NKY's House District 67: Incumbent Rachel Roberts runs against Republican Jerry Gearding
The Enquirer interviewed state House candidates in contested elections to find out why they're running and what issues are top of mind for them. This is one in a series.
District 67 is a rare purple district in a sea of Northern Kentucky red. It's 48.9% Democratic and 48.6% Republican, according to analysis of past voting patterns by Dave's Redistricting. The district includes Northern Campbell County cities Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, and Cold Spring.
Incumbent Rachel Roberts is being challenged by Republican Jerry Gearding.
The deadline to apply online for an absentee ballot is Oct. 25, no later than 11:59 p.m. The general election is Nov. 8.
Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity or length.
Rachel Roberts, 49, of Newport
Occupation: Owner of The Yoga Bar
Education: Fort Lewis College in Colorado
Tell me about yourself:
"I live in Newport and my small business is in Newport as well. My husband and I have a small marketing strategy firm together, as well. But I spend a lot of my time as the state representative for this district."
Why are you running?
"I think like a lot of women I was really motivated by the 2016 election. ... My family and I are blessed to have the means where we are not reliant on my income. I had the time, the talent and the tenacity to run for the seat. And if those of us who have the capacity to do more for our communities don't step up, then we don't have a right to complain about where things are. We have this, I think, duty truly to give as much as we can."
What are a few important issues to you?
"Affordable housing is a massive issue in this area and I've spent a lot of my summer working with stakeholders trying to start tackling this problem at the state level. So, making sure families can stay here and thrive here because they can afford to live here, because there are ample jobs here, and because the school system will support them. ... I also am a champion for all things mental health and expanded access to mental health care. And specifically, I am a woman and I care deeply about women's rights and women's place in our society."
What are your thoughts on the two proposed state constitutional amendments?
Proposed constitutional Amendment 1, allows legislators to call themselves into special session
"There may be an argument for the General Assembly to become more nimble and to be able to be in session more often. But that's a conversation about making it a full-time legislature. These jobs are very hard to hold. It's supposed to be a part-time job. But even in the summer, I'm down in Frankfort six to eight days a month. That makes it really hard for normal working people to hold these jobs. So, if the first amendment were to pass, it would make it even harder because we wouldn't necessarily know what the window was for our service. As far as the session goes, it could be stretched out throughout the year. We could call ourselves back in for a special session, [so] we're effectively voting ourselves a pay raise as a general assembly, which is almost never a popular thing for the constituency."
"I think it is an extremist amendment. I think that we have seen that the tone and the tenor of the country is saying that we will not go for these extremist bans that ban access to reproductive rights for women in every case. I put forward an amendment this year to at least put forward provisions for victims of rape and incest and that was shut down. I cannot support anything that puts a full ban in place with no consideration for rape, incest, or the life of the mother."
Would you support Joe Biden if he ran for president again?
"I have to see who the candidates are at that time. Joe Biden's president right now and, generally, they do run for a second term when they're in office. I really, truly believe that we vote for the person. So, I think it's too early to answer that question."
Anything else?
"One of my favorite parts about this job is educating people on what state government is. We spend so much time hearing about federal level politics and at the state level, people try to nationalize things so much. ... But what really affects people's day-to-day lives the most are state and local level politics. So that is my favorite part is to explain to people your state representative handles the budget for the state and for your area. That person can be really effective at bringing back infrastructure dollars for you and moving forward projects in the district and enticing economic development in your district. ... So, if I had a wish in the world, it would be that people understood better and were even more involved in their state and local level races."
Jerry Gearding, 57, of Wilder
Occupation: Information technology and data manager
Education: Northern Kentucky University and Thomas More University
Tell me about yourself:
"I was born and raised in Campbell County. I went to St. Joseph's School. I graduated from Campbell County High School in 1984. ... I have been in the information technology and data management field for 30-something years. I've done all kinds of stuff from running help desks to building data centers. "
Why are you running?
