Alvarado, Dembo spar over Iran war, data centers and Epstein in central Kentucky debate

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The candidates in Kentucky’s close 6th District Congressional race debated each other over rising grocery and gas prices, the war in Iran, data centers and the Epstein files during a televised debate Thursday evening. 

Democrat Zach Dembo and Republican Ralph Alvarado both laid out how they would differ from each other if they are elected in the next couple of weeks and criticized their opponent’s record. Dembo, a former federal prosecutor and Navy veteran, argued he would be an “independent fighter,” regularly casting himself as a moderate Democrat in the race. Alvarado said he would be best positioned to address healthcare and insurance policy as a physician, and attempted to paint his opponent as a “liberal lawyer.” 

As the debate began on Fox56, moderator Andrea Walker asked both candidates to give specific examples of how their families have been affected by rising grocery prices. After saying he would support “an end to this senseless war in Iran,” which was raising prices with the cost of gas and diesel, Dembo said he’s seen a rise in ground beef. 

“Cattle farmers should be able to make a living, but I don’t think the solution is to undercut them by bringing in hundreds of thousands of tons of cheap foreign beef,” Dembo said, referring to a Trump administration plan to import beef to offset prices, after the question was repeated. 

Alvarado said he and his wife grow a lot of food at home, but do buy some beef from local farmers, before then claiming Dembo supported raising taxes. Alvarado was then asked to give an example. 

“My wife does a lot of the shopping for us, so I don’t get to — I mean I’m a physician. Usually, if I go to the Walmart and go down and do some shopping, people will pull me aside, want me to look in their kids’ ears and do examinations, so I don’t do a lot of shopping in person,” he said. 

Walker was joined by reporter Will Kenneally in moderating the debate, which lasted an hour. Afterwards, Dembo came out to speak to reporters. Alvarado did not appear, but his campaign advisor, Tim Murtaugh, spoke instead.

Murtaugh said “that was about the most one-sided debate I’ve ever seen.”

“Ralph Alvarado absolutely plastered Zach Dembo with all of the things that he’s wrong on and all of the things that he’s out of step with Kentucky-6 on,” Murtaugh said. 

Dembo said he plans to spend the remaining days before the election speaking with voters. 

“We’re going to be all over the place,” he said, adding that he will be part of a town hall with End Citizens United on Saturday and “barnstorming” the 16 counties in the district. 

Here’s some of the other answers from the debate: 

War in Iran

Throughout the debate, both candidates spoke about President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, which has become a theme in the upcoming midterm elections nationwide as control of the Strait of Hormuz has been tied to rising gas and diesel prices. 

Asked about suspending the federal gas tax to offset costs for Americans, which Trump temporarily did through an executive order, Dembo said the move “makes sense, but it’s only a Band-Aid.” 

“What we have to do is end this senseless war in Iran. Everyone knows that’s what’s led to these huge spikes in gas and diesel. I have been against this war from the beginning, and let me be clear: a vote for me is a vote to end this endless quagmire in Iran,” Dembo said before adding that the war should be ended “so that we can stop putting my fellow service members in harm’s way with no plan for an exit strategy.” 

Alvarado said he would support ways to lower taxes, including the gas tax, before pivoting to the war. He said Iran has been “at war with us for 47 years, and it’s important that we have no sympathy for the government that’s there,” saying Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb. 

“We need to make sure that we end the war that’s there. I think it’s time for us to end it,” Alvarado said. “Once it ends, though, however, the gas prices are still going to be high. We need to manufacture more oil refineries that can help refine oil and be able to get gas and diesel prices down lower.”

Data centers and … Epstein? 

Kentucky communities have grappled with allowing or banning data centers leading up to Election Day. The proposals have raised questions about how such centers would affect Kentuckians’ utilities and electric bills and the environment around them. 

Both candidates said they would support federal rate-payer protections. In his answer, Alvarado said people should have local control over if a data center is in their community, before he began questioning a $500,000 donation from Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder who is supportive of building data centers, to a PAC supporting Dembo. Hoffman has been tied to former financier and convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. Alvarado didn’t directly name but seemingly referred to former Lexington Mayor and Kentucky Transportation Secretary Jim Gray’s support of Dembo, and his family business, Gray Construction, which has has built data centers. 

In response, Dembo said he has never met Hoffman and cannot speak to PACs as a candidate. Federal law prevents PACs from coordination with campaigns. He later said he was honored to have Gray’s endorsement. 

Asked if he had conversations with Gray about data centers after the debate, Dembo said he only knows Gray through being the mayor of Lexington and overlapping in the Beshear administration. 

“That’s how I’ve known him. That’s how he made the decision to endorse me. I know him as a public servant,” Dembo said of Gray. 

Asked if Alvarado would have voted to release the Epstein files in Congress — an issue that ultimately ignited Trump to primary U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie in the 4th Congressional District this year — Murtaugh said he would have supported the release. 

“So long as the victims and their names are not revealed,” Murtaugh added.

WKYT will livestream a forum next week between Alvarado and Dembo during a Tuesday forum at Estill County High School. 

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Early voting in Kentucky begins Thursday, Oct. 29.