Longtime Democratic state Sen. Robin Webb of Grayson announced Friday she is switching to the Republican Party, growing the Kentucky GOP’s supermajority in that chamber to an even wider margin.
When the Kentucky General Assembly returns to Frankfort for the 2026 session, Republicans will now have 32 senators, compared to the Democrats’ meager six.
After decades of the party hemorrhaging rural support in Kentucky, Webb was the final Democrat to represent a Senate district outside of Jefferson and Fayette counties, home of Kentucky’s two most populous cities, Louisville and Lexington.
“While it’s cliché, it’s true: I didn’t leave the party — the party left me,” Webb said in a Republican Party of Kentucky press release. “The Kentucky Democratic Party has increasingly alienated lifelong rural Democrats like myself by failing to support the issues that matter most to rural Kentuckians.”
Webb was the least ideologically liberal member of the Democrats’ Senate caucus, often voting with Republicans on socially conservative legislation. For example, she was the only Senate Democrat to vote for House Bill 4 in this year’s session, to restrict diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public universities.
Republicans also have a dominant 80-20 supermajority in the state House, with Democrats having only three members remaining outside of Louisville and Lexington.
Webb, a former coal miner and current attorney, was first elected to the Kentucky House in 1998, serving there for 10 years until she was elected to the Senate.
In her statement, Webb emphasized that her “core values” have not changed and she “will continue to be a fearless advocate for rural Kentucky,” as “the only difference today is the letter next to my name.”
“As the Democratic party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values,” Webb said. “It has become untenable and counterproductive to the best interests of my constituents for me to remain a Democrat.”
Republican Senate President Robert Stivers stated that Webb’s defection and the GOP caucus growing to 32 members “is a powerful sign that our proven approach to sound, conservative policy-making is winning hearts and minds across the state.”
“Her decision to officially join the Senate Majority Caucus is more than symbolic—it reinforces the strength of our shared policy priorities and our ongoing focus on delivering tangible results for eastern Kentucky and the whole state,” Stivers said.
Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Robert Benvenuti welcomed Webb to the party in the press release, saying he always respected how she approached issues and focused on what was best for her constituents.
“Like countless other Kentuckians, she has recognized that the policies and objectives of today’s Democratic Party are simply not what they once were, and do not align with the vast majority of Kentuckians,” Benvenuti said.
Spokespersons for the Senate Democrats and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Webb’s party switch.
Kentucky Democratic Party Chair Colmon Elridge said in a statement that Webb “has chosen to join a political party that is currently working around the clock to take health care away from over a million Kentuckians, wipe out our rural hospitals, take food off the table of Kentucky families and take resources away from our public schools. If those are her priorities, then we agree: she isn’t a Democrat.”
Once a Democratic stronghold, Kentucky voters have dramatically shifted towards Republicans over the past four decades, where the party controls all but one seat in the state’s congressional delegation. President Donald Trump won Kentucky by another blowout margin in 2024, but the exception to GOP domination is Beshear, who won reelection to Kentucky’s highest state office in 2023 by a five percentage point margin.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
