Mind if we start with some BREAKING NEWS?!
The finalists for this year’s LEO Weekly Readers Choice awards just dropped, and The Gallery Pass is one of the best local blogs and best local publications in Louisville!!!
Oh, and I’m up for the best local writer award, too. That means we went three for three in the categories I was qualified for, which is insane. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of y’all who voted and helped get me into the top eight.
But this thing isn’t over, and I need all of y’all to absolutely LOCK IN rn.
Voting on the final round started at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 8 and runs until 11:59 p.m. Sept. 12 — aka Monday through Friday this week.
I need everyone to come up with a voting plan ASAP and vote for The Gallery Pass in the blog and publication categories, and for Olivia Krauth in the local writer category.
When you go to the overall voting page, and then go to the media section, these categories are all in the media section. You don’t even need to type anything this time around — just click The Gallery Pass and Olivia Krauth whenever you see ‘em. (But if you’re Louisville-based, take some time and look at the other categories and vote for your favorite spots in town, too!)
You can vote once a day in each category, and I need everyone to do that and then hype me up to your friends, family, coworkers, group chats, everyone. Once you have an account, it tends to just take a few seconds to send in your votes.
I know some folks had some issues with their accounts not working during the nomination process — I humbly request that you power through that for the next five business days; let’s get these Ws and then we won’t have to worry about it until next August. Please, do it for ya girl.
So, set an alarm, add a recurring task on your calendar, write it in your planner, whatever it takes. I’ll be posting regular reminders to vote on my social media accounts, but if you need additional support, please let me know — I am willing to send texts, emails, extra newsletters to remind you to vote. I’m at olivia.krauth@gmail.com.
The Gallery Pass isn’t even two years old yet, and it feels insane to be up against so many much larger, much more established outlets. Just making these short lists is an honor, and I’d love to crack the top three in each category. (I’d prefer to win all three, but I will settle for placing.)
Again, this is the launchpad to start voting on LEO Weekly’s website.
Thank you so much for getting me this far, and I need just five more days of that same energy, y’all. We love a good underdog story, so let’s get it done.
But, as promised, time for a mailbag newsletter!
Y’all sent in so many great questions, so I picked a random assortment of the semi-recent ones to respond to in this newsletter. Some of the questions felt better suited for their own newsletters, so don’t freak out if you don’t see your question — it might be getting the star treatment.
As always, you can drop your newsletter suggestions and questions in this survey. It is anonymous and you can fill it out as often as you’d like. (And please note if you’re a paid subscriber somewhere in the survey!)
OH, and if you have any reactions to these questions/my responses, drop your thoughts in the survey, too, or if you’re a paid sub, you can drop them in the comments below. Excited to hear from y’all!
Now, let the games begin.
Thoughts/guesses on who Comer will pick as his LG candidate?
Starting off with a fun one! I’ve gotten multiple questions about the 2027 governor’s race, and touched briefly on it in my Fancy Farm recap newsletter a few weeks back. I’m definitely planning a newsletter focused on this topic for the future, but for now, a few hot takes.
Basically, if Congressman Jamie Comer runs for governor in 2027 and wins the GOP primary, who would he pick as his Lt. Gov. candidate to run alongside him?
This question-er pitched maybe Ag Commish Jonathan Shell, and honestly, yeah. I can totally see that. Shell was one of the more vocal folks during Fancy Farm weekend to blast Comer’s name out as a 2027 candidate, and the vibes just feel right in a way. I would say having two ag commissioners on the same ticket could make it feel lopsided, but honestly, it feels like more of an asset in this situation.
Past that, my intuition keeps circling back to maybe Rep. Michael Meredith, a Republican from WKY. He told The Courier Journal he would “100% support Jamie Comer in whatever he decides to do, but especially in the governor's race” a few weeks ago, but also, the vibes just seem to be vibing. At least in my head.
Part of my issue is that I don’t typically cover Comer, so I don’t know his approach to things, and I don’t know if he has any sworn enemies other than the really obvious one (iykyk).
