A former U.S. Secret Service agent turned attorney from West Kentucky is joining the field for Kentucky’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary.
Logan Forsythe announced his bid for the seat Tuesday. In a phone interview with the Kentucky Lantern, he said his time in the Secret Service serving under multiple presidents was “disheartening” to his view on national politics.
Forsythe, now 36, said growing up he had the idea that there was a “fascination” with whoever the president was as the leader of the free world. As he grew older, he “became disillusioned with the idea that not everyone who wears a suit is a good person or a smart person.”
As an agent, Secret Service members are around presidents, vice presidents, congressional members, and their families. On some occasions when Forsythe was in a room with elected officials of both political parties, he found that sometimes they made decisions based on winning elections instead of thinking of the best interests of those who elected them.
“I don’t want to oversell the amount of times that I was in this situation, but there were many times when both parties’ elected officials would be in a room and I would hear them talking, and more times than not, when they were making decisions … the focus wasn’t on their constituents. It wasn’t on the people who sent them there to represent them and to do what’s in their best interest,” Forsythe said.
In his launch video, Forsythe discusses injuries from a car wreck that “nearly killed me” and ended his career as a federal agent. His neck and back were broken in the accident.
Forsythe now is a workers’ rights attorney, often working in rural areas of the state. A Lyon County native now living in Lexington, he told the Lantern that his upbringing in poverty shaped much of his worldview today. He is the youngest of four children in a single-mother household. Government programs like Medicaid and food stamps were essential to the wellbeing of his family, he said.
“I want to dispel this notion that people who rely on these programs and who need them, they’re only in their situation because of their lack of effort,” Forsythe said. “Because I don’t know what else my mother could have done growing up that she wasn’t already doing. If anything, it was too much effort for what she was getting out of it.”
He is critical of a recent GOP megabill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, for its cuts to veterans services, food assistance programs, and Medicaid. Nationwide, many Democrats have vocally opposed the legislation, often a key issue of party candidates’ platforms ahead of midterm elections.
Forsythe also told the Lantern that if elected, he wants to focus on legislation that would make living costs more affordable, increase access to health care, and support public education.
Forsythe said he’s a candidate that can overcome Democrats’ disconnection with rural voters. He may have worked outside of Kentucky but “I am still from Lyon County.”
“I have family out there, and if I ignore them, they will call me,” he said. “So, I can’t just ignore them or not go to family reunions. I’m going to be out there anyway, regardless of this campaign.”
Another Democrat has long declared her run for the open U.S. Senate seat — Kentucky House Minority Floor Leader Rep. Pamela Stevenson, of Louisville. In 2023, she was the Democratic nominee for attorney general but lost to Republican Russell Coleman.
Republican candidates have been in a heated primary. The top candidates — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, former Attorney General Daniel Cameron and businessman Nate Morris — have campaigned for GOP votes throughout the summer. Last month, they appeared on stage at the annual Fancy Farm Picnic in West Kentucky to trade jabs in front of a crowd of supporters and detractors.
The seat is currently held by longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who earlier this year announced he is not seeking reelection.
Forsythe currently lives in Lexington with his wife, Brittany, and their two children, Maddox and Maggie.
--30--
Written by McKenna Horsley. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
Comments
