Jonathan Shell’s comeback: Ex-House leader back to Frankfort as agriculture commissioner

FRANKFORT — Jonathan Shell, Kentucky's new agriculture commissioner, is far from a newcomer at the state Capitol. You could tell by his first appearance in front of a state committee in the 2024 General Assembly.

During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing last month, Shell took some tough questions from legislators like Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, a Georgetown Republican who grilled the commissioner over his favorite zip line in Kentucky (little-known fact: they're regulated by the Department of Agriculture) and his opinion of "Hotel California" ("that actually is my mother's favorite song," he told legislators).

The informal hearing early in the session was held to introduce Shell, a Republican who defeated Democratic candidate Sierra Enlow in November’s election, to the committee. Jokes are common in such a setting, but after a six-year stint as a state representative, the new agriculture commissioner didn't need much of an introduction.

Sen. Jared Carpenter, a Berea Republican in office since 2011, said he became good friends with Shell when they represented the same area while he was in the legislature from 2013-19.

And Thayer, a senator throughout Shell's time in the House, said the new commissioner accomplished a lot during his run in the General Assembly, but his new position is "the job (he) was made for."

A father of four who's been married to his wife Brooke for 13 years, Shell comes from a farming background and currently raises cattle back home in Garrard County, with a two-acre greenhouse and a pumpkin business where his kids help out.

He's a "farmer by trade," he said in an interview after the hearing, who was influenced to run for the office by another former commissioner who now has a high-profile role in Washington, D.C.

"(Current U.S. Rep.) Jamie Comer was ag commissioner whenever I got into politics, and seeing just what a regular person who wants to go to Frankfort to make a difference can do, that's what I wanted to do," Shell said. "I want to represent my people and represent agriculture and really try to move us in a positive direction."

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His biography on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture website touts his experience and says he “believes agriculture can be summed up in three words: food, faith and family.” It notes he was the youngest member of the General Assembly when he was first elected to the House in 2012 and rose to House floor leader for the GOP in 2016, the same year the party won a majority in the chamber for the first time in nearly a century.

The bio stops, though, before explaining how he left office. Shell was defeated by Republican challenger Travis Brenda in the 2018 primary, a stunning loss for a man U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell once called “one of the most important Republicans in Kentucky already."

Brenda, who would serve one term before losing the 2020 primary to current GOP Rep. Josh Bray, was a teacher at Rockcastle County High School and a first-time candidate motivated by Shell’s support for a controversial bill he helped shepherd through the legislature in the final days of in the 2018 session.

The bill, which would have cut some benefits for teachers in an effort to ease the state's pension burden, was signed by then-Gov. Matt Bevin over widespread protests from educators but was later struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court over the process used to pass it — after an 11-page bill about sewer regulations advanced for weeks through committees, its text was replaced with a 291-page proposal to alter the state's pension system just before reaching the Senate, where it was approved the same night after heated debate.

Shell, who brought the updated bill to a House committee after its text was replaced, had been out of office for five years before the recent election. He said that time was spent farming in Garrard County and preparing to be "able to hit the ground running from Day One."

In ads leading up to Election Day with a "Tough as Shell" tagline, the then-candidate promised to "never back down from the woke liberals attacking our way of life," with an aim to "stop (President Joe) Biden and save Kentucky."

He won the race for agriculture commissioner with just over 59% of the vote.

He’s followed suit since taking office. As Republicans in the state legislature pushed in late January for Gov. Andy Beshear to speak in favor of Texas' efforts to keep migrants from crossing the border, Shell tagged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a social media post that included a photo of razor wire, telling the governor "it's yours if you want it!"

He signed letters in his first month in office with other agriculture commissioners criticizing banks' support of climate action and challenging the "Biden Administration's radical climate plan" through a proposal to allow companies that manage public and private land to be traded on the stock exchange. That proposal was withdrawn — "doesn't mean it's going away, it'll probably come back in some form, but at least we were able to win this first battle with them," he said in last month's interview.

"We're constantly looking federally to see what regulations are coming down," Shell said. "... That's what I mean whenever I say that we've got to push back, because a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., sitting in somewhere in an office in an ivory tower doesn't understand what these people are going through on a daily basis.

"It's a shame that we have to be on the offensive of looking nationally towards regulation to push back, but that's what we're going to do."

It was an unceremonious exit in Frankfort five years ago. But Shell said his time in the General Assembly has already helped him start his new chapter on the right foot.

"I was here. I was in the room. I was in the meetings. I was in the decision-making," he said. "So (I'm) able to work with them to understand what pressure points they need relieved and what we can put pressure points on for them to be able to get the job done on behalf of the people of Kentucky and the ag community."

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Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Jonathan Shell back in Frankfort as Kentucky agriculture commissioner