Lexington Mayor Jim Gray will face
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul in the November general election after
Gray and Paul handily won their respective primaries on Tuesday.
Republican primary voters
overwhelmingly picked Paul over two little-known challengers, while
Democratic voters picked Gray out of a crowded field of seven
candidates, the Lexington Herald Leader reported.
Lexington's openly gay two-term mayor
criticized Paul's failed presidential run in his victory speech.
“Senator Paul has spent more time
focused on the corn fields of Iowa and the coffee shops of New
Hampshire than he has looking after the state of Kentucky,” Gray,
62, told supporters in Lexington. “Folks, our U.S. Senate seat is
a terrible thing to waste. People want a senator that lives by three
simple words: Kentucky first always.”
Gray faces an uphill battle in
challenging Paul. While Lexington leans liberal, the rest of the
state votes conservative. Kentucky has not sent a Democrat to the
U.S. Senate since 1998.