Republican · Kentucky's 2nd District · 2026
Brett Guthrie
Guthrie served as an Army artillery officer after West Point, then joined Trace Die Cast, the Bowling Green manufacturing business his father founded.
Biography
Brett Guthrie's route to Congress ran through the Army and a Bowling Green factory: after military service, he joined Trace Die Cast, the manufacturing business his father started.1 He and his wife, Beth, have three children and are grandparents.1
Guthrie graduated from West Point in 1987 and served as a field artillery officer with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell.1 He later earned a master's in public and private management at Yale.1 First elected to the Kentucky Senate in 1998, he moved to the U.S. House after winning election in 2008.1
He has also served as a deputy whip for House Republicans.1 He now chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose jurisdiction includes healthcare, energy, telecommunications and consumer safety.1 Guthrie sponsored the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act of 2025, renewing federal opioid prevention, treatment and recovery programs; it became law in December 2025.23
The Republican faces Democrat Megan Wingfield in Kentucky's 2nd District.4 On Medicaid, Guthrie supports work and community engagement requirements for certain adults and backed their federal implementation rules in 2026.5 He argues those requirements will preserve the program for people most in need, placing eligibility rules and healthcare access among the consequential policy questions in his reelection campaign.5
Record and controversies
Family business board role
A 2019 Sludge report raised conflict questions about Guthrie's unpaid board role and substantial investments in his family's aluminum components business, Trace Die Cast, while he worked on aluminum policy.6 It quoted Public Citizen's Craig Holman urging voluntary recusal, but also explained that House rules permitted unpaid service on a private company's board and did not require the recusal Holman sought.6 Guthrie's office did not respond to that report's request for comment.6 This was criticism of a possible financial conflict under rules that allowed the reported arrangement, not an official misconduct finding, and the 2019 report does not show whether he holds the board seat today.6