Inside LINK: Next year’s election has officially begun

Hang on, you may be asking. It’s 2025. How has the 2026 election already started?

Nov. 5 is the first day Kentucky allows those seeking office to register with the Secretary of State for the Primary Election in May, one of two steps required to officially become a candidate.

The other step is to register with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, which tracks a candidate’s fundraising.

The window to register with the Secretary of State for the primary election ends Jan. 9, 2026. The filing deadline for the General Election is June 2, 2026.

Next year is a big year for Northern Kentucky: from filling United States Sen. Mitch McConnell’s seat to local state and house races to judges/executive, mayors, city councils and commissioners, there’s a lot on the ballot. 

Which is why we started early. Over the next year, LINK nky will be your NKY Election HQ. What does that mean? 

It means we will have a profile of every single candidate in a contested race in Northern Kentucky. In 2023, that was 222 candidates. We won’t know how many there are for 2026 until Jan. 9, but we’re expecting at least as many as there were last election cycle. 

It means that we have a detailed timeline of every event that you need to know about, whether that’s today, Nov. 5, 2025 (the day candidates can officially register with the Secretary of State), Dec. 31 2025 (the last day to switch parties before the primary) or Jan. 9, 2026 (when the window for candidates to file with the Secretary of State closes). 

We have explainers, which help you understand what different elected officials do (what is a judge/executive anyway, and how do decisions get made at the state level?); over on Facebook/Instagram/YouTube/TikTok, we have a series of reels that will provide voters with the information they need where they are, with clear pathways to more information if needed.

We’ll have a searchable database of every candidate in a contested race that you can look through (it’ll be available Jan. 9, once the window to declare candidacy closes).

And we have stories that break everything down. Why is this election important? What are the big races? What is a closed primary and how does that affect us in NKY? 

At the end of the day, we live in a region with three counties, 36 cities and municipalities and 13 public school districts. Figuring out who is running for what, who represents you and what decisions they make, who you’re able to vote for, how to vote, where to go to vote and when – none of that is easy, especially in a complicated region like ours. 

That’s why we are already talking about this election. Because, in many ways, it started in early 2025, when candidates had already started declaring their candidacy for certain races. 

Here are some other key dates to remember in the coming months:

Dec. 31, 2025: Last day for residents to change political parties if they want to vote in that political party’s primary election. Click here to check your current registration or to update it.

Jan. 9, 2026: Last day for candidates who want to run in 2026 to file with the Secretary of State. Click here to learn how to file to run.

Jan. 15, 2026: Public drawing for ballot positions, which take place in the county clerk offices and secretary of state offices.

Click here for a full list of key election dates.