KENTUCKY — On this week’s In Focus Kentucky program, we’re sitting down one-on-one with Congressman James Comer, R-Ky., of Tompkinsville.

The U.S. Representative for Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District, which covers 35 counties in portions of western and central Kentucky, is no stranger to statewide and national politics.

In 2000, Comer was elected to serve the first of six terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives. He then was elected to serve as Kentucky’s Commissioner of Agriculture in 2011. Besides serving as chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, he is also a member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

With a successful 2024 U.S. re-election bid, Comer says he plans to run for re-election to Congress in 2026, but he says he is giving some very serious consideration to leaving that seat to come home to Frankfort and potentially running for governor again in 2027.

“Everyone that knows me knows that my heart’s in Kentucky. I believe in term limits, in Washington. I believe that would solve a lot of the problems in Washington. I’ve been in Congress for eight years. The governor’s race is in three years. I’m getting a lot of encouragement. I’m running for Congress again because I’m in a key spot. I mean, I’m the most high-profile committee chairman in Washington, and it gives me an opportunity to, if I call a government agency about a tariff issue with a bourbon company, they’re going to return my call. So I feel like I’m effective in Washington. But I do feel like with Beshear being term limited, you know, there’s going to obviously be an opportunity for a new leader in Kentucky and I think that I could provide that leadership. We won’t be making a decision anytime soon, but it’s, it’s something I’m very seriously considering doing,” said Comer.

Previously in 2015, Comer lost the 2015 Republican gubernatorial primary to Matt Bevin by just 83 votes.

Also during this segment, Rep. Comer discusses the success of his first book,  “All the President’s Money: Investigating the Secret Foreign Schemes That Made the Biden Family Rich,” which is on the New York Times Bestseller List and details the 15-month investigation Comer led into President Joe Biden and his family as chairman of the powerful oversight committee. The book is available through Amazon and other retailers.

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.