A new House district can bring new viewpoints to Frankfort

Lamin Swann and Kyle Whalen are running in the new 93 state House district as two excellent representatives of their respective political parties. The race presents a clear choice for voters.

Swann is a political progressive, a long-time civil rights activist who has campaigned for the Democratic Party. He wants to pay teachers more, create a $15 statewide minimum wage, legalize marijuana and sports gambling to create more tax base, write a state fairness ordinance and work for women’s reproductive rights.

Whalen, who along with his employees owns a successful construction company, calls himself a conservative Republican who wants to improve Kentucky’s workforce participation rates, partly through improving vocational education training as early as middle school. He values public schools and supports school choice. He calls himself prolife, but is quick to say that he wants to see much more discussion about exceptions in Kentucky’s current abortion laws.

The Herald-Leader endorses Swann in this race because we believe the current GOP supermajority of the General Assembly is going down the wrong path by prioritizing tax cuts over people, undercutting public education and cutting off reproductive rights to one-half of the population. We need legislators who will look out for underdogs, work toward a living wage and value our public school teachers with good salaries. We like that Whalen would bring some diversity in viewpoints from many Republicans in Frankfort with his willingness to discuss abortion exceptions and his thorough disdain for election denial. But we believe that Swann will provide the representation that Lexington and the entire state need right now.

This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 9:14 AM.