Kentucky candidate had a fundraiser on his own church campus. He says there's no issue

Austin Horn, Lexington Herald-Leader on Nov 24, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — A fundraiser for Ryan Dotson, a candidate for congress in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, was held Thursday on the grounds of the Winchester church Dotson leads.

It’s not against any campaign finance law to host a fundraiser at a church. However, the event at Lighthouse World Outreach Center, where Dotson is lead pastor, does raise questions about how the event was carried out, according to a federal campaign finance expert.

Dotson’s campaign emphasized that everything about the event was above board. No special benefit was conferred to Dotson’s campaign by the church, it was not held in a sanctuary and the venue was fairly compensated, the campaign stressed in a statement.

A businessman and pastor who has served as a state representative based in Winchester since 2021, Dotson is one of several people seeking to replace Central Kentucky U.S. Rep. Andy Barr in 2026 as Barr is running for U.S. Senate.

Though the district has been in GOP hands for more than a decade, candidates from both major parties are campaigning vigorously, as the district is anchored by solidly blue Lexington and seen by many as potentially competitive in the general election.

The Nov. 20 event was hosted by an associate pastor at Lighthouse World Outreach Center, a pastor at a church in Mount Sterling and Dotson’s son-in-law Jakob Wendesten, an international evangelist who has become popular on social media platforms like TikTok.

Lighthouse World Outreach Center, also known as Lighthouse Church of God, made a post on social media promoting the fundraiser.

In response to questions from the Herald-Leader, Nick Nash, Dotson’s campaign manager, wrote that the campaign “paid the exact same rate that every other event and organization has paid for the same amount of time at that venue,” and that the event space is available for rent to all members of the church community.

“If a member of the Lighthouse community would like to host a separate event for any other candidate, they would be permitted to do so,” Nash wrote.

The event space, a community room, often hosts birthdays, weddings, graduation ceremonies and other events hosted by church members, Nash added. Friends, family and volunteers of the Dotson campaign put on the event and the food was donated.

“There are very few venues in Winchester that can host the types of crowds that Ryan Dotson gets, and we appreciate the spotlight being placed on that: Ryan is blessed to be running a campaign that has the support of real members of his community who host events for him, and show up wanting to help him secure a victory or them, for God, and for our country,” Nash wrote.

Political candidates and religion have mixed in America for years, though churches’ political participation has been limited since the 1950s when former president Lyndon B. Johnson, as a senator, pushed to pass legislation regulating it.

Since then, churches are barred from electioneering or intervening in elections, or else they risk losing their tax-exempt status. However, a recent change from the Internal Revenue Service under President Donald Trump allowed pastors and houses of worship to endorse candidates.

In an interview with the Herald-Leader, Eric Petry, elections counsel for the progressive nonprofit the Brennan Center, said that the event would be legal under the current interpretation of the law as long as certain criteria were met.

Those criteria include: the venue being paid for at a fair market rate, that other campaigns could rent the space under the same terms, and that church staff did not provide a special benefit to the campaign.

The campaign responded in the affirmative to all of the above.

Federal law bars churches and other nonprofits from donating directly to campaigns, so they cannot provide discounted space, staff time or other benefits beyond a normal rental arrangement, Petry said. Church staff also cannot volunteer services outside the ordinary scope of what a rented venue provides.

One wrinkle that Petry added is that enforcement of these restrictions is incredibly rare.

The Federal Election Commission lacks a quorum and has long been hamstrung by partisan gridlock, making action rare even when violations occur. Petry said that’s a problem that has encouraged candidates to push boundaries.

Having reviewed the Dotson campaign’s responses to Herald-Leader questions, Petry said that “it seems unlikely to raise an issue under current law,” assuming all provided information is accurate.

Dotson is, by and large, the public face of Lighthouse World Outreach Center. According to records filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office, he is the president of the group. His father is listed as the vice president.

Paul Wyatt, the associate pastor and co-host of the fundraiser, has also been involved in politics. In 2022, he was the Republican candidate for county jailer and lost a close race to Clark County Jailer Frank “Squatty” Doyle.

Dotson is joined on the Republican side of the aisle by a few other candidates with political pasts or resources at their command.

Former state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, also of Winchester, is leading the fundraising race among GOP candidates. He recently served as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health before stepping down from that role and launching his run.

Deanna Gordon, a state representative from Richmond, is also running. Gordon and Dotson’s total dollars raised figures aren’t too far behind Alvarado’s, but, unlike Alvarado, they had to rely largely on personal loans to keep up, according to records from the third financial quarter.

Greg Plucinski, a retired pharmaceutical executive from Nicholasville, is also running to fill Barr’s seat as a Republican.

Dotson has argued he’s the most conservative of the bunch and hasn’t shied away from religious themes in his campaign. At his campaign launch he compared himself to David, who slays the Philistine giant Goliath in the Bible.

Democrats running for the seat include former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo, former Lexington city Councilman David Kloiber, businesswoman and bourbon writer Erin Petrey and former state Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson.