Two women are running this year for Kentucky’s second-highest office. Jenean Hampton of Bowling Green is the lieutenant governor nominee on a Republican ticket headed by Matt Bevin.
Hampton ran unsuccessfully for State Representative Jody Richard’s seat in 2014.
Hampton touts her private sector experience and says she and Bevin will focus on making Kentucky a right-to-work state and addressing the state’s pension shortfall, which she believes threatens economic development.
"It could have a dampening effect on everything we do," Hampton told WKU Public Radio. "Let's say we do everything else right. We get our tax code revamped and we become a right-to-work state. If a company is looking at our balance sheet and sees that we do not have a viable plan to address our $34 billion shortfall, they still may not come."
Hampton is a former businesswoman and Air Force veteran. If elected, she would become Kentucky’s first African American statewide officeholder.
On the Democratic side, State Representative Sannie Overly is on a ticket headed by Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway. Overly, who is an attorney from Paris, was the first woman in history elected to Democratic leadership in the Kentucky House where she has served since 2008. She says a Conway-Overly administration would focus on expanding the state’s access to high-speed Internet service.
"If we are truly going to be able to recruit and bring businesses to Kentucky, they are not going to want to located in the rural parts of our state if they cannot have access to e-commerce and be able to take and place orders in the digital marketplace," said Overly.
Overly adds another priority of a Conway-Overly administration would be creating jobs and strengthening workforce development.
Hampton and Overly will meet in a statewide debate on KET on October 19.
