
Stephen Carney
Republican | Kentucky
Candidate Profile
Conservative
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Stephen Carney
Party
Republican
Election Year
2026
Election
Republican Primary
Race
State Senator, Dist. 14
Incumbent
No
EDUCATION
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, B.S. in Agricultural Economics, 2014-2017
WORK & MILITARY
Washington County Fiscal Court, Magistrate, 2023-
Carney Land Brokers, LLC, Principal Broker, Principal Auctioneer, 2019-
Carney Farm, Farmer, 2017-
AFFILIATIONS
CASA of the Lincoln Trail, Board of Directors, 2024-2026
Kentucky Baptist Convention, Mission Board Member, 2022-2025
Kentucky Baptist Foundation, Board of Directors, 2025-
Alpha Gamma Rho-Omicron Alumni Board, Board Member/President, 2019-
Muldraugh Hill Baptist Church, Member, 2019-
Springfield Rotary Club, Member, 2023-
Central Association of Kentucky Baptists, Moderator, 2022-2024
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
County Magistrate, Washington County KY, 2023-
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
State Senate, -
SELECTED CONTRIBUTIONS
CONSERVATIVE
GIVEN BY CANDIDATE (4)
State Republican Party Organizations (2025)
Jonathan Shell (2023)
Donald Douglas (2021)
Ross Mann (2021)
RECEIVED BY CANDIDATE (0)
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Human life deserves legal protection from conception until natural death.
Strongly Agree
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).
Strongly Agree
Under what circumstances should an elective abortion be allowed?
Under no circumstances.
The lives of human embryos created through artificial methods ought to be protected from purposeful destruction.
Strongly Agree
The Comstock Act, which bans interstate transportation of abortion-inducing drugs, should be enforced.
Strongly Agree
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?
As stated in the First Amendment, separation of Church and State implies that the State neither establishes or compels participation in a State-Sponsored religion, nor does the state prohibit the free exercise of its citizens in any religion. Recognizing the role of religion in the English Civil War and the religious diversity of the young nation, our Founding Fathers enshrined religious liberty as a means of preventing religious differences from threatening the Republic.
Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.
Strongly Disagree
NATIONAL SECURITY
The Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, and global economic threats to the United States.
Agree
Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?
Our relationships with all of our allies around the world are important, including Israel. That said, the United States is not the world’s police. We should not fund, fight, or engage in foreign entanglements that primarily drive up the national debt or risk destabilizing our Republic when there is no direct threat to American soil, citizens, interests, or sovereignty.
HEALTHCARE
What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes "universal healthcare," "medicare for all," etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D) Taxpayer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be defunded.
I support systematic, market-driven reforms to ensure that Medicare and Medicaid are managed in a fiscally responsible way, providing care for those who genuinely need assistance without further expanding the welfare state or increasing cost for privately insured or self-pay patients.
The government should keep a database of people with various ongoing medical illnesses to assess the economic burden of treatment.
Disagree
ECONOMY
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Strongly Agree
What is your position on the minimum wage?
Each worker has their own personal "Minimum wage". Free, open, and competitive markets are the best way to allocate resources, reward innovation and productivity, and lift people out of poverty. I oppose efforts to raise the statutory minimum wage.
I support using taxpayer funds to lobby the state legislature.
Disagree
List your top 3-5 priorities to eliminate government waste.
-Increasing oversight within the state's Medicaid system to curtail "Ghost patients" -Curbing unfunded mandates that create inefficiencies and pass taxing burdens to the local level. -Reducing administrative overhead costs and red tape. -Applying Zero-Base Budgeting to the Executive Branch budget appropriations process. -Outsourcing of appropriate services to private and nonprofit entities.
IMMIGRATION
I support the existence of sanctuary cities to protect undocumented persons.
Strongly Disagree
EDUCATION
I support eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and giving control back to states and communities.
Agree
Foreign governments should be prohibited from funding American education.
Strongly Agree
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
What should be the goal of the criminal justice system?
Government’s duty is to protect life, liberty, and property. The criminal justice system is what gives government its teeth to fulfill that duty. Justice requires accountability, consistency, and fairness. That means enforcing the law, protecting the innocent, following due process, and ensuring penalties are proportional and consistently applied.
Sharia law should not be accepted or incorporated in any form within the legal framework of the United States.
Strongly Agree
The government should use automated-enforcement cameras to track speeding and criminal activity.
Strongly Disagree
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
Americans have a constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. We do not protect public safety by disarming responsible citizens, we protect it by holding criminals accountable. I support enforcing the laws we already have, keeping guns out of the hands of convicted felons, and increasing penalties for those who use firearms to commit crimes. I will not support measures that punish law-abiding Kentuckians for the actions of criminals.
ABOUT YOU
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?
Very Conservative
Have you ever been penalized for sexual misconduct in either civil or criminal court? If so, please explain.
No
Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, please explain.
No
VALUES
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I believe that Scripture is the inerrant, authoritative, inspired word of God, by which he makes himself known to us. As believers, we are instructed be instruments of Grace, do everything in prayer and work "As if for God, and not for Man", and give him the glory. Scripture should be for the believer the basis of our morality, convictions, and conscience.
Marriage is a God-ordained, sacred and legal union of one man and one woman. No government has the authority to alter this definition.
Strongly Agree
I support the expansion of gambling in my state.
Strongly Disagree
Government should recognize and support the fundamental right and essential duty of parents to direct their child's upbringing, including their religious, health, and educational well-being.
Strongly Agree
Attempts to transition or encourage a child to transition to the opposite sex constitutes child abuse.
Strongly Agree
ELECTIONS AND VOTING
People should be able to vote without photo identification.
Strongly Disagree
EQUALITY
Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.
Strongly Disagree
Biological males should not be allowed to participate in women's sports or occupy biological women's spaces whether it be bathrooms, locker rooms, sorority houses, women's shelters, or prison.
Strongly Agree
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
What do you believe is the most reliable energy source that will supply the growing demand for electricity?
Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas.
Man-made climate change is a global threat and requires urgent political action.
Strongly Disagree
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