FANCY FARM, KY — Kentucky’s biggest annual political rally was missing some familiar faces in 2026, with two of the state’s most powerful officeholders away from the action.
That didn’t mean the 146th Fancy Farm political picnic was devoid of notable moments, though. Attendees in West Kentucky saw one potential Republican gubernatorial contender announce he’d back another possible candidate, along with fiery speeches from others seeking the commonwealth’s highest elected offices.
With more than a dozen speeches and explosive energy from the crowd at St. Jerome Catholic Church, it’s hard to cut it down to just a few takeaways. Still, check out the biggest highlights from another year at Fancy Farm.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s health and current condition is one of the biggest stories in the country right now. He’s been a Fancy Farm fixture over the years and often says there’s no better place to be on the first Saturday in August.
He was unable to attend Aug. 1, as the 84-year-old senator continues to recover after being hospitalized June 14. But he was still on the minds of speakers on both sides of the aisle.
Dave “Buzz” Baker, a longtime sports anchor at WKYT who served as emcee, got the ball rolling in the first minute as he said he wanted to “extend our gratitude to Senator McConnell for his years of faithful service to Kentucky and our nation” on behalf of the whole crowd. The statement prompted applause from most Republicans but a reserved reaction from Democrats on stage — and a chorus of boos from their supporters in the crowd.
(Fancy Farm, for reference, is built around stump speeches where candidates rib each other, and an energetic crowd cheers and jeers along. Some boos could be expected.)
More: The best zingers from Kentucky politicians at Fancy Farm in 2026
State Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, told the audience Kentucky has “punched above its weight class because we had Mitch McConnell on our side in Washington,” copping a favorite phrase from the senator and his supporters. State Rep. Kim Holloway, R-Mayfield, took time to say she was disappointed McConnell wasn’t in attendance as well.
Democrats, meanwhile, had their own views on the retiring senator, in federal office for more than 40 years.
Chants of “Where’s Mitch?” from their side of the venue were common throughout the event before Charles Booker, the party’s nominee in the race for the Senate seat McConnell will vacate, took their question to the stage as he called out his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr.
“OK, wait a minute — where in the world is Mitch McConnell?” he called out during his speech. “I was the first person to call for transparency, and instead of speaking up for Kentucky, Andy Barr is being quiet as a church mouse.”
Even Christopher Campbell, the fledgling Kentucky Party’s U.S. Senate candidate whose speech was for the most part met with bewilderment by the crowd, got in on the action, equating Booker and Barr to U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and McConnell — “although I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead,” a reference to conspiracy theories about the senator’s health. McConnell’s office has issued two statements accompanied with photos of the senator since his hospitalization, but he has not done any interviews with media or released any comments on camera.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams had long teased a pending announcement at Fancy Farm, building speculation he may announce a Republican gubernatorial campaign.
He didn’t. Instead, he encouraged GOP voters to unite behind U.S. Rep. James Comer, who has not launched a campaign but has been open about considering jumping in the race.
Comer has plenty of support among Kentucky Republicans. Each who spoke with The Courier Journal after the event said they’d support him if he runs.
Adams, meanwhile, said he was concerned if he jumped in, it could lead to others launching bids. He mentioned by name U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, the current congressman who lost his primary in May against an opponent backed by President Donald Trump but has unique appeal and a fervent base of supporters.
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It could be “2015 all over again” if he challenged Comer, Adams said, pointing toward a crowded primary 11 years ago that ended with Comer losing to Matt Bevin, the eventual general election winner, by 83 votes.
“My goal is to just kill that off now. Let Democrats go through all that themselves,” he said, referencing the party’s pending primary between Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and longtime Kentucky Democratic leader Rocky Adkins. “We’ve got a tough road to hoe after the primary because I can assume (Gov. Andy Beshear) is going to ensure that his party is 100% supported. It would be embarrassing for him trying to run for president and then his home state flips right before the South Carolina primary.”
Adams did “a very honorable thing,” said state Sen. Scott Madon, R-Pineville, as he also looked toward the pending race between Adkins and Coleman. He expects a rocky road ahead on the other side of the aisle, he added.
“The last thing that we want is to have what’s fixing to happen in the Democrat race,” he said. “You can tell what’s fixing to happen there.”
