SIGNALDATAInsights. For the People.
Kentucky · lobbying records · Legislative: registrations as listed Nov. 5, 2026, spending January - August 2026. Executive branch, separately: registrations as listed March 30, 2026Checked Nov. 6, 2026

Who pays to lobby in Frankfort.

Registered lobbyists, the employers who hire them and what employers reported spending on lobbying the General Assembly so far in 2026, with executive-branch registrations counted separately, from Kentucky's two ethics commissions.

701

registered lobbyists

Legislative branch only. People on the Legislative Ethics Commission's list of registered legislative agents dated Nov. 5, 2026, recounted from the saved file. The commission's October 2026 newsletter states 702. Executive-branch lobbyists are a separate count (see How to read this) and are not in this number.

944

clients (lobbyist employers)

Legislative branch only. Employers on the commission's list dated Nov. 5, 2026, recounted from the saved file. The October 2026 newsletter states 965 registered for the May - August period. 1,029 employers have a line in the January - August 2026 spending report, a different count: 101 of those names are not on the current list. Related organizations listed separately are counted separately.

Employers reporting the most legislative lobbying spending, January - August 2026
KY Chamber of Commerce
Of this: agent compensation $391,268.00, advertising $97,297.89, receptions, meals and events $2,862.49, other expenses $3,711.01.		$495,139.39
KY Education Association
Of this: agent compensation $28,254.00, advertising $150,000.00, receptions, meals and events $500.00, other expenses $953.93.		$179,707.93
KY Bankers Association
Of this: agent compensation $133,048.00, receptions, meals and events $602.82.		$133,650.82
Altria Client Services LLC
Of this: agent compensation $109,722.00, other expenses $19,621.07.		$129,343.07
LG&E and KU Energy LLC
Of this: agent compensation $96,121.00, receptions, meals and events $1,692.16, other expenses $21,299.98.		$119,113.14
KY Hospital Association
Of this: agent compensation $109,128.00, receptions, meals and events $5,537.79.		$114,665.79
Airbnb, Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $113,100.00, receptions, meals and events $106.00, other expenses $247.39.		$113,453.39
KY Primary Care Association
Of this: agent compensation $104,000.00, receptions, meals and events $6,193.96, other expenses $2,683.60.		$112,877.56
KY Medical Association
Of this: agent compensation $93,788.00, receptions, meals and events $231.00, other expenses $15,928.30.		$109,947.30
Amazon.com Services, LLC
Of this: agent compensation $105,372.00, receptions, meals and events $927.04, other expenses $3,559.92.		$109,858.96
Elevance Health and Affiliates DBA Anthem, Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $105,500.00, advertising $2,868.00, receptions, meals and events $630.75.		$108,998.75
KY Justice Association
Of this: agent compensation $70,811.00, receptions, meals and events $7,635.76, other expenses $27,893.31.		$106,340.07
KY League of Cities, Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $97,914.00, receptions, meals and events $7,205.22, other expenses $1,113.00.		$106,232.22
One Louisville
Of this: agent compensation $103,500.00, receptions, meals and events $1,238.81.		$104,738.81
Pharmaceutical Research & Manuf. of America
Of this: agent compensation $103,335.00, receptions, meals and events $921.86, other expenses $233.60.		$104,490.46
HCA Healthcare, Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $104,432.00.		$104,432.00
Humana Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $102,281.00, receptions, meals and events $818.75.		$103,099.75
KY Distillers' Assn.
Of this: agent compensation $92,376.00, receptions, meals and events $1,051.06.		$93,427.06
Churchill Downs Incorporated
Of this: agent compensation $84,940.00, receptions, meals and events $3,696.70, other expenses $1,556.23.		$90,192.93
Light & Wonder, Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $90,000.00.		$90,000.00
KY Assn. of Electric Cooperatives, Inc.
Of this: agent compensation $80,238.00, receptions, meals and events $6,768.10, other expenses $2,756.40.		$89,762.50
Marzetti Company (The) & Its Subsidiaries
Of this: agent compensation $88,000.00, receptions, meals and events $358.96.		$88,358.96
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Of this: agent compensation $78,926.00, receptions, meals and events $4,056.00.		$82,982.00
LifePoint Health
Of this: agent compensation $80,000.00, other expenses $920.67.		$80,920.67
KY Assn. of Counties
Of this: agent compensation $74,660.00, receptions, meals and events $2,774.75, other expenses $251.72.		$77,686.47

What the employer itself reported on its Updated Registration Statements to the Legislative Ethics Commission for January 1 through August 31, 2026, the commission's TOTAL column added across five statements (January, February, March, April, and May through August). It covers lobbying the General Assembly only. The total joins four parts: advertising about legislation that ran during a session, receptions, meals and events, other expenses directly tied to lobbying, and compensation paid to legislative agents. Across all employers most of it is agent pay, though not for every row; each row shows its parts. It is the employer's spending on legislative lobbying, not what any one agent earned, not a full year (September through December is not due until Jan. 15, 2027), and not executive-branch lobbying, which Kentucky reports separately on another schedule. The form has no line for campaign contributions. Ranked by us; the commission lists employers alphabetically. Rows are not to be added to the executive-branch figures.

