the June 25 runoff will move onto the November elections. There are no Democrats running for the seat.

For Shealy, the campaign season had unusual incidents as well. The senator said she had never experienced a campaign season where she felt her safety was in danger.

Shealy, Warren and Kenndy didn’t directly attack each other but Warren and Kennedy made sure to let voters know they were “true” conservatives, which often was seen as an underlying shot at Shealy.

Kennedy, an attorney, also said he is pro-life and pro-children, like Shealy and Warren.

Warren campaigned on “conservative” values, just like his opponents, but pushed for harder line-conservative values. He is 100% pro-life and has raised concerns against the hate crime bill, which he believes will take away free speech.

Shealy held a significant cash lead over her Warren and Kennedy, in total with $199,323.28. Kennedy held a total of $21,680.00 and Warren had $20,179.70.

Shealy’s allies were confident she would win going into Tuesday. Shealy said throughout the day, she brought food to the poll workers and stood out as voters cast their ballots.

This story was originally published June 11, 2024 at 9:53 PM.