A pair of incumbents squared off in the GOP primary race for Kentucky’s House of Representatives District 12 seat.
District 12 incumbent Jim Gooch beat out District 4 incumbent Lynn Bechler in the newly remapped district. He was elected by Republican voters from Webster, Union, Crittenden and McLean counties.
Gooch, who has been in the position for 14 terms, will face off in the general election against Alan Lossner, the lone Democratic candidate for District 12.
“Every two years, we have to go back and ask the folks to send us to Frankfort again, and we did that and obviously, they felt like that we had done a good job,” Gooch said.
In total, Gooch received 2442 votes and Bechler received 1977 votes.
“We've worked hard for the citizens of this district,” Gooch said. “We have a lot of issues in our area that are going to continue and certainly, there's challenges that come from Washington with energy policies. We have an energy policy that's just totally insanity that's coming from Washington, and it's gonna take a lot of pushback from Kentucky to make sure that they don't destroy our cheap and affordable and available [energy].”
The representative has said he wants to focus on education issues and things the General Assembly has dealt with in recent years like abortion rights and environmental issues.
