Louisville's referendum on Republican lawmakers may come with a cost | Exclusive
To John Hodgson, the morning after the midterms felt like walking out of a bomb shelter. The Republican state representative from Fisherville, a neighborhood in eastern Louisville, won his race by just 100 votes after sweating through an election night that began with a huge drop of early voting ballots favoring William "Woody" Zorn, his Democratic challenger. Hodgson trailed for much of the night before pulling ahead late in a narrow win over an opponent he'd beaten by more than 4,000 votes in 2024. Hodgson earned another two-year term in the state House, but he'll return to Frankfort in 2027 as the lone GOP representative whose district is contained solely within Jefferson County. Five House Republicans from the region were ousted by local voters in the Nov. 3 elections, along with two state senators. Those lawmakers – Reps. Jared Bauman, Ken Fleming, Chris Lewis, Jason Nemes and Susan Witten, along with Sens. Julie Raque Adams and Lindsey Tichenor – were able to be in the room in recent years with leaders from the GOP supermajorities as they crafted critical legislation and funding measures, Hodgson said. Now, he and Rep. Emily Callaway, who ran unopposed in a district that includes portions
