Former Lexington councilman David Kloiber is the second Democrat to announce a bid to flip Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District from red to blue next year.
Kloiber’s plan is to bring “common sense back to the Commonwealth” by emphasizing in Washington the importance of increasing access to affordable housing, alleviating high costs of health care, creating jobs and providing quality public education.
“Common sense means I’m focused on the core issues that impact people day-to-day,” Kloiber told the Herald-Leader ahead of his Wednesday morning launch. “… We need someone who is going to take our community’s issues to Washington instead of the other way around and bringing Washington’s rhetoric here.”
Kloiber previously represented District 6 on the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council from 2020 until 2022. That district includes neighborhoods in the city’s Winchester Road corridor, Hamburg area and parts of Bryan Station. He’s a Lexington native and graduate of Lexington Catholic High School and the University of Kentucky.
In 2022, he ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign against incumbent Linda Gorton who is now in her second term. Gorton received 71% of the vote. Kloiber took second with 29%. During that race, Kloiber gave $630,000 of his own money to his campaign, much of which came from loans from his family’s generational wealth and a trust in his name.
Just before Election Day that year, Kloiber had raised $644,055 and Gorton had raised $152,860. In conceding, Kloiber said, “The biggest thing has always been name recognition, just to show people that there’s an alternative. Now, it’s all about reaching out, making those connections, and letting people know what it would mean to vote for somebody else.”
During his run for mayor, Kloiber had a similar lineup of ideas to his current run for Congress. He’s said then and now the city and area lacks appropriate workforce development infrastructure like job training facilities, housing close to where people work and good schools in every neighborhood. “All politics is local,” Kloiber said. “And too often we get caught up in national things that might not even impact us.” The former councilman runs the Kloiber Foundation, a nonprofit providing students and teachers in Fayette County Public Schools and surrounding counties with necessary technology.
Outside of that, Kloiber said he has a leadership role in an investment management firm that has bankrolled new factories, upgrades to cattle ranches, hotel renovations and helped tech companies get their start. “I know everyone has their own reasons for being here today, but my reasons are very simple,” Kloiber said during his campaign launch speech Wednesday at Elite Printing. “They’re the same ones that have driven me to do everything I’ve done in my life and that’s make sure the place I live is the best it can be for my kids, my family and my community.