Sources: Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission, Employers and Legislative Agents reports; KLEC, Kentucky Registered Legislative Agents, Nov. 5, 2026; KLEC, Kentucky Registered Legislative Employers, Nov. 5, 2026; KLEC, Employer Reporting Period Statement Totals, 2026; KLEC, Employer Reporting Period Statement Totals, 2025; KLEC, Legislative Agent Compensation, 2026; KLEC, Legislative Agent Report for 2026; KLEC, Reporting Deadlines; KLEC, Employer's Updated Registration Statement (form); KLEC, Legislative Agent's Updated Registration Statement (form); KLEC, Ethics Reporter, October 2026; Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission, Executive Agency Lobbyist Listings; EBEC, Registration by Employer and Real Party, March 30, 2026; EBEC, Registration by Last Name, March 30, 2026; EBEC, Biennial Report, July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025; EBEC, Executive Agency Lobbying Handbook, Nov. 1, 2024; EBEC, Kentucky Lobbyist Reporting Module user guide; Joe Sonka, Louisville Public Media, via WKMS, Nov. 28, 2025 (reported figures).

How to read this

Kentucky splits lobbying in two, and the two are kept apart here and never added. The Legislative Ethics Commission registers legislative agents and their employers, for lobbying the General Assembly; the counts and the table above are that side. Employers and agents each file a statement six times a year: each month from January through April, then May through August, then September through December. The Executive Branch Ethics Commission separately registers executive agency lobbyists, their employers and real parties in interest, for attempts to influence executive agency decisions. Its lists, dated March 30, 2026 and not replaced since, show 733 active lobbyists by registration number and 805 employer entries. 191 of the 701 legislative agents' names also appear, spelled the same, among the active executive-branch lobbyists. That side reports once a year, for July through June, in a filing that names pay to lobbyists, and we have no filed amounts from it. Louisville Public Media's Joe Sonka reported $9.1 million in such pay for July 2024 through June 2025, from more than 600 groups, with Ernst & Young reported highest at $115,748; those are reported figures that we have not pulled from the filings, and they cover pay to lobbyists, a narrower measure than the legislative total below. Across all 1,029 employers with statements for January through August 2026, the commission's report comes to $22,373,343.33; 93 of those employers reported $0.00. Registering and paying a lobbyist is lawful and public; these records do not show that any official acted because of it.

What is not here yet

  • Executive-branch dollars by employer: not yet checked. The commission's public filing site (https://lob-1-prod.kyethics.civixapps.com/#/index), which its user guide says opens without a login and offers filed reports and list exports, could not be read in this pull: a plain request returned only the page's empty app shell, and our page-reading tool was not cleared to open it in this run; no other way in was tried. So no executive-branch table is shown and the only dollars on that side are the credited news figures, marked reported.
  • The executive-branch lists are dated March 30, 2026, before the commission moved to its new system in 2026 and before this year's filings, whose deadline it extended to Sept. 30, 2026. Current executive-branch counts: not yet checked.
  • Legislative spending stops at Aug. 31, 2026. September - December statements are due Jan. 15, 2027.
  • The report's column labels (EMP AE, EMP RME, EMP EXP, LA COMP) are not defined in the report. We read them as categories A through D of the employer form on the commission's site, a form marked October 2016 that may have been revised for online filing.
  • The commission's by-industry report differs from its by-employer report for two employers, neither in the table: KY Baptist Convention ($22,000.00 by employer, $24,750.00 by industry) and Weston A. Price Foundation ($180.00 and $360.00). We use the by-employer report and did not establish why they differ.
  • Individual statements behind the totals, and the commission's searchable register, were not opened: the table rests on the commission's published report. Bills lobbied and the by-industry view are not shown here.
  • Names are as filed and were not merged, so one group under two names counts twice in the counts and could rank lower than it would together.

Gaps in the lobbying records as of the date checked.