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Kentucky Republicans Prepare to Caucus, But Will GOP Voters Turnout

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Kentucky Republicans are holding a presidential caucus on Saturday, and its success will be determined in large part by voter turnout. Some party faithful don’t think enough has been done to publicize the caucus. 

But State GOP Chair Mike Biagi says he is satisfied with the public awareness. "The state party has been reaching out ot local newspaper, local tv and radio. I've done over 100 media interviews just since the Iowa caucus with Kentucky media as well as social media. And the county parties are working to promote it locally as well," Biagi says.

Biagi adds the presidential candidates were also supposed to spend money to drive voter awareness.

Some GOP members don’t think the state party has done enough to raise awareness of the caucus. Barren County Republican Party Vice-Chair Mark Haines says it wasn’t completely up to the state to publicize the caucus."There was actually not money appropriated to really publicize it. The conversations I heard were that the candidates would largely spend the money to drive voter awareness and doesn't seem like that's actually happened," he says.

A poll conducted by Western Kentucky University recently found that only half of the Republican respondents knew where their caucus site was located. Turnout will help determine the success of the caucus. Some believe it has already succeeded by bringing Donald Trump and Ben Carson to Kentucky this week.

The state Republican Party has alsocreated a website and telephone hotline for voters to find out their caucus location and other information.

Lisa is a Scottsville native and WKU alum. She has worked in radio as a news reporter and anchor for 18 years. Prior to joining WKU Public Radio, she most recently worked at WHAS in Louisville and WLAC in Nashville. She has received numerous awards from the Associated Press, including Best Reporter in Kentucky. Many of her stories have been heard on NPR.
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