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Barr, Yarmuth Fend Off Challenges For Congress

Karyn Czar/WUKY

Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Barr has won a fourth term in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District.

Barr defeated Democrat and former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath on Tuesday. She was considered Barr's toughest challenger since he arrived in Congress in 2012. President Donald Trump won the central Kentucky district by double digits in 2016.

The district includes Lexington and capital Frankfort, and the seat there has switched parties five times since 1978. Both parties saw this race as close. Barr hosted a rally with President Donald Trump, and McGrath campaigned at a high school gym with former Vice President Joe Biden.

Barr throughout the campaign labeled McGrath as "too liberal" for Kentucky.

Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth has won re-election in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District.

The former newspaper publisher defeated two challengers in Tuesday's election — Republican Vickie Yates Glisson and Libertarian Gregory Boles. Yarmuth was first elected to Congress in 2006 in the Louisville-area district.

Yarmuth has cruised to re-election victories but faced his most serious challenge from Glisson, who formerly served as Kentucky's top-ranking health official in Republican Gov. Matt Bevin's administration. During her tenure, Glisson led the state's effort to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients.

Yarmuth has said he is in line to become House Budget Committee chairman if Democrats take control of a majority of seats in the House.

The Kentucky clerk who went to jail in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has lost her bid for a second term.

Republican incumbent Kim Davis was defeated by Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. in Tuesday's election for clerk of Rowan County in northeastern Kentucky.

Caudill is well known in the county, having worked for the county Property Valuation Administrator's Office for 21 years. He lost to Davis by just 23 votes in the 2014 Democratic primary. Davis later switched to the GOP.

Davis went from obscure local official to a national figure when she stopped issuing marriage licenses days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry. The ruling overturned same-sex marriage bans nationwide. Davis cited her religious beliefs for her action, saying she was acting under "God's authority."

She was released from jail when her staff issued licenses in her absence.

Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers has won a 21st term in Kentucky's 5th Congressional District.

Rogers easily defeated Democratic challenger Kenneth Stepp on Tuesday. Stepp is an attorney who has run against Rogers before.

Rogers lives in Somerset. He was first elected in 1981 and is the longest-serving Republican ever elected to federal office in Kentucky. He is the former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

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