Ralph Alvarado, a Republican physician who served as Tennessee's commissioner of health from 2023 to 2025 and as a Kentucky state senator, is his party's nominee for the open 6th district seat in 2026 against Democrat Zach Dembo.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Ralph Alvarado.
- Born
- April 30, 1970
- Birthplace
- San Francisco, California
- Education
- Bellarmine College Preparatory (1988)
Loma Linda University (Bachelor of Science in biology, 1990)
Loma Linda University (MD, 1994)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Ralph Alvarado was born on April 30, 1970, in San Francisco, California, and was raised in Pacifica and San Jose, California. His father is from Costa Rica and his mother is from Argentina.
After graduating from Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose in 1988, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Loma Linda University in California in 1990 and completed an MD at the same university in 1994.
He then completed his residency at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler hospital.
Career
Ralph Alvarado, a physician, entered elected politics in 2014, when he won the Kentucky Senate seat for the 28th district. On taking office he became the first Hispanic person elected to the Kentucky General Assembly, and he served in the chamber from 2015 to 2023.
During that time he spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and, in 2017, sponsored a medical malpractice tort reform bill that the Kentucky Supreme Court later struck down for obstructing access to the courts.
In the 2019 Kentucky gubernatorial election he was the running mate of Governor Matt Bevin, and the Bevin-Alvarado ticket lost on November 5, 2019, to the Democratic ticket of Andy Beshear and Jacqueline Coleman.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced on November 22, 2022, that he had appointed Alvarado commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. Alvarado resigned from the Kentucky Senate on January 6, 2023, became the department's 15th commissioner on January 16, 2023, and held the post until his resignation on July 11, 2025.
2026 race
Kentucky's 6th congressional district, which takes in Lexington, Richmond, and Georgetown in central Kentucky, is open in 2026 because Republican incumbent Andy Barr announced on April 22, 2025, that he would run for the U.S. Senate.
Ralph Alvarado entered the Republican primary on July 17, 2025, after resigning his Tennessee post. He won the nomination on May 19, 2026, with 56.5% of the vote, ahead of state representative Ryan Dotson at 26.4%, pharmaceutical entrepreneur Greg Plucinski and Steve Shannon.
Alvarado has campaigned as a "MAHA doctor" and in August 2026 began presenting himself as bringing "Independent Leadership" to the race.
In the general election on November 3, 2026, he faces Democrat Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor, along with Pete Lynch of the Kentucky Party and independent Jay Bowman.