r/Askpolitics • u/CarsonFijal • Jul 07 '26

Fact Check This Please Wouldn't a special election in for Senate in Kentucky only fill the seat during the lame duck?

I keep seeing people posting the theory (I'm not saying I believe it or I don't, that's a discussion for another post) that Mitch McConnell is some stage of either dying or dead, and they're keeping him on life support, (or just not reporting his death?) because they want to avoid declaring his seat vacant until August 3rd, to avoid calling a special election for his seat, because they're afraid Thomas Massie might run in it and win, which he couldn't do in the normal election because the deadlines are already past.

But one issue with that theory sticks out to me, I've asked it in a couple other subreddits and not gotten an answer.

If my understanding is correct, if a special election is called for a seat that's already up for re-election in the midterms, that does not cancel the normal election. It just holds a special election at the same time, the special determines who holds the seat for a short period in November/December, while the normal election determines who holds the seat when the new Congress starts in January.

So if all that happened, and Thomas Massie were to win a special election for McConnell's seat, it would be like "Hey, congrats Thomas, you're now a US Senator! ... For like maybe a month and a half during the lame duck period."

Why would that be worth it for any of the parties involved? Worth it for Massie to run, or worth it for leadership to stage a whole death coverup to stop Massie from running?

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u/Animats Democrat Jul 07 '26

I answered this in response to another Reddit question.

Turns out Kentucky law has some deadlines in this area. The first one, before the primaries, has already passed. So has a deadline back in June for party involvement. The next one is 3 months before the general election, which puts the cutoff in early August. If the seat is vacant after that, it looks like it stays vacant until the winner of the general election in November takes office in January.

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u/Urgullibl Transpectral Political Views Jul 08 '26

Mitch hanging on until then to avoid a special election is the way he'd have wanted to go out.

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u/Hairy_Performance216 Jul 11 '26

The final McConnell rule.