LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Joel Willett, a military veteran and former CIA officer, launched his Democratic campaign for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky on Wednesday, saying the recent fallout from having his security clearance revoked by the Trump administration gave him added incentive to run.
“I’ve seen firsthand how the Trump administration and their far-right allies are trying to weaponize the government against anyone who disagrees with them,” Willett said in a campaign news release. “That just made me more determined to run.”
Willett, who grew up in a Louisville suburb, sounded populist themes in a state that's been trending Republican. He denounced tax cuts for the wealthy and Medicaid cuts that he says will cause millions of Americans to lose health insurance. Willett joins a growing field of candidates vying for the Senate seat held by longtime Republican powerbroker Mitch McConnell, who is not seeking reelection in 2026.
It's been more than 30 years since a Democrat last won election to the Senate from the Bluegrass State, and on the Republican side, the spending has quickly escalated for TV ad purchases by some of the candidates and by outside groups trying to influence the outcome.
Willett touted his career that has already spanned the military, the CIA and the business world.
As a CIA officer, Willett spent time in the White House situation room under then-President Barack Obama before leaving the government. Willett was recently among 37 current and former national security officials to have their security clearances rescinded by the Trump administration. Some were among the national security professionals who signed onto a 2019 letter that criticized Trump and that was recently highlighted online by influential Trump ally Laura Loomer. Willett was among them.
A memo from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused those singled out of having engaged in the “politicization or weaponization of intelligence” to advance personal or partisan goals, failing to safeguard classified information, failing to “adhere to professional analytic tradecraft standards” and other unspecified “detrimental” conduct. The memo did not offer evidence to back up the accusations.
Willett said his security clearance was revoked two weeks after his name was mentioned in an article about possible Senate candidates in Kentucky. After the revocation, he received online attacks that included death threats, he said.
Willett didn't hold back in criticizing Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Wednesday.
“Right now, we live in a country where a president and his director of national intelligence think they can use all their power and all their trolls online to shut people up who disagree with them,” Willett said in a video accompanying his campaign announcement. “Well, I didn’t shut up.”
Willett, 41, joined the Kentucky Army National Guard when he was 17, in the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and later served in the Army’s Military Police Corps, according to his campaign biography.
After his career in government, he became a business executive, including stints as president of a consumer electronics manufacturing business and as CEO of an engineering services firm that helped the Navy build destroyers, the bio says.
In his campaign video, Willett said he's lived the “American dream" but added that for many Kentuckians ”that dream is dead. Because they get steamrolled by a political and economic system that thinks they don’t matter. Costs go up and never come down. Tax cuts go to the ultrawealthy ... while millions are kicked off Medicaid."
Willett decried the “ugly and violent” climate in current American politics.
“That goes against everything America stands for," he said in the campaign release. "I’ve dedicated most of my life to protecting the country — and the democracy — I love, and I’m not stopping now."
Other Democrats in the Senate race include state lawmaker Pamela Stevenson and Logan Forsythe, an attorney and former U.S. Secret Service agent.
Forsythe, who entered the race Tuesday, said Republicans are “creating a crisis for families” with cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. He said Trump's tariffs have hit Kentucky hard, punishing the bourbon industry and squeezing farmers. Meanwhile, Kentucky’s term-limited Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear is widely seen as preparing for a potential run for the White House in 2028.
Republicans in the race include U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and businessman Nate Morris. The GOP hopefuls speak glowingly of Trump, hoping to land his endorsement in a state that Trump overwhelmingly carried in the last three presidential elections.
Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.
