She didn’t know it at the time, but when she was a girl, Chelsea Kirk was an understudy to her grandfather, the mayor of Hebron Estates, a little community south of Louisville.
“I got to see the way he did local politics,” she said. Her grandfather met regularly with his neighbors, listened intently, took people’s concerns seriously, and was focused on their quality of life and day-to-day challenges.
It made an impression on her.
“It really taught me that holding an elected position is an act of service,” she said.
Kirk has never held elective office, but she is involved in public service as cofounder and leader of Kentuckians for Good, a nonpartisan group that works to improve people’s lives by engaging with communities to inform changes to state and local policy.
This year, she is making her first run for office, as a Democratic candidate for state representative for the 73rd House seat currently held by Republican Ryan Dotson.
Her primary opponent is Rory Houlihan of Winchester, who ran four times before.
Kirk said she has been thinking for a long time about getting involved in politics, and state representative seemed to her a good place to start because the district is small enough to get out and meet people and listen to them, but it also offers an opportunity to “make a difference for a good number of people,” not only in the district, but in the state.
Kirk said her campaign is focused on three core areas of interest: protecting middle and working class families, protecting rural hospitals and access to health care, and supporting public education.
Serving working families would be “things like protecting workers’ ability to collectively bargain, supporting raising the minimum wage … and supporting families with children” by backing universal pre-kindergarten and free breakfast and lunch for all public school students.
“Rural hospitals are indispensable,” she said when asked about her second focus. They not only provide better access to medical care, but they create jobs and stimulate local economies, she noted.
Kirk said she opposes cuts to Medicaid funding, which is vital to rural hospitals, and supports a proposal by Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D‑Louisville, to protect Medicaid for Kentuckians earning under $21,000 per year.
As for education, Kirk said, she would “support legislation that fully funds our public schools and improves funding and pay for our working teachers.”
Like the majority of Kentucky voters, who rejected a charter schools amendment on the 2024 ballot, she is against using public money to fund private education.
“Families should use the schools that make the most sense to them,” she said, but the state shouldn’t “siphon money” away from schools that are available to all children.
As for local projects she would like to support, Kirk said she doesn’t have any yet, but she wants to get out and talk with people in Clark and Fayette counties and see which ones are most important to them.
When asked about whether she supports the Republican effort to reduce the state income tax annually until it’s eliminated, she said she would also have to get input from constituents before she could decide.
“I don’t have a problem with continuing to lower the income tax as long as we’re still taking care of … the services that the state provides,” and that they operate at a high level of quality, she said.
She and her husband, Anthony Schmidt, and their two children, ages 3 and 5, live in the part of southeastern Fayette County that became part of the 73rd District in 2022 when part of Madison County was removed. The district includes all of Clark.
Kirk, 36, and her family moved to Lexington in 2017. The daughter of a Marine Corps veteran and a nurse practitioner, she graduated from Bullitt County High School, earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and sociology from the University of Kentucky, where she met her husband, and completed a master’s degree in psychology at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
She works for her husband’s software company, GreekTrack.com, which helps fraternities and sororities manage membership, finances, and events.
Asked how she would describe herself as a Democrat, Kirk said that policies are more important than labels.
“I am speaking to Democrats when I say don’t ever vote for a candidate solely based on their party membership. My husband and I have always been this way,” she said, explaining that they consider the qualifications, values, and positions of every candidate on the ballot rather than voting straight ticket.
If someone wants to know what kind of Democrat she is, she said, they should do the same. Her website is www.chelseakirk.com, and she’s on social media: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.
Asked what Kentucky most needs to move forward, Kirk answered, “It comes down to protecting and empowering our workers.”
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“I really believe that the greatest resource we have in Kentucky is our people,” she said. “If we give Kentuckians the tools they need to start businesses, to go out and earn a fair wage, and to take care of their families, that is how the state flourishes.”
And the biggest challenge?
Partisan division.
“When we have severe divisiveness, what comes out of that is it grinds conversation, and it grinds collaboration to a halt,” she said. “When we don’t have to work together,” and one party doesn’t even have to consult members of the other party, it means some Kentuckians’ voices aren’t heard, and their perspectives aren’t represented, she said.
