Kentucky
Kentucky primary: Five questions answered by NKY voters
Northern Kentucky had a lot of key races to keep an eye on during Tuesday night’s primary as GOP incumbents were challenged in nearly every race.
In Boone County, 12.64% of voters cast a ballot. In Kenton County, 9.65% of voters showed up while Campbell County had a 10.39% turnout.
This is how they voted:
Did the man accused of strangling a teen win?
No! Republican Terry Hatton won with more than 80% of the vote. He’ll take on Democrat Matt Lehman in the general election this fall.
Hatton was up against Republican Brian Ormes in the open state House seat in District 67, which includes the northwest part of Campbell County.
Ormes made headlines in April after he was charged with felony first-degree strangulation and misdemeanors for menacing and fourth-degree assault. The charges stem from an incident at a Walmart where he allegedly confronted a 17-year-old after a ball nearly hit his son.
More: Kentucky Republican candidate arrested on strangulation charge
What happened to the liberty incumbents?
The so-called liberty candidates, who are part of a more conservative branch of the Republican party, won big election night – all the incumbents will be back on the ballots.
A new crop of Northern Kentucky candidates took on mainstream Republicans during the 2022 GOP primary and ousted three of them. The liberty candidates often oppose COVID vaccines, support book bans, and are determined to oust what they call “RINOs,” Republicans in name only.
Here are the results for those two races:
- State Rep. Steve Doan, R-Erlanger, beat candidate Diane Brown with 77% of the vote in District 69, which includes parts of Kenton and Boone counties. Doan also ousted longtime Republican Adam Koenig in the 2022 primary with 54% of the vote.
- Incumbent state Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, beat Republican Christopher Pavese with 76% of the vote in District 60, a horizontal slice through the middle of Boone County. Proctor ousted mainstream Republican incumbent Sal Santoro, who served for more than a decade, in the 2022 primary.
Who had the closest race?
Republican incumbent Kim Moser eked out a victory over GOP challenger Karen Campbell, a liberty candidate. Unofficial results showed Moser won with 51% of the vote, just a 71-vote margin Tuesday night.
That isn’t enough to mandate an automatic recount in the state, which requires one if final results are closer than 0.5%. However, Campbell can request a recount.
Neither candidate made public statements about the race online Tuesday night.
Who won the ugliest race in NKY
Republican T.J. Roberts, of Burlington, crushed former state House Rep. Ed Massey in the primary Tuesday night with 77% of the vote. Roberts will be the GOP state House District 66 candidate, which includes northern Boone County.
“It is a remarkable thing what can happen when people come together and actually fight to put their districts first,” Roberts said Tuesday night, thanking U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and others for supporting his first-time race for office.
He’s going up against Democrat Peggy Houston-Nienaber in November.
More: GOP candidate T.J. Roberts defeats Ed Massey after nasty primary race in NKY
Who won the empty state Senate seats?
State Rep. Steve Rawlings is now set to be a state Senator. Rawlings, a more conservative liberty candidate, ousted two-time incumbent Ed Massey in the 2022 primary.
He beat Duane Froelicher – a former Florence city councilman – with 77% of the vote Tuesday night.
No Democrat is running in the race in November.
District 11:Trump, immigration: Where these Boone Co. state senate candidates stand
First-time political candidate Matt Nunn, of Sadieville, beat Julia Jaddock, of Georgetown, with 64% of the vote in District 17, which includes the southern part of Kenton County, Grant and Scott counties, and the northwest corner of Fayette County.
He’ll face Democrat Kiana Fields in the general election.
District 17: Immigration, Jan. 6: What these state Senate candidates have to say
Entering the weekend, Vanderbilt baseball had gotten swept in its only SEC series in which it hadn’t won the first game.
So the Commodores had a tough task in a series they badly needed after dropping the opener 5-2 on a walk-off grand slam after Vanderbilt’s best healthy starter, Connor Fennell, pitched well.
But the Commodores (24-17, 9-9 SEC) rebounded to take the series with an 8-7 win in the second game and a 13-6 win in the finale April 19. They did that despite not having any pitcher go more than three innings in either game. Though the pitching was still shaky at times — they issued more free passes than strikeouts in both of the wins — they worked out of enough jams to let the offense go to work.
Here’s what we learned from the series.
Will Hampton proves an unlikely hero for the offense
Vanderbilt got strong performances from a few of its typical top performers, including Braden Holcomb (6-for-13, four doubles) and Brodie Johnston (4-for-12, two home runs, three walks). But one of the biggest hits of the series came from the unlikeliest of sources.
Logan Johnstone was held out of the finale after colliding with Mike Mancini in Game 2, and in his place coach Tim Corbin opted to go with redshirt freshman Will Hampton in left field. Hampton had recorded just six college plate appearances, all of which were in nonconference games.
