11-person field set in hectic & historic Eastern Kentucky state Senate write-in campaign
Eleven.
That’s the number of days left for candidates, as of the Friday deadline, who filed to run for Kentucky state Senate District 29 to replace the recently deceased Sen. Johnnie L. Turner.
Eleven is also the number of candidates trying to coordinate and run slapdash campaigns for the four-year term representing Bell, Harlan, Letcher, Knott and Floyd counties.
None have run campaigns beyond a single county. Only one has held elected office before. All of them are scrambling to get their name out in front of more than 122,000 residents and across 1,907 square miles of land.
The 11 candidates are as follows: Craig Blackburn of Prestonsburg, John Clem of Cranks, Willie Crase of Garrett, Leonard Hendrickson of Pine Top, Tanner Hesterberg of Prestonsburg, Valerie Horn of Whitesburg, Scott Madon of Pineville, Justin Noble of Emmalena, Andrew Saylor of Wallins Creek, Tyler Ward of Whitesburg and Paul Williams of Prestonsburg.
The election is unique in that votes for the only two candidates on the ballot, the now-deceased Turner and recently withdrawn candidate David Suhr, will not count. That means the write-in candidate with the most votes will earn the seat for the next four years.
According to Secretary of state Michael Adams, all that’s required for a write-in vote to count is for a voter to fill in the bubble next to the “write-in” box and write the last name of the candidate. Misspellings are accepted as long as the intended candidate can be clearly determined.
The most populous county in the district is Floyd with almost 36,000 residents as of the 2020 U.S. Census. It’s followed by Harlan, Bell and Letcher with 27,000, 24,000 and 22,000; Knott County has the lowest population with roughly 15,000 residents.
As Turner passed on Tuesday and the process for his replacement wasn’t exactly clear until mid-Wednesday, the decision to run was last minute for many.
Scott Madon, who serves as mayor of Pineville in Bell County, made the call to run in the midst of an outpatient surgery in Lexington Thursday. Republicans in Frankfort were contacting him about running when he was still in a post-operation fog.
“They called me when I’d just come out — the doctors had put me under — so I was like, ‘Hey guys, I’m really not able to talk, think or anything.’
“They kept calling me and texting me, and I was like, ‘hmm.’”
Madon — who describes himself as a Trump-supporting Republican focused on infrastructure and energy — filed Friday morning and has the backing of the Republican Party of Kentucky, including Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and the Senate Republican Caucus Campaign Committee.
On the other side of the political aisle, Justin Noble has the endorsement of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear as well as Eastern Kentucky political stalwart Rocky Adkins, an advisor to Beshear and former House Democratic leader, and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.
“Their support means a great deal to me. When the historic flood hit Eastern Kentucky in 2022, Andy and Rocky were there for District 29, demonstrating the leadership and compassion we need,” Noble wrote in a statement to the Herald-Leader. “I am committed to serving the constituents of the 29th Senate District with the same dedication.”
He wrote that public education would be a focus for him in the campaign — Amendment 2, a statewide ballot initiative which would allow public funds to go to private K-12 schooling, is a major concern for Democrats, many of whom are pushing for Eastern Kentuckians to reject it.
Senate District 29 generally leans Republican, but was a holdout in Eastern Kentucky’s rightward shift for some time before Turner defeated a similarly-named longtime incumbent in Johnny Ray Turner. Elections analysis website Dave’s Redistricting, in a composite of 2016-2020 elections, rates the district as 69% Republican.
But Republicans can’t rely on straight-ticket voting as partisan candidates often do. A straight-ticket Republican vote would be applied to Turner, and therefore wouldn’t count in the Senate District 29 race.
And, Madon is far from the only Republican on the ballot.
Tyler Ward, something of a renaissance man in Letcher County, has thrown his lot in.
Ward, a graduate of Centre College and Vermont Law School, has founded multiple companies — one is the former Whitesburg gastropub the Thirsty Heifer — including his own injury law practice with offices in Whitesburg and Lexington. Ward’s father, Jim, was Letcher County Judge-Executive for several years.
He told the Herald-Leader that he woke up Wednesday morning same as any day.
“Not even in the furthest recesses of my brain did I even possibly think that any of this would be occurring in the future, much less near future,” Ward said.
But once he learned of the circumstances, he figured he was aligned with Turner both politically and through the injury attorney trade.
“I think he understood that mountain people deserve as many good things as everybody else — schools, roads and more,”
Also running from Whitesburg is one of the state’s most decorated volunteers and activists.
Valerie Ison Horn was recently one of six Americans to win the National Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation, a leading nonprofit culinary organization, for her work coordinating fresh produce access in the Letcher County area. The work was particularly lauded in the wake of devastating floods that hit the region in 2022, killing dozens and causing massive property damage.
Horn, who has served as director of the children and families-oriented nonprofit Cowan Community Action Group, told the Herald-Leader she sees the sprint-like campaign style as an advantage for someone who can lean on their experience as opposed to who might be the best campaigner.
“I see it as an opportunity for a person such as myself, who’s not been a steady face in politics, to have a voice and have some ability to influence the outcome,” Horn, a Democrat, said. “I think a lot of this campaign will be based on the past work that candidates have done compared to just a long campaign.”
At least one independent is on the ballot as well.
Tanner Hesterberg was a longtime reporter and anchor for WYMT, a broadcast station that serves the district, and WKYT in Central Kentucky before going to law school and eventually starting his own practice based in Pikeville.
Funeral arrangements for Turner, the late senator, are set for next Friday and Saturday, with the visitation beginning Friday afternoon at Harlan County High School, according to a spokesperson for Senate Republicans.
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 6:02 PM.