That said, I almost want to say maybe Auditor Allison Ball? Comer’s been out in DC, and someone with a clear dedication to holding office in Frankfort would provide some balance. Plus, her ties to EKY would bring some geographical balance to the ticket, too. Also, it wouldn’t just be two white men. But would she want to give up a chance at a second term as auditor to play second fiddle? Don’t know.
Those are my initial thoughts; please no one try and cancel me if Comer and Ball actually have beef with each other and I just made myself look stupid in writing.
What seems to be in Rocky Adkins’ future — run for Governor, a role with Andy 2028, US Senate?
I’ve also got multiple questions about Rocky Adkins’ future, so I’m going to combine my thoughts here and maybe we can circle back in a future newsletter if y’all want a deeper dive, sound good?
I feel like Adkins can kinda go anywhere, but also nowhere at the same time. I’ve heard — and this could just be the Frankfort rumor mill, but I trust this source heavily — that after Adkins ran and lost to Gov. Andy Beshear in the 2019 gubernatorial primary, Beshear has kept him on a close leash.
He’s a senior advisor to Beshear — a position that could easily transfer to a 2028 campaign for Beshear. But that close leash also feels like it is keeping Adkins away from stepping out of the Beshear bubble to do something like run for governor in 2027 or US Senate in 2026 (or 2028).
I think Adkins could run in 2027, but the energy from the Beshear camp feels heavily in favor of Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman running at the top of the ticket, and I don’t think Kentucky Dems will have transitioned out of the “Beshear is the only thing that matters” mentality enough (if at all) to have the interest or stamina to rally behind a candidate who isn’t Beshear or his designated proxy.
But could Coleman pick Adkins as her Lt. Gov? IDK, might work. Might also keep Adkins in the same situation he’s been in since 2019, too.
Adkins could also easily run for US Senate in 2026 — a role Beshear swears up and down he’s not interested in — but then he runs into the issue of challenging Dem House Minority Leader Pam Stevenson, and IDK if he — a white man — wants to challenge a well-qualified Black woman who got there first.
Can you discuss how House Bill 4 is affecting universities?
I’ll be honest, I haven’t covered HB 4’s impact a ton. I covered it a little bit for Queer Kentucky over the summer, and I wrote some about it around that time for The Gallery Pass, too.
ICYMI: HB 4 was the big anti-diversity, equity and inclusion law that came out of the 2025 legislative session.
Back in July, leaders from all the public universities updated a committee in Frankfort about how they’re implementing HB 4. And it was all just kinda like, yeah, we’re complying with the law, or, yeah, we’ve got one or two things left, but we’re almost there. And their outlines on paper made it look like nothing hardcore had actually really changed.
It is so hard to tell how things are going down on the ground, in classrooms and campus meetings when you’re not consistently covering higher ed. Because you don’t have a solid baseline of what the “before” was to determine what the “after” actually, fully is, if that makes sense.
On paper, you can’t necessarily determine the chilling effect that you often see with these types of bills where it's like, you don't know if something is necessarily wrong, and it might not be wrong or illegal now, but you're not going to chance it, and so you're not going to say said thing, or you're not going to do said thing.
So, I think a lot of the changes from the administrative level are basically done — but the chilling impact on freedom of speech and academic freedom, even though HB 4 said, more or less, those things shouldn’t be touched, still remains to be seen.
I think there's going to be more that comes out about this heading into the 2026 legislative session, especially given the fact 2026 is both a budget session and an election year for the vast majority of lawmakers in Frankfort.
Can you watch the new show The Paper on Peacock and react?
As a fan of The Office, someone who has routinely threatened to write her own TV series on her time as a journalist (lemme know if anyone has contacts within Hollywood, thx), and a person deeply skeptical of unnecessary spinoffs and sequels, yes, I’d love to.
How about this: If The Gallery Pass gains three new paid subscribers between now and 4 p.m. Tuesday, I’ll do it. I feel like that’s achievable, plus it’ll help me pay for the Peacock subscription.
Andy for Senate or Andy for President?
This will also most likely be an entire other newsletter, but, for now, a brief overview of my hot takes on the issue.
I said on TikTok — before it was cool to be Team Beshear Should Run For Senate, mind you — I believe Beshear would have a stronger chance at a 2026 Senate run than the presidency in 2028 (assuming we have open and fair elections in 2026 and 2028).
