Will non-partisan elections catch the electorate off-guard?

Republicans won big in 2024 for Metro Council

Are you aware that the top two vote-getters in the May primary will run against each other in November? It will not matter which party they represent.

In 2024 the KY Legislature signed into law HB388, ‘AN ACT relating to local government and declaring an emergency.’ As part of this extensive bill sponsored by seven Jefferson Co. Republicans, metro council and mayoral elections— in a consolidated local government— must be nonpartisan.

Interestingly, later in 2024, Jefferson Co. Republicans made history when three Democrat seats on the Metro Council were flipped red. The Democrat majority slipped to 14-12. Who would have thought the citizens would wake up and choose a new direction? The partisan labels helped!

On top of nonpartisan labels, in Kentucky and in Jefferson County, turnout for Primaries is typically low, from the low teens to as much as 30% in some years. If Republicans sit this one out, they may find their choice for mayor in the general election will be limited to Democrats.

Of eleven candidates who will be on the ballot for Mayor:

• One, Bill Wells, is unknown at this writing—no information in sight
• Two, Douglas Lattimore and Jody Hurt, are independents who got .1% of the vote— Hurt for a JCPS Board of Education election in 2024 and Lattimore when he ran for mayor in 2018.
• Three are Democrats— incumbent Greenburg, Metro Council member- D3, Shameka Parrish-Wright, and Matthew Bailey, a 21-year-old with political aspirations
• Five are Republicans:
  • Tina Burnell, founder of Louisville Metro Watchdog Alliance
  • Bob DeVore, frequent candidate for political offices
  • Lisa M. Harris - Portland resident, conservative activist
  • Jeffrey Yocum - ‘Christian, Vet, Patriot, Husband, Father’ from his X.com page
  • Steve “The D” Dattilo - 2022 candidate for Metro Council D2, got 21.6% of the vote (no website yet)

Unfortunate facts

Shameka is backed by Emerge Kentucky, a left-leaning group that provides candidate training and has a strong record for success. Some of its alumnae are Jefferson County Democrats:

• Sen. Cassie Armstrong (D-19),
• Rep. Pamela Stevenson (D-43) and
• Sen. Karen Berg (D-26).

Berg got 57% of the vote in a 2020 special election, running against Republican Bill Ferko in a northeast area of Jefferson Co., that had been held by Republican Ernie Harris for 25 years. Harris retired early, and Ferko had only a few months to campaign. Here, the partisan label did not help, but of course, neither did the unanticipated special election. It did not seem to come as a surprise to the Democrats.

The Courier-Journal (C-J) provided special coverage for Shameka in a recent article:

In 2022 Parrish-Wright secured 21.6% of the votes for mayor in the Democratic primary, which was nearly 20 points shy of Greenberg in that race. She also beat out Jefferson Circuit Court Clerk David Nicholson as well as fellow racial justice protest leader Tim Findley. Then following that loss, she ran for an open District 3 Metro Council seat and won 89.5% of the vote in 2023.

In 2020, the C-J reported that Shameka is ‘a vocal, longstanding critic of Louisville Metro Police, and she was arrested alongside then-state Rep. Attica Scott during a September 2020 protest. Parrish-Wright was charged with felony-level rioting as well as two misdemeanors, and those charges were eventually dropped.’ She was head of Louisville's Bail Project.

Fastzone on Substack has covered Shameka’s efforts to bring in federal control of the LMPD. In the below picture taken in January 2026, it looks like Shameka was in the ICE protest. Do you see her?

Democratic Socialists at the January 2026 ICE protest in downtown Louisville

The Primary is less than four months out. The Jefferson Co. Republican Party does not fund candidates until they win a primary.

Conservatives must get out the vote! And ask: What can I do to help?