Kentucky's 2022 elections are taking shape. Here's an early look at races to watch

Chevalier Mahone walks into the polling place at the Kentucky African American Heritage Center in west Louisville the day before Election Day for early voting. Nov. 2, 2020.
Joe Sonka
Louisville Courier Journal

Political and judicial candidates for Kentucky's 2022 elections still have more than a month left to file for office, but some races are already shaping up to be hotly contested in the year to come.

The deadline for candidates to file with the secretary of state's office is Jan. 7 — though that may be pushed back to later in the month by the Kentucky General Assembly because lawmakers must address redistricting of legislative and congressional maps.

Hundreds of candidates have already officially filed for elected positions since the beginning of November, while many more across the state have issued their intent to run for a seat with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance so their campaign can raise and spend money.

In addition to high-profile contests for U.S. Senate and the open U.S. House seat of Rep. John Yarmuth, primary races are beginning emerge for a number of seats across Kentucky, including those in the state House and Senate — where incumbents in the Republican supermajority are already facing challengers.

More:Republicans in driver's seat for Kentucky redistricting process. Here's how it will work

There are also some key judicial races to watch, including four Supreme Court seats, all seven Court of Appeals positions and circuit court judgeships throughout the state.

While the contest to replace Greg Fischer as mayor of Louisville has already kicked into gear, Jefferson County has a few other big races developing, including for county attorney, county clerk and several key judicial positions.

Here's an early look at races and issues to watch as election season approaches:

Franklin Circuit Court battle

Of all 95 circuit court judicial positions in Kentucky, none has decided as many high-profile civil cases and drawn more political scrutiny in the past decade than the first division of Franklin Circuit Court — which will now get one of the biggest political races in the state.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has held the seat since 2006, and his decisions have long drawn the ire of Republican legislators who made several attempts at legislation to move big civil cases out of his courtroom.

Those GOP efforts were finally successful in the 2021 session when they passed a bill into law directing litigation against state agencies or involving constitutional matters to be heard in the county where it is filed, instead of in Franklin Circuit Court.

Judge Phillip Shepherd.

While he faced no challenger in 2014, Shepherd now faces an opponent sure to receive heavy assistance from Republican critics in Joe Bilby, the general counsel for Republican Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles.

Bilby opened his campaign with a shot against Shepherd that cited the recent Kentucky Supreme Court ruling overturning his decision to halt legislation limiting the governor's emergency powers to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the race is nonpartisan, its fault lines are likely to be anything but, as it is expected to involve a heavy amount of campaign spending from each side, if not outside groups.

Shepherd and Bilby are the only two candidates so far to file for the race. If another candidate enters, the top two finishers in the primary would head to the general election. If no others file, they would automatically move to the general election.

House GOP gets primary challengers

With Republicans holding such a dominant supermajority in each chamber of the General Assembly, in many respects the biggest legislative races in years to come won't take place in the general elections, but in GOP primaries.

This appears to be the case in 2022 — especially in the House, where eight incumbents have already picked up a Republican primary challenger, and more are expected to follow in the months ahead.

Several of these Republican legislative primary challengers are the petitioners who unsuccessfully attempted to impeach Gov. Andy Beshear earlier this year for allegedly unconstitutional pandemic mandates — Jacob Clark, Tony Wheatley and Andrew Cooperrider.

Andrew Cooperrider spoke at Veterans Memorial Park in Jeffersontown against employer and school vaccine mandates.
Nov. 6, 2021

Wheatley, the founder and president of conservative advocacy group Constitutional Kentucky, is running in House District 55 against six-term incumbent Rep. Kim King, R-Harrodsburg  — who was one of the unanimous votes in the special impeachment committee to not recommend referral to the full House.

That decision by King has drawn fierce criticism from Wheatley and others in the loose "liberty" movement in Kentucky, in addition to her opposition to a prefiled bill prohibiting private business from serving only vaccinated customers.

Wheatley was also the organizer of several armed rallies on the Capitol grounds in Frankfort that drew controversy, including one in which Beshear was hanged in effigy and people with firearms shouted just outside the governor's mansion.

More:Committee recommends no action on petitions to impeach Gov. Andy Beshear, Daniel Cameron

Clark has filed to run in House District 18 against Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, as a Republican, after losing by a wide margin to her in 2020 when he ran as a Libertarian candidate.

Picking up early financial support from libertarian northern Kentucky attorney Chris Wiest and Louisville conservative activist Frank Simon, Clark compares the income tax to "slavery" and has vowed to file articles of impeachment against Beshear if he wins.

In the Senate, Cooperrider first announced his challenge to Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, R-Lexington, in July, just two weeks before she announced she would not run for reelection in 2022.

In addition to his impeachment petition, Cooperrider made headlines for his coffee shop's defiance of pandemic orders from the state and local health department.

Cooperrider's campaign had already raised more than $50,000 at the end of the third quarter — including from prominent names in the liberty movement — but so did two other more mainstream Republican candidates who announced a run for the same seat after Kerr's announcement.