(And, yes, some folks disagreed with me — you can check out the comments on TikTok for some of their thoughts.)
(And, yes, Beshear’s team has been very clear Beshear has no interest in this role.)
(Beshear likes power; so I both believe that and also don’t.)
A key part of Beshear’s success is state-level name recognition and subsequent fan devotion. People know him because of the name “Beshear;” they know him because of how he handled COVID-19; they know him because he showed up in their communities after every disaster. He’s just Andy, right?
That obviously has a proven track record of success in state-level races, despite Kentucky being a red state. And I think it could work again in another state-level race. (To be clear, US Senate races are statewide in Kentucky, just like a gubernatorial race; US presidential races include many other places outside of Kentucky.)
I don’t think the fandom has yet to fully transfer outside of the commonwealth, and the Dem primary for 2028’s presidential race is likely to be crowded, and I don’t think Beshear’s chances of prevailing in the 2028 primary are quite as strong as he’d like.
Because, ultimately, as of right now, he is just Andy, and folks who don’t already have a well-developed soft spot for him generally either don’t know him, or maybe just view him as a moderate, middle-aged white man who is “canned and corny.”
I could go on (infighting amongst Ds about how left-leaning the ideal national candidate should be, hot takes on Beshear’s podcast and what it signals politically, etc.) but like I said, a brief overview only today.
Let’s definitely circle back on this one, though.
Chat, is this me? (All credits to Warner Bros; plz don’t sue me — this is used in the name of journalism only.)
When did you have time to be in Superman?
I can’t tell if multiple subscribers think I look like Rachel Brosnahan or if it is the same person who has periodically, repeatedly filled out the TGP survey to check in about my alleged role as Lois Lane, but there is apparent, continued interest in the topic and I must respond.
To the best of my knowledge, I have not appeared in any Superman movie.
I also don’t think I look like Rachel Brosnahan? But please know I have probably spent enough time thinking about how at least one person thinks I’m in the Superman movie to actually have had a minor role in the Superman movie.
Not a Q, but a collection of comments: Some of the top things y’all are interested in reading about
Got a lot of notes about different topics folks want me to write about, so here’s a collection of some of them just to get them on the record:
Education funding
Nuclear power
Data centers
The Kentucky Party
The ongoing Laken Snelling situation and coverage coming out of Lexington
Kentucky’s congressional races
Senate Bill 181
Louisville Metro Council
Several questions I didn’t answer in this newsletter also focus on what’s next in terms of education policy, so I’m most likely going to combine all of those answers into a future newsletter soon. Stay tuned, plz.
And please remember, if your question didn’t get answered, look out for the next mailbag newsletter — there’s a decent chance it’ll be there.
Again, use the survey to ask questions, pitch future newsletter topics, and respond to my thoughts!
A look at the week ahead
TL;DR: We’ve got several meetings in Frankfort, a major court hearing, and a whole lot of online voting for y’all. (Like I said, prepare to be sick of me.)
As always, you can review the week’s legislative calendar and meeting agendas here and check out the full interim schedule here.
As of Sunday night, I’m not seeing too much major in this week’s Frankfort lineup that absolutely demands attention.
Tuesday’s 3 p.m. MOAB — the Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board — might be the most interesting. With all of the federal cuts and uncertainty, I’m keeping an eye on Medicaid issues — especially with a budget year coming up.
This week’s lineup in Frankfort. A whole lot of acronyms; not a whole lot of immediately pressing matters. All times Eastern.
Big news: The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday over whether or not the state’s charter school law is constitutional.
I know what you’re thinking, and yes, this multiyear court battle remains a thing — and, yes, even after voters overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment to allow public dollars to go to non-public forms of education last fall.
Last I heard, oral arguments will start at 10 a.m. Thursday at Norton Center for the Arts in Danville. (Remember that the court’s normal chambers in the state Capitol are closed rn.)
And, of course, don’t forget to add those daily reminders to your calendar this week to vote for The Gallery Pass and me (Olivia Krauth) for the LEO Weekly Readers Choice awards!!!
OK, toodles for now, talk soon + GO VOTE!