Editor’s Note: I am pleased to announce a new column for Forward Kentucky: Olivia Krauth’s “The Gallery Pass.” Olivia is an award-winning journalist with years of reporting on Kentucky politics. She graciously agreed to let us cross-post some of her columns, which we are thrilled to do. If you would like to get her work in your inbox, you can sign up at her Substack. And while there, you can become a paid subscriber, which helps her continue her excellent reporting. Welcome, Olivia!
Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session starts Tuesday, and I am absolutely not prepared.
Granted, this will be my ninth regular legislative session as a reporter, and I finally realized a year or two ago that you can’t actually fully prepare for Frankfort.
But I’m hoping this guide will at least help y’all have an idea about what’s about to go down, which trendlines to watch, and how to follow along for the next few months.
Please, let us begin.
Mark your calendars
Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session starts Tuesday and lasts 60 business days between now and April 15. Unlike in odd-numbered years, lawmakers don’t take most of January off and they tend to work M-F.
So, basically, the legislature is going to meet almost daily from now until April. It is probably going to be a slow burn to get started, especially as everyone gets used to working in the temporary chambers instead of the Capitol. That doesn’t mean don’t pay attention until March — please absolutely pay attention before that — just that things might be moving at a super sluggish pace until we start sprinting in March.
Key dates:
- Jan. 6 is the first day.
- April 1 is the last day to pass things before the veto period.
- Veto period runs from April 2 to April 13.
- April 14 and 15 are the last two days of session.
- Currently scheduled days off: Jan. 19, Feb. 16, March 27 and 30.
Counting down
- 2 days until the first day of #KYGA26. (Jan. 6)
- 5 days until the filing deadline to run for office. (Jan. 9)
- 57 days until the last day to file bills in the Senate (March 2)
- 59 days until the last day to file bills in the House (March 4)
- 87 days until the last day before the veto period (April 1)
- 101 days until the last day of #KYGA26. (April 15)
- 135 days until Kentucky’s 2026 primary elections. (May 19)
- 209 days until Fancy Farm 2026. (Aug. 1)
- 303 days until Election Day 2026. (Nov. 3)
The Capitol is closed
ICYMI: The Capitol building is undergoing renovations, so the House and Senate will meet in a temporary structure in the Capitol’s parking lot.
This is one of my top trendlines to watch this session, because those temporary chambers? Yeah, they don’t have galleries where the public can watch what’s going on in real-time, in-person. If you want to watch while in Frankfort, you can sit in the Capitol Annex and watch a livestream of what’s going on in a building right next door to you.
So, the only time lawmakers are going to have to face the public will be in the halls of the Annex, and during the committee meetings held there. Advocates already felt showing up at committee meetings was critical to making folks’ voices heard, and now it will be even more critical.
Another impact of the Capitol closure: No Capitol rotunda for rallies. Advocacy groups are gonna need to find a new spot to protest.
After years of increasing concerns around transparency from the legislature, I’ll be watching to see exactly how this all plays out.
(And, yeah, getting rid of galleries is either gonna be really great or really bad for my brand of The GALLERY Pass. How are you gonna be a gallery pass when there is no gallery? But also, I can be your gallery pass that you can no longer get. IDK, we’ll see.)
What other trendlines should you watch?
I was going to try and make a comprehensive list, but I fear that’s impossible, so here’s the quickest rundown I can muster after combing through legislative preview panels and coverage, lawmaker interviews, and a random assortment of things on my Notes app.
- The state budget (duh), especially with how the overall economy and concerns around federal cuts are playing out.
- As always, I’ll be paying special attention to education funding. One group pushing to bolster public schools already made a ~$700M budget request.
- Tied to the budget: Are we going to try to keep cutting the state income tax? Rs want it to eventually hit 0%, and it may or may not have hit the triggers to drop to 3.5% recently.
- Data centers and what regulations (if any) should be put in place
- Also, just general AI energy — what could lawmakers push for, if anything.
- Something (maybe multiple somethings) involving housing. I haven’t heard a consistent policy push, but some top GOP leaders have said housing will be a priority this year.
- Side note: It feels like housing is always labeled a priority heading into session (especially after the 2022 EKY floods), but it never materializes. So we’ll see, and we’ll see what gets proposed that doesn’t involve asking the state for millions in what is looking to be a tough budget cycle.
- Culture wars topics I’ve noticed so far are prohibiting DEI at the K-12 level and blocking transgender people from using the bathroom tied to their gender identity while at the state Capitol.
- Will either actually go anywhere? Hearing some (maybe a lot) of skepticism, including from some in the GOP, but also hints that that energy may shift as viral videos in right-wing media from Kentucky’s legislative happenings push conversations around those issues.
- Some sort of something around prison reform, particularly around how counties often get left on the hook for paying for jails.
- Also heard some rumblings around a juvenile justice bill from Rep. Jared Bauman, the architect of 2024’s major crime bill.
- Will Kentucky do anything re: immigration?
- Will Beshear get universal pre-k? Doubtful, but we might see some traction around making child care more accessible.
- Tweaks to Senate Bill 181 from last year after the bill meant to protect students from creepy educators had a ton of unintended consequences because it was a bit too broad.
- What’s going to happen with Rep. Daniel Grossberg’s ethics hearing over allegations of misconduct, and will any legislative action happen to make sexual misconduct an ethical violation (because right now it is not).
- I’ve been told at least one lawmaker plans on filing a bill along those lines. Not sure, though, what the appetite for it will be.
- Oh, and don’t forget about election season! The filing deadline for candidates is Friday. And a lot of folks running for reelection will use this session as a chance to show voters exactly where they stand on things, so expect lots of bills that seem extreme to get filed, grab headlines, and then die.
Editor’s note: I reserve the right to come back and add things as I remember them to this list.
Bookmark these links
For the 2026 legislative session…
- This is the committee schedule.
- This is the session calendar.
- This is each day’s lineup of meetings, agendas and start times.
- Legislative action will be live-streamed on KET and the LRC’s YouTube page.
Editor’s note: I will update this list of links as specific links tied to session come online, so please check back!
How to follow my work this session
- Subscribe to The Gallery Pass and read it religiously.
- Follow my social media accounts for more real-time updates:
- Read Queer Kentucky — the home to my full-length reporting this session.
How to support me
- Subscribe to The Gallery Pass as a paid sub. I have monthly and annual options, and the annual one is still 26% off to celebrate #KYGA26!
- Subscribe to The Gallery Pass as a free sub. Can’t pay? No worries. Just subscribing to TGP helps me boost my numbers and draw attention.
- Share TGP with literally anyone. Share links to it on social media, forward this newsletter to a friend, drop it in the group chat. Rally the troops!
- Venmo me. Even a small one-time payment of $5 can help cover coffee, gas or lunch while in Frankfort.
- Watch my TikToks. Seriously. I get paid for my TikToks and the better they do, the more I make. So, follow, watch, like/comment/share. It is free to you but can mean a lot to me.
- Tell me stuff! You can always drop news tips, hot goss, what you’d like to read more about, etc. in this survey.
- Add me to your mailing lists. I can’t cover something if I don’t know it is happening, so add me to your press lists! I’m at [email protected]and [email protected].
- Say hi! See me in Frankfort? Come up and say hi! I’ll have business cards to swap, and maybe friendship bracelets and TGP stickers to share, too.
OK, y’all, I’ve gone on too long. I have to figure out what I’m going to wear on the first day of session and see if I remember how to successfully put makeup on my face.
See y’all in Frankfort!
— okk.
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