Erin Petrey, a Democratic businesswoman and bourbon blogger, launched her run Wednesday for Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District.

The seat is open for the first time in more than two decades, and the number of candidates on both sides of the aisle shows it. Petrey is the fourth Democrat to enter the fray, and three Republicans are running campaigns, with more expected.

Petrey, 37, is in a unique situation as a candidate.

For one, she has not been as politically connected as her fellow candidates on the Democratic side. Petrey works as a sustainability specialist at the tech giant Amazon Web Services in Washington. Her two stops prior to that were also in the sustainability industry.

“I’ve always been interested in public service, but in my adult lifetime this seat has not been open to someone who wasn’t a career politician. Especially now, considering the state our country’s in, the state our state is in, I realized that the main thing that we need is folks who have new voices, fresh experience and new perspectives,” Petrey said.

“And there is nothing I would rather do than to help prop up, rebuild and propel my home state forward.”

Petrey is also unique in her relationship with the state. She has deep familial ties to the state, grew up in Lawrenceburg and attended Fayette County Public Schools as well as the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy, but her professional career has been in Washington. She recently moved back to Lexington ahead of her run.

With residency playing a role in candidate attacks in other races across the country, Petrey has a response at the ready for those who’d question her Kentucky credentials.

“Happy Chandler said, ‘I never met a Kentuckian who wasn’t either thinking about going home or actually going home,’ and that absolutely describes me,” she said. “I have been coming back to the state every four-to-six weeks. All my family is here. I grew up here. I spent the first 18 years of my life here, and I’ve always been looking for a way to come back.”

Petrey also highlighted her role as the former president of the Kentucky Society of Washington, the “unofficial embassy of Kentucky in Washington.” In that role, she said she’s met several Kentuckians in her position.

“The number of Kentuckians I know who want to come back and can’t, because there just is not the right kind of opportunity here for them, is immense and sad. I want to try to build a place that lets Kentuckians and encourages Kentuckians to stay here, because I know that’s what they want,” Petrey said.

Petrey has also kept a pulse on Kentucky through her love for bourbon. She’s worked as a journalist, author and influencer in the bourbon world through the website Bourbon & Banter, where she holds the position of cocktail editor.

Her campaign introduction video shows her mixing the ingredients together to serve an old fashioned. The sugar represents hope, the bitters symbolizes bipartisanship and “embracing complexity,” and she ends it with a riff on service.

“Call me old fashioned, but governments, they were built to serve the people, and I want to bring that back. So let me serve you in Congress,” Petrey says as she slides the drink across a table.

“And knowing politics, I’m guessing we’re going to need a few more of these along the way.”

Other Democrats already in the race include former state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, who has scored an endorsement from Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and led the fundraising race as of July 1; David Kloiber, former Lexington city councilman who largely self-funded a second-place campaign for mayor in 2022; and Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor who posted impressive fundraising totals in the initial days of his campaign.

Why is Petrey throwing her hat in the ring with that group?

“We need new voices,” she said.

“All of these folks who are currently running either come from wealthy families, they have been lifelong feds or involved in politics, and frankly, I just think that we need somebody who has a little bit of a different perspective,” Petrey said.

Petrey told the Herald-Leader she is leaving her job at Amazon Web Services at the end of next week to focus on campaigning.

Given that the company is a driver in the proliferation of data centers powering artificial intelligence, Petrey had some thoughts on the matter.

She argued that data centers are unavoidable in modern life, since nearly every digital service relies on them, and that large providers can use resources more efficiently at their massive scale. Using less and spending less to do more, she said, “should just be common sense.”

Like the Democrats, several Republicans are lining up to try and replace Barr. Two current state representatives, Deanna Gordon of Richmond and Ryan Dotson of Winchester, are running. A former state senator, Ralph Alvarado, is also vying for the spot, and others are rumored to be considering.

All the active GOP candidates are running on a platform that highlights their admiration of and connection with President Donald Trump.

As Barr has won most of his elections handily — 2018, when Amy McGrath was the Democratic nominee, being the exception — the question has been raised of whether the seat is really up for grabs or if Democrats are tilting at windmills.

Petrey said that the other side’s loyalty to Trump leads her to believe it’s within reach.

“I feel like folks are just trying to out-MAGA each other at this point, swearing allegiance to a cause that is only trying to prop up one man instead of the Constitution and the American people and the values which I was raised to love and embrace as an American,” she said. “It’s clear that they’re only serving one person instead of their actual constituency.”

Petrey said her mom, a three-time Trump voter, serves as her barometer.

“She is now one of the most outspoken people in my circles against what he is doing, and I know if folks like her feel betrayed, there are plenty of other Kentuckians who feel betrayed too. That’s especially once they see that their energy bill is going to go up by almost 50% and that their hospitals are getting closed and they now have to drive hours to see a primary care physician or a specialist,” Petrey said.

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