"I have been following the legislature for a long time and I've been a social media activist. And I had tried to steer those guys [Republican legislators] ... in the right direction on certain bills, like the masking in schools, the vaccine mandates, the gas tax ... I think they found out what happens when you don't work for the people and you work for the lobbyists, which is a huge problem in Frankfort. It's actually one of the reasons that I'm running."
"If I get to Frankfort, I will work for them. I'm not going to toe the party line and do what leadership tells me what to do or what, quite frankly, the lobbyists tell me to do. "
What are a few issues important to you?
"I think, after the events in the last two years, I think freedom is a huge issue for me and our individual rights. I think we had a lot of them that were sort of put to the side ... with the excuse that we are in a quote-unquote, emergency. I don't believe that the government has the right to shut down businesses. I don't believe that the government has a right to make people wear masks or not gather and then in our case, and in Kentucky, our governor tried to block people from going to church."
"I believe in medical freedom as well. I think people should be able to decide what they have injected into their own bodies, to be able to participate in society or support their families. I'm someone who I'm in favor of medical marijuana, because I think it's a bigger issue. I think it's a medical freedom issue."
"The other one, you know, education freedom. ... I believe that a parent should be able to choose what school is best for their child, and have the taxpayer money go with that."
What are your thoughts on the two proposed state constitutional amendments?
Proposed constitutional Amendment 1, allows legislators to call themselves into special session
"The first amendment is highly important. Again, I think our governor took advantage of the emergency powers he was given until the legislature, sort of, pulled those back. But he still has a lot of powers that, quite frankly, don't jive with the way the Kentucky constitution is written. We have three branches of government. … So I agree that we need to be able to call people or we need to be able to call ourselves back in session. It completely makes sense.
"I'm encouraging everyone to vote yes on issue two. Let's put an end to abortion in Kentucky and focus our energies on educating young women and young men on the consequences of what could happen if you do certain things and helping people that do get pregnant – find ways to either help them keep their children or get them to the right agency that can help them get adopted and help them through that entire process. I'm a Christian, and I grew up and was brought up Catholic. I believe life begins at conception."
Do you think the 2020 presidential election was stolen?
"I certainly do ... When you you see somebody and they can't get 50 people at a rally and Trump comes into the same state and gets 50,000 people ... I mean, to me, there's no doubt the election was stolen. Election integrity is a big issue for me."
Not only does Gearding think Trump won the election, but he says elections in Kentucky have been inaccurate for years, not just during the presidential election.
For instance, he says Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams' resistance to recent recounts make Gearding suspicious of election integrity. Adams called this year's recount demands "frivolous" and pushed by "conspiracy theorists."
President Joe Biden usually draws a crowd when in Cincinnati and Kentucky. He spoke to a crowd of more than 2,000 rural east-central Kentucky voters in on behalf of former congressional candidate Amy McGrath in 2018. There has been no evidence of mass voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. An investigation by the Associated Press shows there were fewer than 475 disputed ballots in six battle ground states during the 2020 election.
Anything else?
"Our campaign is about giving the people of Kentucky 67th House District, a state representative who will never be swayed by the lobbyists, be bullied by the establishment politicians (which they like to do) or worry about personal attacks from the corporate media … there are quite a few legislators that are worried about what would be written about them in the paper. I'm not going to be concerned with that – that they [constituents] can count on to always put them first and fight for their values and priorities in Frankfort."
Domestic violence allegations
Gearding faced domestic violence allegations in 2018 and 2019, and the woman who filed those charges issued a protective The charges against him were eventually dismissed.
"I'm not guilty of any of the things that they say – that they've labeled me as and the courts have proven that," he said.
He also says the prosecution of him was motivated by "political payback" because he spoke out about corruption and wasteful spending when he ran for Campbell County commissioner in 2018.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKY's District 67: Rachel Roberts runs against Jerry Gearding
