KY state rep files bill to ban immigrants from holding any state, local office
Editor’s Note: This story was updated the evening of Jan. 8 to include details on House Bill 259, which seeks to ban immigrants and dual citizens from holding offices included in the Kentucky Constitution.
A Kentucky Republican legislator wants to limit eligibility for almost all elected offices in Kentucky to only natural-born U.S. citizens.
Rep. Shane Baker, R-Somerset, filed a bill Wednesday that would block anyone not born in the U.S. or who has citizenship in another country from holding the offices of mayor, city council, county fiscal court, local school board and soil & water conservation district supervisor.
The next day, Baker filed a bill proposing a constitutional amendment to extend that ban to essentially every other elected office in Kentucky that isn’t federal.
House Bill 186 adds requirements that Kentuckians eligible for the aforementioned local offices are “natural-born citizens” and are “national(s) of only the United States and no other county.”
It also would add a one-year residency requirement for city council and mayoral candidates.
House Bill 259, the proposed constitutional amendment inserting the same prohibition into offices included in the state constitution, covers every other elected office in the state, from governor to coroner.
Baker did not respond to a request for comment on the matter as of early Thursday evening.
Lexington has at least one high-ranking official who would be affected by the change. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Vice Mayor Dan Wu, the top vote-getter in the 2022 at-large council race, was born in China and moved to the U.S. as a child.
Wu called House Bill 186 a “distraction” in a statement to the Herald-Leader.
“I hope that our state representatives will focus on the real work of helping Kentuckians with real issues like housing and food insecurity rather than culture war distractions,” Wu wrote.
On the national scene, some critics from the right have pointed out the immigration status of newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a young Democratic Socialist who is a naturalized citizen. Mamdani was born in Uganda and moved to the U.S. as a child; he became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
House Bill 186 did not touch eligibility requirements for state representatives or senators.
House Bill 259 does just that and then some. It would put a constitutional amendment to the people of Kentucky extending the ban to all levels of state offices, including any elected statewide office like governor or attorney general. It would also apply the ban to all state court judges, including the Kentucky Supreme Court.
The bill covers essentially all local offices in the state constitution, including county judge-executive; sheriff; jailer; county clerk; circuit court clerk; jailer; coroner; property value administrator; commonwealth’s attorney and county attorney.
According to Section 32 of the Kentucky Constitution, state representatives must be 24 years old and have resided in Kentucky two years prior, and senators must be 30 and have resided in Kentucky six years prior.
House Bill 259 would be harder to pass into law than House Bill 186, given that it requires a three-fifths vote of both chambers in the legislature and a majority of Kentucky voters approving during a fall election year.
One member of the state legislature, Louisville Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni, is a naturalized citizen. Kulkarni moved to the U.S. when she was six years old.
Eligibility for U.S. Senate and U.S. House is determined by the U.S. Constitution. The standard proposed by Baker would make requirements for local office more stringent than those, which allow immigrants to hold the offices. Per the Constitution, as long as a Senate candidate has been a citizen for nine years and a House candidate has been a citizen for seven years, they are eligible to hold those offices.
A spokesperson for the Kentucky Association of Counties, a group that advocates for county-level officials, told the Herald-Leader they were “reviewing the language.” A spokesperson for the Kentucky League of Cities has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Baker’s bill is co-sponsored by Rep. DJ Johnson, R-Owensboro, and Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville.
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 10:05 AM.
