Top officials in 2 Eastern KY counties say they aren’t running for re-election in 2026
The top elected officials in two Eastern Kentucky counties will leave office when their terms expire late next year after having overseen their local governments’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic, multiple federal disasters and sagging economies.
Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley and Pike County Judge-Executive Ray S. Jones II say they have opted to leave their names off general election ballots next year. Nov. 5 was the first day to file notices of intent to run for office in Kentucky in 2026.
All county judge-executives are up for re-election next year, and candidates have until Friday, Jan. 9, to file for races with primary elections.
Kentucky’s Appalachian counties have been hit hard by a decades-long reduction in global coal demand and the subsequent loss of local tax revenue. Combined with a regional opioid addiction epidemic and increasingly severe weather events that have caused multiple deadly flash floods, local governments have combatted a simmering economic, environmental and socio-political situation in recent years.
Ray S. Jones II
For Jones, a Democrat and former state senator who served as minority floor leader from 2014-19, those stresses have grown to be too much. The 56-year-old lawyer, husband and father of three has maintained a personal-injury law firm while serving in the senate and later as judge-executive for nearly 26 years.
“Public service is a sacrifice,” he said. “It’s an honor, but it’s a sacrifice, and my family has paid a tremendous price for that.”
Jones, who is serving his second term as Pike County’s judge-executive, has led Kentucky’s easternmost county through seven federal disaster declarations, a steadily declining population and what he called a “toxic political environment.”
First elected in 2018, he took office just two years after residents voted to oust the traditional “magistrate” form of county government in favor of fewer county commissioners who represent all voters equally. A 2023 referendum brought an abrupt halt to the experiment, and the county is now in the process of redrawing its legislative maps so six county magistrates will represent their own individual districts.
Jones said he disagrees with the decision and fears it will mark a return of “good-ol’-boy politics” in Pike County.
“When all you’re worried about is this holler or that creek, you’re not worried about whether there’s jobs or there’s adequate public infrastructure or whether the county’s being financially managed properly,” he said.
He said he respects the overwhelming decision of the voters, but he is worried about external threats the county faces as it chooses to isolate itself inwardly, such as looming Medicaid cuts set to take effect in 2028. Regional health care investments have shielded the county from the worst of the collapsing coal industry, but the two major hospitals in Pikeville and South Williamson rely on Medicaid funding to operate, he said.
Despite having implemented no major tax hikes during his seven years in office, Jones said the county’s expenses are on track to outpace its revenues as more and more residents leave Kentucky’s far eastern mountains.
That represents a crisis for the future of Pike County and others like it, he said. He said he does not know what the solution is, “and any politician who tells you they do is lying to you.” But he is eager to step aside and devote more time to his family and law practice.
Dan Mosley
Mosley, who was once Kentucky’s youngest serving judge-executive, entered office a Democrat in early 2015 and made headlines in 2021 when he led nearly all elected Harlan County officials to switch to the Republican Party.
The county has achieved many of the economic diversification goals Mosley set out to tackle when he first announced his candidacy in 2013, he said. While there are no limits on how many terms a Kentucky judge-executive can serve, he does not believe it should be a lifetime post.
“It’s about having a vision for your community and trying to implement that vision,” Mosley said. “When you’ve achieved that, it’s time to move on.”
A former local journalist, E-911 coordinator and Harlan County special projects coordinator, Mosley steered the region through the devastating Blackjewel bankruptcy in 2019, which led a group of miners to block a coal train exiting the county after their paychecks bounced.
Mosley said he has made it his mission to wean the county off of its reliance on coal income while respecting the persistent and historic role it plays in shaping the region. When he took office, the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet was not marketing any business or industrial sites in Harlan County. He helped secure funding for southeastern Kentucky’s only build-ready site in Cumberland — an expandable 50,000-square-foot concrete pad with natural gas connections in the county’s business park.
Broadband internet expansions the county helped implement alongside The Center for Rural Development and Appalachian Regional Commission have swept some of the state’s most rugged and high-altitude terrain into the digital age, Mosley added.
But Harlan County faces funding shortages, too, mainly due to the state jail fund failing to keep up with expenses. The county’s subsidy has tripled since the pandemic to a rate of $750,000 to $1 million a year.
“When you’re having to subsidize the jail fund like that, it takes away from what you’re able to do on providing a lot of other essential services,” he said. “That’s something that is really the core issue facing county governments that has developed into a crisis, really.”
Meanwhile, the county is projected to lose nearly 45% of its population by 2050, according to a University of Kentucky analysis of demographic patterns. Finding a way to maintain infrastructure against such odds will be a major challenge for incoming leadership, Mosley said. He said he has not decided what he will pursue next, but he knew another four-year term was not right for him and his family.
“I couldn’t commit to another four years,” he said. “You see people leave office or resign and go do something else. I’ve seen resignations throughout the course of my tenure. People have to do what they feel is best for them, but I would not want to get elected and leave in the middle of a term.”
