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| L-R: Robin Webb, Rose Ross Elder, Jessica Elliott, Regina Bunch Huff (photos provided) |
In a year with an unusually large number of women running for office, Lynn Pruett of rural Kentucky farming publication
The Farmer's Pride profiles four who say the values they learned from farming inspired them to seek office. Though all four have grown tobacco, there are differences too: "they come from different regions and are more diverse in party and politics than one might imagine in a traditionally 'red' state," Pruett
reports in an article
reprinted in
The Daily Yonder.
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| Calloway County (Wikipedia map) |
Rose Ross Elder is running a non-partisan race for city council in Murray, a town of almost 18,000 in Calloway County. The retired math teacher was raised with her nine siblings on a 200-acre farm near Murray, and her father was a sixth-generation farmer in Calloway County. That background shaped Elder's values. Because she has so many siblings, she had to learn early about compromise and teamwork, and her father taught her that a good harvest only came from personal effort. Elder says the people of Murray and Calloway County are kind but don't trust local government. "Daddy taught us that if we were kind to the horses, we would get kindness back. I expect that works with people, too," Elder told Pruett.
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| Mercer County (Wikipedia map) |
Jessica Elliott, 33, who is running for the Property Valuation Administrator position in Mercer County, would be the youngest PVA in Kentucky if elected. Though she has been a farm and residential appraiser for the past two years, she and her husband Steve also farm cattle and sheep on 600 acres, and up until this year planted tobacco too. Elliott is also the secretary of the local Republican Party. The mother of three knows all about hard work: "When I was 35 weeks pregnant with Gracie (now 3), Josie and I packed 5-gallon buckets to feed my 60 baby Holstein calves, making four or five trips each night. I did that every day right up until my C-section," she told Pruett. Her experience as a farmer led her to become an appraiser and then run for office. "I’ve heard from farmers that they want to be treated fairly on their appraisals and that’s what I like about PVA,” she told Pruett. "An appraiser uses facts and actual sales, not what a realtor says something is worth. An appraiser has no investment with what happens to the property."
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| State Senate District 18 (ky.gov map) |
Democrat Robin Webb is seeking re-election in State Senate District 18, which encompasses Boyd, Carter and Greenup counties. When she was newly elected in 1988, she participated in negotiations for a bill to
establish a fund to help tobacco farmers make more money and stimulate the market for Kentucky agricultural products in general. Webb, an attorney and farmer, said the bill is a model for agricultural diversification. "Tobacco paid my way through college and it was a way to give back," she told Pruett. Her childhood spent helping her father and grandfather farm cattle and pigs taught her to work long hours and pay attention to details, which she says have served her well in her professional life. "Today she sees the major challenges facing agriculture as the demise of local dairies, the increasing erosion of Fourth Amendment property rights by well-funded, well-orchestrated animal rights groups, and inaccurate labeling of food at the national level," Pruett reports.
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| State House District 82 (ky.gov map) |
Regina Bunch Huff is running for re-election as the Republican State Representative for House District 82, comprised of Whitley and part of Laurel counties. Because of her childhood on the family tobacco farm in Whitley County, the former middle school educator "learned the relationship between sweat equity and sales early as well as understanding that in farming, there are factors beyond a farmer’s control in production and price," Pruett reports. Bunch says she understands how expensive and uncertain farming is these days and how that deters young people from entering the profession. And though she supports strong borders, she understands agriculture's dependence on migrant labor and supports laws that recognize that.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2Dg2GWc How farm life motivates four female candidates in Ky. -
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