This is a county race.
Rod’s spending like it’s Washington.
And we think we know why…
The Short Version
Here’s what happened.
- Rod Kuegel signed a lease letting Big Solar put an industrial solar farm on his own land.3
- He told voters he had “no position” on industrial solar farms.1
- After it came out, he said the lease was canceled, but the letter he showed came from a different company than the one on the lease.2
- He’s bankrolling his own campaign to win the county office that writes the rules for Big Solar.7
The Agenda
Why Big Solar
wants our farmland.
The Green New Deal calls for “meeting 100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources,” by “dramatically expanding” them.10 Industrial solar farms are how that gets built. And they need land: flat, open, cheap land. Farmland like ours. One plant proposed in Daviess County would cover 1,200 acres.14
They back that agenda.
Rod backs them.
- Kamala Harris signed on to the Green New Deal in the U.S. Senate.10 Rod’s household gave to her three times in 2024.9
- Morgan McGarvey signed on to it in Congress.11 A Kuegel check went to him on April 1, 2026, while Rod was already running for judge/executive.9
- Charles Booker built his Senate campaigns on the Green New Deal. Climate activists called him a “Green New Deal champion.” He’s the Democrat on Kentucky’s ballot this November.12
And Rod already signed his own farm up with Big Solar.3
Then:
The Cancellation
“Terminated.”
Now Rod says the lease ended in August.2
The recorded lease
Haycraft Solar Project, LLC3
The termination letter
Urban Grid Solar Projects, LLC2
The company on the lease isn’t the company that signed the letter. So who actually ended it?
Rod’s own answer: the lease has “probably been traded maybe three times since I leased it to that company.”18 Traded to whom? He hasn’t said.
And Urban Grid is no local outfit. Two months before Rod signed his lease, Brookfield, a Toronto-based investment giant, bought the company for $650 million.13 That’s who Big Solar is.
And if it’s over, what stops him from signing a new one with Big Solar? Kentucky doesn’t make anyone file a lease at the courthouse.4 The public only found out about this one because it was filed.3
And these deals are not short. The memos on file run 32 years and can be renewed. They also say the real lease, the one the public never sees, is the one that controls.3
The lease “ended.”
Then he picked a side.
Weeks later, in September, Rod told the Messenger-Inquirer he doesn’t understand how solar clean energy became a bad thing.18
“It’s not a solar issue; it’s a property rights issue… If I own something and I can develop it, as long as I participate by the rules of planning and zoning, then I should [be] able to do what I want.”18
Rod Kuegel, Messenger-Inquirer, September 18, 2026
His land. His lease. And the rules of planning and zoning? As judge/executive, he’d help write them. For everyone’s land. Including his own.5
The Office
He signed a lease with Big Solar.
He wants the office that writes the rules for Big Solar.5
The Judge/Executive leads the Fiscal Court, the body that sets the county’s rules on where Big Solar can build.
The Spend
biggest
donor.
Rod Kuegel is bankrolling his own campaign for county judge/executive.7
Why does he want
this seat so bad?
The Party Act
He says it’s not
about party.
What Rod tells Republicans
“…not Republican problems or Democrat problems. They are Daviess County problems.”8
“Republicans for Rod,” rodkuegel.com
Where his household’s money goes
Kamala Harris.
Joe Biden.
Amy McGrath.
Morgan McGarvey.9
Moderate on the campaign trail. Liberal Democrat in the checkbook.
The Checkbook
12X donors to
the far left.
Federal Election Commission records show the Kuegel household giving again and again to Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and far-left Democrats.9
Donations from the Kuegel household to Democrats.9
- Joe Biden5X · 2020
- Kamala Harris3X · 2024
- Amy McGrath3X · 2020
- Morgan McGarvey1X · 2026
The Ordinance
Gender identity in Daviess County law?
Rod said yes.
In 2020, activists pushed to write “gender identity” into Daviess County law, covering businesses open to the public. Rod Kuegel stood up and backed it.16
“I knew I’d have to be against it… I tried to figure out what I was afraid of, and I couldn’t find it.”16
Rod Kuegel, Fiscal Court public forum, January 30, 2020
Then he asked Fiscal Court to make it broader.16
And the people his household funds?9
- Kamala Harris pledged that federal prisoners and detainees could get “surgical care” for gender transition.19
- Morgan McGarvey voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.20
It failed by one vote.
The judge/executive casts one.17
The
Silence.
The questions the media won’t ask.
The answers Rod won’t give.
- Who owns Haycraft Solar Project, LLC today?
- Urban Grid Solar Projects, LLC and Stewart West signed your termination letter. What gives them the power to end a lease held by Haycraft Solar Project, LLC?
- Will you release every document tied to the March 17, 2022 lease, including any sale, transfer, or change of the company behind it?
- Has the termination been recorded with the Daviess County Clerk?
- How many acres does the lease cover, yours and your neighbor’s?
- Will you pledge not to sign another solar lease while in office, and to record every lease you hold with the County Clerk, where voters can see it?
- Why say “no position” while the lease was in effect?
- If elected, will you recuse yourself from every solar decision?
- Why bankroll your own campaign to win a county office?
- If this race isn’t about party, why does your household bankroll the far left?
- Under the ordinance you backed, could a man who identifies as a woman use the women’s restroom at a Daviess County business?
- Do you support Democrat Charles Booker for U.S. Senate over Republican Andy Barr?
- Do you support Democrat Megan Wingfield for Congress over Republican Brett Guthrie?
- Do you support the entire Democrat ticket running in Daviess County, the ticket you’re a part of?