Coleman launched her campaign in April. Adkins entered the race in July. Fancy Farm weekend marked the first time the pair shared a stage as gubernatorial candidates.
The event has often featured primary opponents taking aim at each other. In 2025, Barr sparred with primary opponents Daniel Cameron and Nate Morris, who introduced himself with a searing speech that took aim at McConnell along with the two other candidates in the race.
In 2026, though, Adkins and Coleman spent the weekend largely on the same page. Coleman ribbed her opponent at one point on stage with a joke about how long he and Comer had been in Kentucky politics, as both once served in the state House with her father: “They’ll probably tell you that they knew me when I was in diapers, and if these two hang around much longer, I’m going to be able to say the same thing about them.”
That was about it, though. Coleman spent most of her time roasting Republicans on the other side of the stage, while Adkins used his allotment to criticize GOP policies he said had been supported by Comer and Barr.
Still, they have plenty of time to put distance between each other. The primary is set for May 18, 2027.
McConnell wasn’t the only big name in Bluegrass State politics who was missing in action. Beshear was not in attendance, either.
Kentucky’s Democratic governor told reporters ahead of the weekend that he had declined to attend so he could instead be in the stands for his son’s final travel league baseball tournament. Will Beshear recently announced he plans to play after high school at Swarthmore College.
Like McConnell, the governor’s absence didn’t keep him out of discussions.
Coleman said she and Beshear have had “a great run,” though at one point she joked she’d tried to convince him to attend by telling him Fancy Farm is in New Hampshire. Beshear is openly considering running for president in 2028 and has spent time over the past year traveling to states with key presidential primaries. Adkins, meanwhile, said “real leadership is what this governor, Andy Beshear, has produced, and I’ve been honored to be his senior advisor.”
Republicans, who have clashed with Beshear throughout his more than six years in office, weren’t as kind.
Holloway joked those in attendance didn’t have to worry about a surprise visit from Beshear because “the best place to hide from the governor is anywhere west of Bowling Green.”
Barr quipped that when there’s a natural disaster in Kentucky you can expect to see Beshear on site preparing for a photo op “within two minutes” and said the governor likely wasn’t in attendance because “if I were a Kentucky Democrat and had to defend the Democratic Party, I wouldn’t want to be found either.”
Beshear fired back in a series of social media posts later that evening with shots at Paul, Barr and Republicans who had not called for more transparency over McConnell’s status. “Fancy Farm is a great Kentucky tradition and it’s all in good fun. I can take it. Hope they can too,” he concluded.
Beshear last spoke at Fancy Farm in 2023, ahead of his reelection that fall.
Booker returned to the Fancy Farm stage for the first time since 2022, taking heat from both his current and former Senate opponents.
Barr focused heavily on the emerging democratic socialist movement within the Democratic Party, re-invoking calls that Booker would be the “Mamdani of Kentucky,” referring to New York’s Democratic Socialists of America Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Although Booker does not identify as a socialist or member of the DSA, Barr continued to hit Booker on the topic.
“They believe in shared sacrifice,” Barr said. “Which means you sacrifice your paychecks, and they share in it.”
Paul, who did not attend the 2022 Fancy Farm when he ran against Booker, said the Democratic candidate’s stance on “drag queens in kindergarten might be the culture that let’s [Booker] set a new record for least votes ever.” Paul also criticized Booker for his “Hood to the Holler” program, calling his former opponent the “king of the grift.”
After taking plenty of zingers from Republicans up and down the ballot, Booker focused his speech on appealing to both Democratic and Republican voters in the crowd, asking Republican voters if their lives had improved under Republican leadership.
“Republicans won everything in Washington,” Booker said. “You got the House, the Senate and the White House. What has that done for you?”
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t take his chance to hit back at Paul and Barr, saying the former was “too scared to face him last time” while calling the latter a “weak version of Mitch McConnell.” Booker also pushed on Barr’s run to the right during the primaries in an effort to land Trump’s endorsement, specifically referencing a controversial ad campaign Barr put out saying “it’s not a sin to be White” — it’s a sin “to be that desperate,” Booker said.
Booker and Barr will face off in the general election this November.
Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com. Reach Keely Doll at kdoll@courier-journal.com.
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