But Hampton reached in all three of his plate appearances against Kentucky, first on a single, then a walk. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs and blasted a grand slam, giving Vanderbilt its first lead.
Tyler Baird learns the ups and downs of being a closer
Freshman Tyler Baird has been Vanderbilt’s closer for the past three weeks, recording his first save April 2 against Texas A&M. But he learned the pitfalls that can come with that role in Game 1 against Kentucky. Summoned for an eight-out save with the Commodores leading 2-1, he retired the first five batters, but loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth. He struck out the next two batters but then gave up the walk-off grand slam.
Baird returned for Game 3, this time attempting a five-out save and coming in with runners on first and second and one out with a three-run lead in the eighth inning. He allowed both inherited runners to score, but kept the lead and then had a scoreless ninth inning after Vanderbilt scored three runs in the top of the inning.
Baird’s emergence has been key for the Commodores, and the Game 3 bounce-back was especially important.
Vanderbilt’s RPI shows improvement
On April 15, Vanderbilt was 95th in RPI, a mark that wasn’t going to cut it for NCAA Tournament selection. But with a road series win against a Kentucky team that started the week in the top 20 of RPI, the Commodores moved all the way up to 75th, according to Warren Nolan.
While Vanderbilt will need to keep moving up — a top-50 mark would be ideal — the series win did a lot. In the next two weeks, it will face two top-five RPI teams in Alabama and Texas, giving more opportunity to improve its standing.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
Power forward has been one of the positions that Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have to fill with Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate gone. The two players that Pope has had on campus at the power forward position are Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman and Colorado’s Sebastian Rancik. Both are really good players, but Freeman is better by a wide margin.
It has felt that entire time that Kentucky wanted Rancik as the backup to Freeman or a backup plan if they weren’t able to land Freeman. Well, Rancik just picked Florida State, so perhaps this is a sign that the Wildcats will land Freeman.
Big Blue Nation was torn on Rancik, but I do believe he would have been a really solid backup power forward. I personally didn’t want him to be the starting four for this team. It is clear that he wanted to go somewhere where he could be the guy at the four, so he will be heading to the ACC to play for FSU.
Now that Kentucky has missed on Rancik, it is very important that the Wildcats land Freeman soon. The problem with waiting on some of these players is the fact that the portal isn’t slowing down. If Pope targets two power forwards and misses on both of them, most of the good fours in the portal will be gone.
There will be some panic in Lexington if the Wildcats are not able to land Freeman, but I do believe the Wildcats are in a good spot to land the elite power forward. From the beginning, Freeman has been my top player for Kentucky in the portal, as he, plus Malachi Moreno, will give the Wildcats an elite frontcourt.
If Pope is able to land Freeman and Tyran Stokes to pair with Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, Moreno, and Kam Williams, this could be the start of a really good team in Lexington. Hopefully, an announcement for where Freeman will transfer comes soon, and hopefully, this will be to play for Pope at Kentucky.
Fans of rival teams will say Pope “whiffed” on Rancik, but if this whiff was because the Wildcats are set to land Freeman soon, then it was more than worth it for Kentucky. If the Wildcats are able to land Freeman, it will officially be time for Big Blue Nation to start getting excited about the 2026-27 season. I expect a decision from Freeman to come within the next day or two.
Rancik would have been a solid backup four in Lexington but Freeman has been the guy from the beggining for this staff so if Kentucky lands him all is well. If the staff misses on Freeman not landing Rancik will look bad.
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Kentucky
Kentucky is poised to land either Donnie Freeman or Sebastian Rancik this weekend, per report
Jones posted on Twitter that “Kentucky will have (absent a major change) either Freeman or Rancik by tomorrow,” while also noting the Wildcats still need to add another shooter and another big to round out the roster.
One of the top targets is Donnie Freeman, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound sophomore forward transferring from Syracuse. Freeman arrived in Lexington on Tuesday night and began his visit on Wednesday before leaving without a commitment. While there was concern he could land at UConn, that visit has since been canceled, leaving Kentucky and St. John’s as the top teams.
Freeman averaged 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game last season, while adding nearly a block and a steal per contest. He shot 47.4% from the field but 30.2% from 3-point range across 23 games.
The other option is Sebastian Rancik, a 6-foot-11, 220-pound sophomore forward transferring from Colorado. Rancik visited Kentucky starting Wednesday through Thursday and brings a versatile skill set, averaging 12.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2 assists per game while shooting 33.1% from 3.
Either Freeman or Rancik would provide a significant boost at the power forward position for head coach Mark Pope. Kentucky has already added guards Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins in the portal.
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