Champion horse trainer Dale Romans announced his bid for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that will soon be vacated by GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell. Romans calls himself a centrist, an "independent Democrat,” who will not vote based on party lines, but on what he believes is best for Kentucky.
Romans named two politicians as his role models — former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and current Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Manchin is well-known for refusing to vote with his party on key issues, including refusing to eliminate the filibuster, advocating against allowing transgender kids to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity and often standing opposed to Democrats on energy and environmental policy. Beshear, on the other hand, has seen increasingly rare statewide success as a Kentucky Democrat in a deeply red state.
Romans said he has been politically active on issues related to his industry and advocating on immigration as the president of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. He’s had some high-profile horse racing victories, including a 2011 Preakness Stakes win with Shackleford.
In an interview with Kentucky Public Radio at his barn in Churchill Downs, Romans said the U.S. immigration system is “broken” and said he would fight to give working immigrants “legal status,” but not a path to citizenship.
He touched on things he disagrees with Congressional Democrats on, saying he would have voted to keep the federal government open, but also that there are a number of President Trump’s policies that he disagrees with, including tariffs and Medicaid cuts.
Democrats have not elected a Democratic senator this century — Wendell Ford served as the state’s most recent Democratic senator with a term ending in 1999. With McConnell’s impending retirement, Kentucky will have an open Senate seat for the first time in 16 years. Four other Democrats are already running — Amy McGrath, who has run for the seat before, state House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson, former Secret Service agent Logan Forsythe and former CIA officer Joel Willett.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the above for an abridged version.
For people who don't already know you, maybe don't follow your career in horse racing, how would you introduce yourself to Kentucky voters?
ROMANS: I'd say I'm more than just a horse trainer. I've worked in the industry on a lot of political issues over the years. I'm the president of our Horseman's group. … I've done a lot of stuff, and I've been on Capitol Hill several times on horsemen-related issues — immigration being the biggest one — and I've always liked politics and wanted to get involved.
I grew up in Shively, Kentucky with a single mother raising three boys, basically on her own, paycheck to paycheck. I understand those struggles, but I've been able to build a business inside our signature industry. I understand the hardships of starting a business, keeping a business running, cash flow, labor. I think my life lessons, if people read up about me, will do me well. In Washington DC, I think I've got the full spectrum. I just want people to get to know me, and if they like me, vote for me.
You talked about immigration right out of the gate there. Can you talk a little bit more about your views on immigration, and especially how it's informed by your work with backside workers.
ROMANS: Immigration is a bigger issue than the Republicans like to make it. They've done a great job shutting down the border. We don't want people just flowing in here, but it's about small business. It's about a labor force. It's about affordability.
Affordability is at the forefront right now of most political races, but we need a labor force to make things affordable, and there's an estimated 11 million undocumented workers that aren't causing any problems but being productive in the United States. We need to figure out a way to make them documented so that, if they're sponsored by an employer, and if they're vetted and they're not criminals, and they're paying taxes — We need those people in our country.
We want to get rid of all the criminals, all the murderers, like Trump said when he was on the trail. How do you separate them? My plan is, the way to separate them is bring the good out of the shadows. Let's get them documented. We have a broken system that needs to be fixed and overhauled, but until we do that, let's get these people documented. Let's get them paying taxes. Let's find out where they are. Let's separate them from the bad, and they're productive Americans. We're not looking for a path to citizenship. We're just looking for a work permit to do the jobs that Americans don't have to do.
So to be clear, you just said you're not talking about a path to citizenship.
ROMANS: Absolutely not. And I think that that's just a political pawn that both sides have used: the path to citizenship. I think if you go out there and ask 99% of them, they're not looking for citizenship, they're just looking for a way to make enough money to support their families wherever they're from.
You also have compared yourself to, in your philosophy, to Joe Manchin. What does that mean for your take on politics?
ROMANS: Joe Manchin was always one of my favorite politicians. If you watched him from afar, he always voted on the issues like what he thought the right vote would be. I've been talking to him quite a bit, and he says there would be a lot of power for Kentucky if they had a Democratic senator, because you don't have to vote party lines ever, and you can vote the way you want — what's best for Kentucky and what's best for this country.
Obviously Joe Manchin split from the party on many, many topics. What are some of the ways that you also differ from the Democratic Party, that you don't agree with the ways that they've handled things?
ROMANS: I would always be strong on the filibuster. I think both sides need to have a voice. I would have never voted for the shutdown. I don't think the federal government should be allowed to shut down.
This has been one of the big legislative battles of the year. Another one was over the One Big Beautiful Bill. Where do you stand on that?
ROMANS: I think we should give tax cuts to the middle class, to the working people. I think that the Big Beautiful Bill gave major tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country, and I think it's going to affect Kentucky more than any state in the union. We get about $2 billion a year in Medicaid, and somebody's gonna have to pick up the shortfall. We do need to fix, overhaul the healthcare system. But you can't just yank it away until the new system is in place.
Culture war issues have dominated politics in recent years. Where do you stand on abortion rights and LBGTQ+ rights?
ROMANS: I'm pro-choice. You don't have to like abortion to understand that a woman has a right to her body, and I will always stay pro-choice, because I think a woman's body, she has a right to do what she feels is best for her. It's between her and her doctor. That doesn't mean you're pro-abortion. And as far as transgender goes, I have no problem if someone wants to be transgender. Go right ahead. I'd have no problem with gay marriage. It doesn't affect me. But those are the issues that get talked about a lot, and they don't affect very many people.
I don't believe that transgender should be able to compete equally in sports, but I have no problem with them having the same rights as anybody else in anything else that they do.
This past year has been quite tumultuous in terms of our economic policy, especially tariffs. As a small business owner, how do you feel about the tariffs that President Trump has enacted?
ROMANS: There's a lot of tariffs that hurt Americans. It's basically a tax on us, because at the end of the day, the marketplace pays them. I don't think that that's a strong, sustainable economic policy, and it definitely shouldn't be used as a weapon — if you don't like a country, you put a big tariff on them. Because you end up hurting the United States people.
What would you say to the people in Kentucky who've voted for a Republican senator since — I think we've had two Republican senators since 1999. What would you say to those people about why they should vote for you?
ROMANS: I think I'm the type of Democrat, first of all, that Kentucky could vote for whether you're Republican or Democrat. I'm very much in the center. I think that I'll serve both sides well. I think that the power that Kentucky will have by voting a Democratic senator that's going to vote for them all the time, is not a puppet to the President as a freshman Republican would have to be, would do Kentucky well.
