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Democrat Adam Moore defeated Republican Thomas Jefferson last Tuesday in the 45th House District race. In Jessamine County, Jefferson won the majority of votes with 2,376 or 69 percent, and Moore received 31 percent or 1,077 votes. Statewide, the race was won by a tight margin. Moore received 12,777 votes and Jefferson 12,646 votes.

Moore had no primary election opponents. Formerly a Republican who interned for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Moore is a combat Army veteran. On his campaign website, Moore highlighted a few key issues he believes in, such as expanding voting rights for those convicted for nonviolent crimes who have served their time, ensuring children can receive a“world-class education” through public education, retiring coal plants and being at the forefront of the “clean energy revolution”, and allowing healthcare and medical decisions to be made by Kentuckians and their healthcare professionals without “excessive interference from politicians,” which is the case in Kentucky’s abortion ban for situations that are not medical emergencies. 

“Of course, it feels good to win anything. We’re humans, and winning feels good. But now, I’m already shifting focus to making phone calls to the organizations, interest groups and people in the community and finding out how I can best serve,” Moore told the Journal. “I’m just excited now to put in that work that the people have elected me to do,”

Republicans still have the majority of seats in the state legislature, although Moore did flip the formerly Republican 45th District seat. Moore said he’s already started doing the work– including a phone call with the chairman of the Veterans Military and Public Protections Committee recently, with a meeting with the chairman and the committee members coming up next week. “There are not many people who are combat veterans with the legislature right now,” Moore said.“I’m really gonna focus right now in my first term on what can I do to support Kentucky’s veterans and their families because I want to make sure they’re getting the services that they’ve earned, and I also know how things are expensive for all of us whether you are Republican or Democrat, urban or rural, and then of course that affects our veteran community as well.” Though he is just one person in a group of 100, Moore said he will be focused on the state’s “pocket book and veterans communities.”

“I want people to know that I intend to be in the community as much as possible…I don’t intend to go there for my own purposes. I intend to go there and be the best darn representative I can be. I want your readers to know that I have an open door, I’ll publish my phone number, I want to earn their trust and support, and when I get reelected it’s not gonna be because of the things I say, it’s gonna be because of the actions I’m taking to help everyone,” Moore said. 

Moore’s campaign website is Kentuckydeservesmoore.com, and his email is Adam@kentuckydeservesmoore.com

Though the issue of foreign policy is mainly in the hands of our federal legislators, the Israeli consulate showed a video of“raw footage” from the October 7 Hamas-Israel conflict to the Kentucky legislature in January this year. After the viewing, a resolution was signed by the Kentucky House of Representatives titled House Resolution 45. This resolution expresses support for the state of Israel, and the Israeli people and condemning the violent events on Oct. 7, 2023. According to the resolution, https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/24RS/hr45/orig_bill.pdf, the“Commonwealth of Kentucky” has long been a “valued trading partner” with the state of Israel. 

“I don’t think any of us can keep our eyes closed or our ears shut to things happening around the world,” Moore said. “I 100 percent stand against the actions of Hamas, and so, of course, Israel has every right to defend itself and its people. And as long as they’re doing so following the rules of war and escalation then they should be doing that. But I think that any country, the United States included, as someone who has been in Afghanistan we…have every right to use military force when we need to, but it’s got to be appropriate force, and we should also hold our combatants and our allies to the same standard.”

Jefferson, who is retired from a career in the car business, defeated incumbent Killian Timoney in the May primary election, making this the only State Representative race out of four seats to be against two non-incumbents. Neither Moore or Timoney have served in public office.

Rep. Killian Timoney (R-Nicholasville) has been a Kentucky House of Representatives member since January 2021. His voting records have been a mixed bag. He voted no on 2023 Senate Bill 150, which banned gender-affirming care in schools and required parental notification for the use by a student of any in-school medical and mental health services when related to human sexuality, contraception, and family planning, among other things. Timoney also voted no on 2022 SB 83, which prevents trans women and girls from competing on their schools’ female sports teams, and on 2024 SB 7, which prohibits automatic payroll deductions used to pay union dues. 

Some of Timoney’s yes votes include 2024 House Bill 18, which prohibits local governments from prohibiting source-of-income discrimination in housing, 2023 HB 7, which tightens requirements for accessing public health and food assistance programs, and 2023 HB 5, which will gradually phase out local property taxes on production of “distilled spirits stored or aging in barrels” beginning in 2026 and eliminating them by 2043. Property taxes pay for the running of public schools, and this bill gave the $9 billion bourbon industry a tax break. 

Timoney’s no votes on SB 150 and SB 83 caused a campaign backlash when the Jessamine County Republican Party then opted to endorse Jefferson over Timoney, citing the two bills. In an October article this year, the Kentucky Lantern reported on interviews with Moore and Jefferson. “I would never ever think of running against a fellow Republican unless I felt like they weren’t doing the job that I expected,” Jefferson said. “And unfortunately, Killian voted way differently than I would, and I believe differently than most of the 45th District would vote as well,” Jefferson told the Kentucky Lantern. 

On his campaign website, Jefferson’s bullet points of values include to “defend the unborn,” “always fight” for Americans’ right to self defense through the second amendment, and “institute pro-small business legislation that gets government out of the way.” The Liberty Caucus-aligned candidate also told the Kentucky Lantern that if elected, he would “forward the opportunity for school choice.”