Former Secret Service Special Agent Logan Forsythe announced today on social media that he’s running in the 2026 Senate election in Kentucky to replace incumbent seven-term Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who has decided not to run for re-election. (McConnell has held the seat since 1972, before Forsythe was born.)
With the campaign launch video below, Forsythe, a Democrat, wrote: “I grew up on Medicaid and food stamps. Stripped tobacco at the age of 7. Lived in the back of a Dodge Caravan in HS. Married a teacher. Served my country.”
I'm Logan Forsythe.
— Logan Forsythe (@loganforky) September 16, 2025
I grew up on Medicaid and food stamps. Stripped tobacco at the age of 7. Lived in the back of a Dodge Caravan in HS. Married a teacher. Served my country.
Now, I’m running for Senate because KY families deserve better than cuts to Medicaid, SNAP & vets’… pic.twitter.com/fxVFBsq47B
[Note: In between graduating from high school and getting married to a public-school teacher, Forsythe graduate from college and law school. He worked in the U.S. Department of Defense before transferring to the Secret Service. After leaving the government, Forsythe has been working in rural Kentucky as a workers’ rights attorney.]
Forsythe, who protected both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden while a Special Agent, added: “I’m running for Senate because KY families deserve better than cuts to Medicaid, SNAP & vets’ services. If you’re pissed off like me, join our campaign today.”
Forsythe told Louisville Public Media: “The budget bill that’s just passed, it’s taken away a lot of the support systems and the opportunities that I relied on growing up. I was on Medicaid and I was on food stamps growing up, and I only got to go to college because of other opportunities provided in part by government, such as grants, scholarships and student loans…I am running right now to help protect those opportunities for the people that are going to come after me, because I don’t believe in walking through a door and then shutting it after I get to the other side.”
Note: Only one other Democrat has announced that they’re running in the 2026 Kentucky Senate election — minority leader of the Kentucky House of Representative Pamela Stevenson. So far four Republicans have tossed their hats into the ring including U.S. Representative Andy Barr and former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
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