Elections 2010 On November 10, 2009, Barr became the first Republican to formally announce that he would seek his party's nomination to challenge incumbent 6th district Democratic congressman Ben Chandler. Barr garnered 31,255 votes in the primary, while his opponents' totals ranged from 4,789 to 1,880. In an interview with
WKYT-TV in July, Barr denounced the recently signed
Dodd–Frank Act that enacted new regulations on the banking industry. He called for an end to the practice of politicians
earmarking funds for special projects in their districts, a position that put him at odds with state party leaders such as McConnell and long-time
5th district congressman
Hal Rogers. Substantial amounts of money from political groups outside the state aided both candidates and spawned a number of negative campaign ads. When the official results were released, Chandler had received 119,812 (50.1%) votes to Barr's 119,163 (49.8%). Chandler responded to the announcement by declaring, "Next year, voters will have a very simple choice to make: whether to protect and save Social Security and Medicare, or to end them," an allusion to Barr's publicly expressed support for Representative
Paul Ryan's
budget proposal. Barr won the Republican primary and again received financial support from the National Republican Campaign Committee in his general election campaign. When Chandler decided not to attend the
2012 Democratic National Convention, Barr charged that he was trying to avoid association with President
Barack Obama, who was seeking a second term and was unpopular in Kentucky. A spokesperson for Chandler maintained that Chandler had previous engagements in his home district that week, but that he supported Obama's reelection. Chandler campaign staffers criticized Barr's decision to attend the convention, saying that he should spend the time in his district, getting to know the people there better. They also mocked the fact that the backdrop for Barr's speech was a picture of the city of
Louisville, which is not in the 6th district; Barr's campaign countered that they had no part in choosing the backdrop.
Tea Party-backed Kentucky senator
Rand Paul endorsed Barr despite their differences on some policy matters, including Barr's support for the
Patriot Act. The campaign's charges that the man depicted was "not a miner" prompted him to threaten a suit for
defamation, and he produced copies of his certified miner credentials in rebuttal to the charge. Barr won the election by a vote of 153,222 (51%) to 141,436 (47%).
2014 Barr defeated Democratic nominee Elisabeth Jensen in the 2014 general election, by a vote of 147,404 (60%) to 98,290 (40%). Barr garnered wide support and raised substantial funds for the race.
2016 In the 2016 congressional elections, Democrat Rev.
Nancy Jo Kemper, a graduate of
Yale Divinity School and former executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, challenged Barr in the 6th Congressional District. She ran with the support of former lieutenant governor
Crit Luallen, state senator
Reggie Thomas, state representative
Susan Westrom, and Secretary of State
Alison Lundergan Grimes. Barr was reelected with 61.1% of the vote.
2018 Barr won the 2018 Republican primary. Former Marine fighter pilot
Amy McGrath defeated Lexington mayor
Jim Gray and
state senator Reggie Thomas for the Democratic nomination. The race was considered potentially competitive by some observers.
2020 Barr faced attorney and U.S. Marine veteran Josh Hicks. Barr defeated Hicks in the general election, 57.3% to 41%.
2022 Barr faced Democrat
Geoff Young in the general election. Young came under fire for using Kremlin talking points while campaigning, most notably accusing the Ukrainian government of being run by "Nazis" following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine. Young failed to receive the endorsement of the
Kentucky Democratic Party after winning the Democratic primary. Barr won the general election 62.7% to 33.6%.