Kentucky state senator Alice Forgy Kerr speaking on the third day of the legislature's special session, about the importance of wearing masks. Kerr and her husband recovered from COVID-19. Sept. 9, 2021.

Amanda Mays Bledsoe, a Republican city council member in Lexington since 2014, has already raised $57,000 in her bid for the seat, including a self-loan of $25,000.

Among Bledsoe's donors is the Kentucky Capitalism and Freedom Committee — a new group led by GOP Congressman Andy Barr and funded by Republican Party of Kentucky chairman Mac Brown and prominent GOP fundraiser and Corbin banker Terry Forcht.

Lexington attorney Ross Man is also running for Kerr's open Senate seat. He has loaned his campaign $50,000 and vows to donate his legislative salary to charity and limit himself to two terms in office.

A number of other Republicans in the state House have picked up early GOP primary challengers, including:

  • Rep. C. Ed Massey, R-Hebron, in House District 66 faces Steve Rawlings. Massey also served on the impeachment committee and faced attack ads in the 2020 general election from a PAC aligned with the liberty movement.
  • Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, in House District 2 faces Kimberly Holloway. Heath has already announced a statewide run for agriculture commissioner in 2023.
  • Rep. Lynn Bechler, R-Marion, in House District 4, faces Kristopher Driver, a former city council member in Fredonia.
  • Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, in House District 53 faces Rhonda Allen.
  • Rep. Adam Bowling, R-Middlesboro, in House District 87 faces Brandon Edwards.
  • Tom O'Dell Smith, R-Corbin, in House District 86 faces Dennis Dinsmore.

One important caveat remains for all legislative races in 2022: Redistricting may completely alter the boundaries for districts in races where candidates have already filed, either making them ineligible to run there or even pitting Republican or Democratic incumbents against each other.

Louisville House Democrats challenged

Two Democratic incumbents who have long served their Louisville districts are also facing a new challenge from within the party.

Rep. Reginald Meeks has held his office in House District 42 since 2001, but is now facing challenger Robert LeVertis Bell in his reelection bid.

Bell — who finished second in a crowded field of candidates in a Democratic primary for Metro Council in 2020 — is a public school teacher and community activist who identifies as a Democratic Socialist.

Robert LeVertis Bell is a co-chair of the Louisville-area chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Rep. Tom Burch, the oldest and longest-serving state legislator, is also facing primary challenge from Neal Turpin, a city planner and University of Louisville political science professor who had supported Burch in his last run.

Burch, who is 90 years old and was first elected in 1972, has survived primary challenges in the last two elections.

Supreme Court and Court of Appeals

Four of the seven Kentucky Supreme Court seats are up for election in 2022, including the two left open from the retirements of Chief Justice John Minton Jr. and Justice Lisabeth Tabor Hughes.

The only candidate to file so far for Hughes' Fourth District seat — comprised entirely of Jefferson County —  is Jefferson Circuit Judge Angela McCormick Bisig, who has served in that position since 2013.

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Angela McCormick Bisig

Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Kelly Thompson Jr. filed to run for Minton's western Kentucky district shortly before the chief justice announced he would not run for another term, with no other candidate yet filing to run for the seat.

Justices Christopher Shea Nickell and Michelle Keller are running for reelection and do not yet have challengers.

More:Mass exodus of judges likely from Jefferson Circuit Court, reducing experience on the bench

For the Kentucky Court of Appeals races, at least one of the first- and second-division judges of Jefferson County's Fourth District are retiring, with two candidates filing to run for each position.

In the first division, Judge Irv Maze recently announced he will not run for reelection, while current Circuit Judge Audra Eckerle and criminal defense and appellate attorney Tricia Lister have filed to run.

In Jefferson County's second division, Judge Denise Clayton has not yet filed for reelection, but three-term District Judge Annette Karem and civil and appellate attorney Stan Whetzel have filed for the race.

Jefferson County races

In addition to competitive primaries in Louisville for the mayoral and congressional races, the city's Democratic voters will also weigh in on who gets the nomination in the races for county attorney and county clerk.

Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell has served in the position since 2008 and fended off primary challenges in 2014 and 2018, but will now face David Holston — a former prosecutor who also served as Kentucky's first blind judge.

Republican County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw is seeking her seventh term and does not yet have a crowded field emerging to face her in the general election on the Democratic side.

Neville Blakemore, who in 2015 finished second in a crowded field in the Democratic primary for state treasurer, is running away from the three other Democratic candidates running for Jefferson County clerk in fundraising, netting more than $200,000 in contributions since the beginning of the year.

Former Metro Councilwoman Tina Ward Pugh is also running and raised $14,000 in the third quarter.

Political newcomer Daniel Cobble has also filed to run, while Almaria Baker, who ran and lost a race for Metro Council in 2018, has filed an intent to run.

Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today at the top of this page.