A Republican and a Democrat are behind bills in the Kentucky House that would give the state’s two major political parties a chance to open their primaries to the fastest-growing group of Kentucky voters — independents.
While any such change won’t come in time for this year’s May 19 primary when voters will nominate candidates for local, state and federal offices, Republican Rep. Vanessa Grossl, of Georgetown, told the Lantern it’s a discussion worth having for the future.
About 11% of Kentucky’s voters are registered as independent or with a third party, making them ineligible under current law to vote in the state’s partisan primary elections.
Opening primary elections to independents would pull candidates from both parties toward the political middle, Grossl said. “This could be some kind of countermeasure, perhaps, for the will of the voter to really make a difference and hopefully pull us back toward the middle a little bit,” she said. “I think that that’s where most Americans are and most Kentuckians are.”
Grossl said most of the lawmakers she speaks to who oppose opening primaries are “closely aligned with party” or incumbents in solid red districts, but those in more purple districts, where narrow vote margins could swing elections, are more likely to be open to the idea. Grossl said that, “a number of good, solid Republicans” have lost to “further right candidates” in recent years.
Grossl sees the increase in independents as a sign that those voters aren’t comfortable with either party right now, “but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be a part of the political process.” They still are taxpayers and taxes support elections, she said.
Grossl won her House seat by about 200 votes two years ago by unseating House Democratic Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson, whose district had been redrawn by the legislature’s GOP supermajority.
Lexington Democratic Rep. Adam Moore, the sponsor of another open primaries bill, also gained his seat two years ago by flipping a district in Jessamine and Fayette counties that had been held by a Republican.
Moore said he doesn’t expect his House Bill 799 to get a committee hearing during the 2026 session, but it could be heard sometime during the interim between regular sessions. The extra time to consider the bill would be an “opportunity to make it better and get buy-in from both sides of the aisle,” he added.
Both bills would put the decision to open primaries in the hands of the Republican and Democratic parties, although the lawmakers said they had not discussed their proposals before filing the bills last week.
Grossl’s House Bill 874 would take effect in December 2027 — after the next statewide elections for constitutional officers, including the governorship.
The idea of opening primaries has an important ally in Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, the state’s top election official. Adams, previously told the Kentucky Lantern that he favors allowing independent voters to choose which primary to vote in.
That, Adams said, would encourage the top two political parties to court independents instead of “just responding to the most zealous parts of their base.”
Adams said in a statement through a spokesperson that he appreciated Grossl filing her bill.
“We now have legislators from both sides of the aisle working to open our primary elections to Independent voters, and I hope both parties will come together behind some version of this reform,” Adams said.
Grossl said her proposal is inspired by a 2011 bill sponsored by Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, that would have opened primaries to independent voters. It was approved in the Republican-controlled Senate but died in the House which was controlled by Democrats at the time.
Grossl said her proposal would give Republicans and Democrats a “wild card that they can pull out of their pockets” to allow independents to vote in their primaries.
“I kind of see it as inviting them onto our front porch,” Grossl said, adding that registration for Republicans and independents has grown in recent years. Registered Republicans surpassed registered Democrats for the first time in Kentucky history in 2022.
Grossl also wants to have dialogue with independent voters in her House district and “encourage more people to get out and vote regardless of party,” she said.
Both bills say independents would have to be registered as such by Dec. 31, which is in line with an existing deadline in state law to change party registration in order to vote in the next primary election.
Before filing his bill, Moore spoke to Jefferson County Clerk David Yates, a Democrat who is the top elections officer in the state’s most populous county. Yates told the Lantern that he viewed the idea as a “positive move” as it could lead to more people voting in elections.
However, as a former state lawmaker, Yates said he doesn’t think the General Assembly has the appetite to open primaries now, particularly with false narratives about elections being stolen swirling around. Yates previously served as the Democratic whip in the Senate caucus.
Even as a growing number of voters register without joining either of the two main political parties, Yates doubts lawmakers will feel pressure to open primaries. Nevertheless, he sees value in discussing the option.
“I have good friends on both sides of the aisle of Frankfort, but I think sometimes when you’re part of a supermajority, as the Republicans are right now, I think they’re less likely to be able to allow changes that could disrupt that,” Yates said.
Though they cannot vote in partisan primaries in May, independent voter registrations are surging. The secretary of state’s office recently highlighted February voter registration numbers, which continued to show an increase in independent voters in Kentucky. A press release said that of 2,606 net new registrants, about two-thirds registered as other political affiliation, mostly independent.