These GOP candidates for KY state treasurer all say they oppose ‘woke’ investments

Kentucky’s state treasurer only has a few formal bookkeeping duties, including depositing the state’s revenues, monitoring the state’s bank accounts, withholding the proper sum of taxes for state employees and managing the state’s unclaimed property fund.

It’s such a perfunctory role, in fact, that lawmakers long have debated whether to abolish the office and reassign its tasks among other state agencies. But because the job is written into the Kentucky Constitution, voters would have to approve an amendment to eliminate it. That can be a tall order.

The Republican incumbent, Allison Joy Ball, is finishing her second and final term and running for another Frankfort job, state auditor. Three Republicans will compete in the May 16 primary to replace her. The winner faces Democrat Michael Bowman of Louisville this fall.

The three Republican candidates all are campaigning on traditional conservative issues, such as support for gun ownership and opposition to abortion and illegal immigration, although as keeper of the state’s checkbook, they would not make policy. That’s what the General Assembly does.

The Republican treasurer candidates also criticize “woke” investments. They say they oppose state funds going to institutions that promote environmental or social-justice causes, a practice — controversial among conservatives — known as “ESG,” or environmental, social and governance and investing.

Some of the nation’s largest asset managers, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, have said they are reducing their investments in new coal projects. This has prompted some Kentucky Republicans, such as Ball, to call for a boycott of those corporations, particularly in regard to the state’s pension funds.

The GOP candidates are:

Andrew Cooperrider

Andrew Cooperrider, 30, is a Lexington business owner who gained attention for opposing the state’s public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and, following on that, unsuccessfully seeking the impeachment of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Cooperrider lost the GOP primary for a state Senate seat last year.

Cooperrider says the state wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on economic development incentives to attract projects like Ford’s BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Hardin County and on state contracts for items like “equity coaching” for state employees and a “health equity” dashboard that tracks racial disparities in healthcare.

The state treasurer doesn’t have the authority to stop such spending, Cooperrider acknowledged, but he can call public attention to it, which lets the voters hold their elected officials accountable. At present, he said, there is no public resource for Kentuckians to consult to see exactly how their tax money is spent.

“It can be the catalyst for real, long-lasting change if you have somebody in there that’s willing to find, to search out these expenditures where government is doing what it shouldn’t be doing,” Cooperrider said. “First, we’ve gotta know what’s going on.”

Mark Metcalf

Mark Metcalf, 64, of Lancaster, is the six-term Garrard County attorney. Metcalf holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army reserve after serving as a judge-advocate in Iraq and at other assignments.

Metcalf said he wants state government to be smaller overall; focused on law enforcement and reducing its debts, such as the unfunded pension liabilities; and invested only in “Kentucky first” values, which rules out institutions that in any way hinder gun sales or the coal industry.

“I’m interested in preventing what I consider to be the woke interests in directing the application of funds toward woke objectives, and in particular, the movements that tell us we cannot mine coal or drill natural gas,” he said. “The same interests want to see tax revenues directed toward green technologies and toward the LGBTQ movements, which I think are contrary to the best interests of the state.”

Like Cooperrider, Metcalf said he recognizes the treasurer can’t block legitimate payments of state funds with which he personally disagrees. But the treasurer can agree to pay only the expenses that are authorized by the legislature and consistent with his constitutional and legal authority, he said.

“Now, if there is a question as to the validity of the payment, he can refuse to pay it and say there was not a proper line in the legislature’s appropriations to pay a certain entity,” Metcalf said.

O.C. “OJ” Oleka

O.C. “OJ” Oleka, 35, of Frankfort, is a former deputy state treasurer under Ball who later served as president of the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities.

Ball has endorsed Oleka to succeed her. That, combined with his superior campaign fund-raising compared to the other two candidates, makes Oleka the presumptive front-runner.

However, Cooperrider has launched a series of attacks on Oleka that cast him as a phony conservative with a history of championing civil rights, especially after the Breonna Taylor killing in Louisville in 2020. The first hit when Oleka’s name is Googled is not his campaign website but a page Cooperrider created headlined “Lying Oleka.”

“People like OJ declaring everyone and everything ‘racist’ is the root cause of division,” Cooperrider’s attack website says. “OJ’s trying his best to become Kentucky’s Black Lives Matter.”

The son of Nigerian immigrants, Oleka did, in fact, co-found AntiRacism Kentucky, with a mission of eliminating institutional racism in local and state government policy. He also accepted an appointment to the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, an offshoot of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

There is nothing contradictory about being a Republican who advocates for civil rights, Oleka said in an interview.

“I mean, since we were founded, the Republican Party has been the party of equal opportunity under the law. The Republican Party has been the party of liberty, it has been the party of freedom, and my position on all those views is the same as the Republican Party’s has always been,” he said.

“Racism is bad. Diversity is good. We want people to join our party from all ages, from all incomes, all geographical backgrounds and any race. That’s what I’ve been promoting, that what I’ll continue to promote, and the Republican Party is with me,” he said.

But Oleka said his conservative beliefs are genuine. He wants to be treasurer because the office, when it’s run well, can be a prudent steward of public funds, while also expanding on Ball’s efforts, like financial literacy programs for youths and state budget transparency.

Although all three candidates in the primary tout similar views on wasteful spending and ESG, Oleka added, he is the only one with experience in the treasurer’s office.

“Experience matters in this race,” he said. “A treasurer who has got the respect of the legislature — who can work with them on some of these topics and issues to do that job effectively — I’m the only candidate in this race who has those relationships.”