What the Cooperrider-Douglas race could tell us about the state of COVID politics in Kentucky
%20(02-11-22).jpg "Sen. Donald Douglas in sponsoring a joint resolution to end the state of emergency, which began nearly two years ago on March 6.")
Senate Joint Resolution 150 was Sen. Donald Douglas’, R-Nicholasvile, banner moment of this year’s legislative session.
It accomplished a fairly simple goal: ending Kentucky’s COVID-19-related state of emergency just shy of a month earlier than first planned. But it’s complicated. That is, both from a political and policy standpoint.
As such, it’s the most concrete piece of legislation debated among himself and his opponent Andrew Cooperrider. It’s also central to state policy on a political topic that could linger past the general election and into 2023.
Aside from ending the state of emergency just shy of a month earlier than first planned via a bill that Douglas and several other Republicans voted for. It also cost the state’s poorest residents $50 million in extra food stamp funds from the federal government.
There was some confusion regarding the fate of the state’s extra pandemic-linked SNAP funds, but the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) has made clear: extra SNAP emergency allotments, equal to nearly $100 per 544,000 low-income Kentuckians who qualify, were cut a month shorter than they would have been in the original plan.
“There were those who argued, ‘well, it doesn’t objectively do anything.’ It did a great deal,” Douglas said. “It brought people out of their homes, it took the fear out of people and put them back in our shopping centers. it’s getting our economy running again, just in knowing that there’s no emergency.”
Cooperrider said the state of emergency still being active in 2022 was disingenuous.
Where the two diverge is in assigning responsibility for the piece of legislation.
Cooperrider asserts that the legislation was informed by him, a noted anti-COVID lockdown figure, challenging Douglas in the primary election.
“Do you think if Douglas was not in a fraught primary that he’s currently losing, would SJR 150 have been in his name? I would say that I got that passed. Douglas didn’t, I did. Him being in a race with me is why his name was on it,” Cooperrider said.
Douglas, 65, disagrees.
“I’m the guy who ended the emergency. I don’t have to talk about it. I’ve already done it… I’m the guy who can actually get from A to Z not because I talk about it, but because my actions and accomplishments actually show it.”
On the floor and in committee, Douglas was vocal about what he characterized as the physical, emotional and financial toll of the pandemic restrictions.
Cooperrider launched to fame when his Malabu Drive coffee shop, Brewed, defied local and state COVID-19 mitigation measures. Loud and proud about his activism against the restrictions, Cooperrider faced a lawsuit from the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department and an influx of customers both supportive of his cause and those merely looking for a place to study or hang out.
The saga brought an onslaught of media attention, on which Cooperrider, 30, has capitalized.
Even beyond SJR 150, the politics of the pandemic will clearly play a role at the polls.
And this election could become a test case for how important the political considerations borne from the pandemic are to voters in a Republican-leaning district.
“I think it’s still fresh in people’s minds. I think it’s going to be through 2023. Some of what Gov. Beshear did with the churches and the protests and the closing of small businesses, I think that’s going to be a big issue in ‘23,” prominent attorney for ‘liberty’ causes in Kentucky Chris Wiest, who has endoresed Cooperrider in the race, said. “But at some point people will forget about it.”
Beshear’s pandemic record largely depends on who you ask, and two recent polls suggest that Kentucky’s largely conservative voter base approves of his crisis-riddled tenure.
So, the question of whether Kentucky voters will remember a comforting television presence they likened to Mr. Rogers or a controversial order requesting that churches halt services won’t be answered until 2023. But observers may get a better idea of just how strong pandemic policy angst is within their party.
Cooperrider has tried to solidify his status as a vessel for Kentuckians’ COVID restriction angst by hitching his wagon to noted ‘Liberty’ caucus Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge. He helped organize a rally in the Capitol to advocate for her House Bill 28, which initially would have banned any employer in Kentucky from mandating its employees get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Does the focus on COVID-19-related measures make Cooperrider a political one trick pony? He says no.
When asked to propose a policy that didn’t have anything to do with lockdowns, Cooperrider said he would advocate for ending evictions for failure to pay property taxes on a home you own.
“People who own their homes, have lived in their homes and paid equity off in their homes, can lose it simply for failure to pay tax,” Cooperrider said. “Our government was formed to protect life, liberty and property, and yet our government is forcing us out of our property.”
Cooperrider is no stranger to the issue, having been served with eviction papers from rental housing twice – once in Lexington in 2011 and another time in Frankfort in 2015, though the 2015 case was later dismissed, according to court documents.
Douglas mentioned the economy, education and road projects as major initiatives on which he hopes to help the district move forward.
He also highlighted other bills he passed, two healthcare related ones and another to do with Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s retirement plans, with unanimous support. Another freezing property tax rates on vehicles that surged recently was passed in the Senate, but later made moot by similar executive action from Gov. Beshear.
“I’m just happy we got it done,” Douglas said. “I don’t care who gets the credit.”
