This November’s attorney general race pits state Rep. Pamela Stevenson (D-Louisville) against former U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman (R).
Current Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced his candidacy for governor earlier this year, leaving the office up for grabs. Attorney generals can only serve two consecutive terms of four years.
Both Stevenson and Coleman are newcomers to constitutional office elections. This race is each candidate’s first time vying for a statewide executive office.
Pamela Stevenson (D)
Before entering politics, Stevenson served as a U.S. Air Force judge advocate general for 27 years. She obtained both her bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from Indiana University, Bloomington.
She founded the Stevenson Law Center in 2015 – a firm that focused on legal representation pro bono for senior citizens and veterans. Additionally, she also taught at the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law as an adjunct professor.
Stevenson first decided to run for elected office in 2020, replacing Rep. Charles Booker, who campaigned for U.S. Senate. She handily won her primary election by approximately seven percentage points, then ran unopposed in the general election.
Stevenson first launched her campaign for attorney general last November. She is the first African-American woman to be nominated for the office. In her own words, Stevenson described herself as an attorney general that would fight for all Kentuckians.
“Kentuckians deserve an attorney general that fights for them, stands for them and does all the things that will make them thrive. If this is truly to be a cover of government for the people, by the people, to serve the people, then the office of attorney general must be the people’s attorney,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson outlined the core issues of her campaign as securing abortion rights, addressing the opioid crisis, increasing access to drug treatment and mental health services, and cracking down on drug dealers, gun runners and human traffickers.
In a phone interview with LINK nky, she described Russell Coleman’s political outlook as similar to that of Sen. Mitch McConnell.
“They’re cut from the same cloth,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson criticized Coleman’s stance on abortion, saying that the Republican was against abortion in all circumstances, including rape or incest.
“The government has no business being in a doctor’s room with a patient as they decide how they’re going to take care of their body,” Stevenson said. “Some of the issues, because they are leveraging these cultural wars, that do not feed children, that do not bring any economic prosperity.”
In July, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Stevenson is not licensed to practice law in Kentucky but is in Indiana. This has opened her candidacy up to attacks from her opponent and Republicans around the state.
Stevenson’s campaign told LINK nky that she is currently on track to be licensed in Kentucky, and pointed to the fact that she already passed the Kentucky Bar Association ethics test with a score of 98 out of 150. The threshold to pass is an 80.
Russell Coleman (R)
Coleman has a legal career that spans across the public and private sectors. After earning his bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from the University of Kentucky, Coleman joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he investigated national security, white collar and violent crimes.
In 2008, Coleman discovered he had a rare medical disorder that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He promptly resigned from the FBI to focus on his health.
After undergoing rehabilitation, he worked as legal counsel for McConnell in Washington, D.C. He then returned to the private sector, working at Louisville firm Frost Brown Todd from 2015 to 2017.
Later in 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Coleman to be U.S. attorney for Kentucky’s Western District – a region that includes Louisville, Bowling Green, Paducah and Owensboro. While in the role, he focused on tackling violent crime and the opioid epidemic.
As a candidate, Coleman’s website characterizes him as an experienced “pro-life, pro-family conservative Republican.”
In an email interview with LINK nky, Coleman said “catching violent criminals and drug pushers” would be among his top priorities.
“My position is simple: I generally believe that violent criminals belong in jail, and I’ve spent much of my career putting them there,” Coleman said. “When I served as U.S. attorney for the Western District, I brought every local, state and federal law enforcement agency together to take criminals off the streets and put them behind bars where they belong. That’s exactly what I’ll do again as attorney feneral.”
Coleman has criticized Stevenson for her lack of experience practicing law in Kentucky.
“My opponent has never practiced law in the commonwealth of Kentucky and has no meaningful relationships with law enforcement,” he said. “Kentucky families would suffer the consequences by putting an inexperienced radical liberal in this office.”
Coleman also is critical of President Joe Biden. During his Fancy Farm speech, Coleman said the modern Democratic Party has abandoned conservative values.
