Heath brings ag commissioner campaign to county

May 16—On the eve of the Republican primary, Richard Heath made his pitch in Owensboro to become Kentucky's next commissioner of agriculture.

Heath said his ties to agriculture and to Kentucky go back generations.

Born and raised on a farm in Graves County and a graduate of the former Cuba High School, the 67-year-old Mayfield resident — who has served as a state House representative for District 2 which includes Graves County and a portion of McCracken County since 2013 — has been familiar with agriculture his entire life.

"My brother has (looked up) our history, and he can trace it back to the Civil War," he said.

He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture from Murray State University, all the while putting himself through college working on his family's 100-acre farm raising corn, pigs, soybeans, tobacco and wheat.

Additionally, Heath has experience working on the business side of agriculture managing the Southern States co-op store in Mayfield for nearly two decades.

"Agriculture is in my blood and in my background," he said. "It's all I've ever known."

He currently owns Heath Building Material, Inc. in Mayfield — a construction company that focuses on post frame buildings.

Heath's thought of getting into politics came about in 2010 when Rand Paul ran for U.S. Senate.

"I got involved in his race on a small scale in Graves County," Heath said, "and after he got elected, I told my wife: 'I need to find a place to get involved.' "

When Fred Nesler, former Democratic representative of the House for District 2, announced his retirement in December 2011, Heath saw it as a sign.

"It was like two or three days before Christmas (and) I couldn't sleep the next two or three nights (because I) was thinking about that," he said. "I let Christmas go by and I told my wife what was on my mind, and then we shared it with family members over the holidays and threw my hat in the ring and decided to go for it."

Heath won the House seat against Democratic candidate Kelly Whitaker in 2012 with 54.8% of the vote.

"Graves County has always been a Democratic stronghold. I'm the first Republican to ever hold that seat," he said. "I was the underdog."

Since 2017, Heath has also been the chair of the House Agriculture Committee.

Heath initially ran for agriculture commissioner in 2015 against current Commissioner Ryan Quarles in the Republican primary election.

Despite coming up short, it was a motivating factor for Heath to try again and go up against fellow Republican candidate and former state Rep. Jonathan Shell in the 2023 primary election.

"I'd only been in the legislature for two years, so I was basically an unknown. I didn't have any statewide recognition," Heath said. "But we had a really close primary — I got 91,200 votes (and) he got 92,600 votes in round numbers. So, I missed it by three-quarters of 1%."

Quarles, who will reach his two-term limit at the end of this year, is currently campaigning for governor.

Regarding his plans if elected this time around, Heath plans to use the seven years of working with Quarles and bringing legislation to Frankfort to continue improving the agricultural sector.

"The things we felt like needed to be done, we did together," he said. "Kentucky Proud has continued to grow and I want to work with individuals who have been working with Quarles and (state Rep. James) Comer before him with Kentucky Proud, pick their brain and find out what we have to do to get it to the next level."

Some of those programs include the Kentucky Hunger Initiative — which was started by Quarles to bring together farmers, charitable organizations, faith groups, community leaders and government entities in an effort to reduce hunger in the state — along with looking to expand farmers markets.

"It's a good way for farm and city to come together," Heath said. "Farmers have a direct market to their customers and the customers get to see where their food comes from and who grew it."

Heath plans to speak to those with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) and get to know "what's working, what's not, what needs tweaking, what needs to be left alone, what needs to be done away with."

"I don't want to go in with too many preconceived ideas on what I think should be done until I get a chance to get in there, talk to the people that are there and formulate a plan," he said.