Garland Hale "Andy" Barr IV (born July 24, 1973) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Kentucky's 6th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the administration of Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher.
Early life and education
Barr was born in Lexington, Kentucky, the son of Garland Hale Barr III and Rev. Donna R. (Faulconer) Barr. The Barr family has been in Lexington for generations, and Barr Street in that city is reportedly named for one of Barr's ancestors. His father founded two companies in Lexington, the accounting firm Barr, Anderson and Roberts PLLC, and Merrick Management, Inc, a physician practice firm. His mother is a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington.
Barr graduated from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1992. He attended the University of Virginia, where, as a contributor to the conservative campus publication The Virginia Advocate, he was highly critical of then-President Bill Clinton for allegedly evading the draft. While in college, he was also an intern for U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican National Committee, and the Heritage Foundation. He also was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Barr graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from UVA in 1996 with a B.A. in government and philosophy. From 1996 until 1998, he worked as a legislative assistant to Jim Talent, then a U.S. Representative from Missouri, where he staffed Talent's service on the Speaker's Health Care Reform Task Force. In 2001, Barr earned a J.D. degree from the University of Kentucky College of Law. He was president of the Federalist Society at UK Law and was chosen to compete on the Moot Court National Team.
Law career
Commencing practice in Lexington, Barr joined the Fayette County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section and co-founded the Lexington Charity Club, a nonprofit organization of young men raising money for charitable causes, with Lee Greer and Rob Lewis. In 2002, he joined the liability defense service group and the business litigation service group at the Lexington law firm Stites & Harbison. While there, he worked for former Democratic Kentucky Attorney General and future Governor of Kentucky Steve Beshear, who urged him to get involved in state politics. Barr and colleague Brad Cowgill were employed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ernie Fletcher in 2003 to fight charges that Fletcher's running mate, Hunter Bates, did not meet the state's residency requirements for eligibility for the office of lieutenant governor. A judge ruled against Bates, and he was dropped from the ticket.
Fletcher administration
After Fletcher won the election, Barr was named to the Fletcher's transition team in the Public Protection and Regulation Cabinet. Fletcher chose Barr as general counsel for the governor's office of local development. When Fletcher declared April Child Abuse Prevention Month in Kentucky, Barr wrote Fletcher's speech for the occasion. While researching the speech, he made contact with the nonprofit group Prevent Child Abuse in Kentucky. He became interested in the organization's mission and was elected to its board of directors in 2004; he served as its vice president in 2007 and president in 2008 and 2009.
Fletcher's term in office was marred by a hiring scandal that involved violations of the state merit system. Barr was not implicated in the scandal; he told the Lexington Herald-Leader that Fletcher's Local Initiatives for a New Kentucky (LINK) outreach program, a sub-unit of the office of local development, stopped recruiting and vetting individuals for merit positions in the executive branch after he briefed officials about an opinion issued by the Executive Branch Ethics Commission during the administration of Fletcher's predecessor, Paul E. Patton, regarding acceptable and unacceptable hiring under the merit system. The Herald-Leader later requested copies of any employment recommendations made by LINK employees, but Barr refused the request, citing an exemption in Kentucky's Open Records Act that provides exemptions for "preliminary drafts, notes and correspondence" of state employees.