Each week, LINK nky is publishing a profile of one of our local legislators so that Northern Kentuckians can get to know the people representing them at the state level.
This year is Sen. Damon Thayer’s twelfth as Senate Majority Floor Leader in the Kentucky General Assembly.
It’s a position that gives the longtime senator a voice that few other lawmakers have. And that’s a literal statement. After all, it is Thayer who stands at a desk mic directing the daily flow of business on the Senate floor during each legislative session. He announces when bills and resolutions will be heard (the “orders of the day”) and when the day is done (adjournment).
When he’s not on the floor, he’s working behind the scenes to help set the policy agenda for his caucus.
Thayer (who announced in December that he will not run for reelection in 2024) told LINK nky in October he sometimes finds it challenging to juggle the expectations of the Republican-led Senate majority he helped to build. But it’s a challenge he says he loves.
“It’s something I’ve worked toward for a long time,” Thayer said. “I worked to help make these supermajorities.” A supermajority is where one party holds membership of at least three-fifths of a legislative chamber. In the Senate, Republicans hold 31 of the chamber’s 38 seats. Republicans also hold all but 20 seats in the 100-seat state House.
“I’ve been working on campaigns here since 1995 and remember when we were in the minority in both chambers and had as few as 34 members in the House. Now that we have supermajorities that I don’t believe are going to go away, or even shrink, any time in the near future, the challenge is always living up to our campaign promises,” said Thayer. “It’s not just about winning. I do love winning, but it’s also about governing and passing policies that are aligned with what the majority of our constituents who elect us expect us to deliver.”
What can constituents expect from their elected leaders during the 2024 session? The big issue this session is what will make it into Kentucky’s $113 billion-plus biennial (two-year) state budget and the state’s two-year state road plan, Thayer said. Budget requests have been rolling in from different people and places for months.
It will take most of the session to decide what will stay in the spending plan, and what will go.
“Of course, Kenton County’s own Chris McDaniel leads the way on that for us,” Thayer said, referring to Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) who chairs the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee. “And that’s good news for Northern Kentucky.”
Another issue that may be addressed during the upcoming session is what Thayer calls “dissatisfaction with the KDE” or the Kentucky Department of Education. State lawmakers have raised questions about the agency’s role in recent years. Clashes between former Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass and state lawmakers over the 2023 General Assembly’s ban on gender-affirming treatment for minors and other language in Senate Bill 150 ultimately led to Glass’s resignation.
The legislation, vetoed by Gov. Andy Beshear, became law by veto override and has been subsequently challenged in federal court. The law is now in effect.
What else does Thayer see as potential issues of debate this session? There could be a proposed constitutional amendment on school choice in response to a 2022 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that struck down a 2021 state choice law.
There may also be reform to the state’s certificate of need law, but it’s too soon to tell.
Of course positioning Northern Kentucky for economic growth is a priority, he said. Not just for NKY but the entire state.
“Northern Kentucky is one of the key economic drivers for Kentucky’s overall economic conditions,” said Thayer. “With manufacturing, aviation, logistics, as well as a lot of the professional careers that are in NKY – entertainment, tourism, gaming – all of these are major factors in driving job retention and job creation. We want to make sure that continues.”
Sen. Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) represents District 17 which includes Grant, Scott, and part of Kenton and Fayette counties. He is a member of both the Legislative Research Commission and the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee. When in session, he serves on the Senate Committee on Committees; Licensing and Occupations Committee; Rules Committee; Agriculture Committee; and State and Local Government Committee. Between sessions, Thayer serves on the Interim Joint Committees on Agriculture; Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations Committee; Local Government Committee; and State Government Committee. He is a member of several caucuses, including the Northern Kentucky Caucus.