Tenure Barr serves on the
House Committee on Financial Services, and was the ranking member of the
Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy. He also serves on the
Republican Study Committee's (RSC) leadership team and chairs the RSC American Worker Task Force (AWTF). The RSC is the largest conservative caucus in Congress. On July 11, 2013, Barr introduced the
CFPB Rural Designation Petition and Correction Act (H.R. 2672; 113th Congress), a bill that would amend the
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to direct the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to establish an application process that would allow a person to get their county designated as "rural" for purposes of a federal consumer financial law. One practical effect of having a county designated "rural" is that people can qualify for some types of mortgages by getting them exempted from the CFPB's qualified mortgage rule. In December 2013, Barr introduced H.R. 3775, the Military Sexual Assault Victims Empowerment Act, commonly called the Military SAVE Act. This bill requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Secretary of Defense to each operate a program that ensures that veterans and members of the armed forces may receive treatment from private providers for military sexual trauma. He has since reintroduced the bill three times. On March 6, 2014, Barr introduced the
Restoring Proven Financing for American Employers Act (H.R. 4167; 113th Congress), a bill that would "exempt existing
collateralized loan obligations from the so-called
Volcker Rule, which bars banks from making risky trades with their own money and limits their investments in certain funds." The bill passed the House on April 29, 2014, in a
voice vote. In December 2017, Barr voted for the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He introduced the
Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act, which passed and states that sellers of
mobile homes are not loan or mortgage originators and are therefore not subject to the
Truth in Lending Act. Barr has taken part in legislation targeted at the
opioid epidemic. In May 2018, he sponsored the CAREER Act, aimed at providing transitional housing for those recovering from opioid addiction. Barr also helped enact legislation to provide targeted response block grants to states suffering from the opioid epidemic. The grants would provide $500 million in funds for the epidemic up to fiscal year 2021. Barr was also key to the University of Kentucky being awarded $87 million by the Department of Health and Human Services as part of a HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) grant to provide help to Kentucky communities hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. In October 2018, Barr played a pivotal role in
Camp Nelson being designated as Kentucky's first
National Monument by the
Department of the Interior. Barr also introduced the Financial Protections for Our Military Families Act in December 2018. The legislation is designed to extend the supervisory authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to credit protections applicable to certain active duty members of the armed forces and their dependents. The bill is currently in committee. In April 2019, Barr introduced H.R. 2196, an amendment to change the required hours for the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship program from 128 to 120. The bill passed and was signed into law by President Donald Trump in July 2019. In October 2019, the Barr-led AWTF's final report laid out key conservative reforms on labor, welfare, and education policy. These reforms would bolster alternative paths in education, improve work flexibility on compensation and paid-time off for employees nationwide, and to enhance the portability of housing vouchers to allow workers to more easily relocate to pursue job opportunities without giving up their housing assistance. Barr reintroduced the bill in May 2021. In May 2020, House Republican leader
Kevin McCarthy appointed Barr to serve on the House of Representatives China Task Force. The task force was created to provide recommendations to the U.S. to better position itself against the emerging economic, political, military, and technological threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Barr was appointed co-chair of the subgroup on Competitiveness along with the subgroup on Economics and Energy. In September 2020, Barr's Horseracing and Safety Act passed both the Senate and the House. The bill created the
Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) for purposes of developing and implementing a horseracing anti-doping and medication control program and a racetrack safety program to ensure the sport's safety and integrity. The bill sets forth other provisions regarding funding, conflicts of interest, and jurisdiction; registration with the authority; program enforcement; rule violations and civil sanctions; testing laboratories; review of final decisions of the authority by an administrative law judge; unfair or deceptive acts or practices; and agreements with state racing commissions. Barr had been an author and advocate for the bill for over six years on the House side with
Mitch McConnell advocating for the bill on the Senate side. In December 2022, Congress approved an amendment to the HISA Act that gave the bill legal grounds to be enacted after court challenges stalled its implementation. This amendment was signed into law on December 29, 2022. In February 2021, Barr introduced the Cardiovascular Advances in Research and Opportunities Legacy (CAROL) Act. The bill was named in honor of Barr's late wife, Carol, who died in June 2020 of cardiac arrest caused by a
ventricular arrhythmia. The bill authorizes a grant program administered by the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), supporting research on valvular heart disease and encouraging the use of technological imaging and precision medicine to generate data on people with valvular disease. The bill also directs the NHLBI to conduct a workshop on
mitral valve prolapse (MVP) in an effort to develop prescriptive guidelines for treatment of people with MVP. The
American Heart Association and the
American College of Cardiology endorsed the CAROL Act. On December 20, 2022, it was signed into law. In November 2021, Barr introduced the Equine Tax Fairness Act. This bill modifies the tax treatment of gains and losses from the sale of depreciable property used in a trade or business to eliminate horses from the definition of livestock. This would reduce the holding period for equine assets to be considered long-term capital gains, putting them on a level playing field with other similar assets. The bill also makes permanent the three-year recovery period for the depreciation of racehorses. It has been endorsed by the
National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association,
the Jockey Club, the
Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, Keeneland, and the
American Horse Council. In February 2023, Barr introduced H.J. Res 30, which would have disapproved the
Department of Labor's final rule titled "Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights". The bill would have blocked
environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing in employer-sponsored retirement plans. On March 20, 2023, after passing the House and the Senate, the bill was vetoed by President
Joe Biden, the first veto of Biden's tenure. Biden said he vetoed the bill because it did not "take into consideration investments that would be impacted by climate impacted by overpaying executives". In March 2026, it was reported that Barr had expressed support for a statue of Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky Capitol rotunda in recognition of his long service in Kentucky. ==2026 U.S. Senate campaign==