Kentucky Senate Republicans pick leaders, including two new faces in leadership ranks
Senator Robert Stivers was chosen by his Republican peers Friday to serve another term as president of the Kentucky Senate, the highest-ranking member of the body.
In a closed-door Senate Majority Caucus vote, Republicans nominated Stivers without opposition, making him the longest-serving Senate president in Kentucky history, caucus spokesperson Dustin Isaacs said in a statement.
Stivers, of Manchester, was initially named president of the Senate in 2013, after three years as Senate Majority Leader. He was sworn in to the Senate in 1997.
Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson of Bowling Green was reelected to his post, as was President Pro Tempore David Givens of Greensburg. Wilson was first elected to leadership in 2018, and Givens was named Pro Tem in 2019.
Sen. Robby Mills of Henderson will replace Sen. Julie Raque Adams of Louisville as the body’s Majority Caucus Chair. Mills was first elected to the House in 2016 and won a seat in the Senate in 2018.
Sen. Max Wise of Campbellsville will replace outgoing Sen. Damon Thayer of Georgetown as Senate Majority Floor Leader. Wise was first elected in 2015.
Mills was the lead sponsor of a 2022 bill that bars transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports at middle- and high-school levels, as well as in college, which is still in place today. He made this a tenet of his 2023 bid for lieutenant governor alongside Daniel Cameron, who unsuccessfully ran to unseat Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
Mills was also the lead sponsor bill passed into law earlier this year that makes it harder to retire coal-fired power plants. The law, which creates an 18-member Energy Planning and Inventory Commission that’s tasked with reviewing requests to close fossil fuel-fired power plants, was designed to ensure Kentucky’s coal plants “aren’t retired too quickly,” Mills said at the time. Opponents labeled the policy inefficient and slowing the state’s transition to producing cleaner energy.
Wise was the lead sponsor of a divisive 2023 bill to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
Earlier this year, in an effort to address K-12 classroom safety amid a dearth of school resource officers, Wise sponsored a bill Beshear signed into law to allow schools to contract non-law enforcement armed “guardians” to provide security. The law also aims to address mental health via dispensing trauma-informed care, data collection and suicide prevention programming.
Thayer announced last year he wasn’t seeking reelection. A senator since 2003, the end of Thayer’s term marks 22 years in the Senate and 12 as Majority Floor Leader. Thayer is longest-serving Republican Senate Majority Floor Leader in Kentucky history.
Thayer told the Herald-Leader in December that he was encouraging current Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams of Louisville to replace him as floor leader, saying at the time, “I think she would be excellent and is well-prepared for the job.”
Though formal election to leadership positions won’t happen until January when the legislature returns to session and the full Senate — Republicans and Democrats — votes on who will lead the body, that step is largely a formality since Republicans maintain the majority.
Earlier this week, the House Majority Caucus voted to keep its same slate of leaders. House Speaker David Osborne will lead the chamber for a fourth term, making him the longest-serving Republican in that role in Kentucky’s 232-year history.
This story was originally published November 15, 2024 at 3:41 PM.
