Courtesy of Kentucky Lantern
FRANKFORT — A naturalized citizen from Louisville decided to run for the state House the night before the filing deadline, spurred by a Kentucky lawmaker’s proposal to bar immigrant citizens from holding local and state elected offices.
Suhas Kulkarni, who immigrated to the U.S. from India in 1986, told reporters that the legislation was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” before filing his paperwork at the Kentucky secretary of state’s office Friday.
Kulkarni’s daughter, Rep. Nima Kulkarni, also a naturalized citizen and an immigration lawyer, has represented Louisville’s 40th House District since 2019 and is seeking reelection this year. She and her mother, Surekha, joined the elder Kulkarni as he officially threw his hat into the ring.
“I said, ‘Something’s got to be done about this.’ And then we talked about it and we said that our family has had the actual experience of the American Dream,” he said, adding that his family “struggled really hard” to build up a business, has paid taxes, served with community groups and more.
“At the end of the day, if somebody says to me that after all of this, you’re not eligible to have some of the rights that citizens have, I don’t agree with it,” Kulkarni said. “So, I said this is not the time for me to sit on the sidelines.”
The bills Kulkarni referred to, House Bill 186 and House Bill 259, were filed by Rep. Shane Baker, R-Somerset, in the first week of this year’s General Assembly. Baker told Kentucky Public Radio that his goal is to prevent those who have naturalized citizenship or dual citizenship from taking the state in an unspecified “direction.”
The United States Constitution requires that only the president be born in this country; immigrants who become citizens are eligible to serve in the U.S. Senate and House.
Suhas Kulkarni said his family came to the U.S. seeking help for his older son who had learning disabilities. His son eventually attended The de Paul School in Louisville. He added that “we jumped from the lunch rooms of executive offices where I was working (in India) to sweeping the floor in a neighborhood grocery store.” He later bought the store and expanded an export business with it.
In the 1990s, Kulkarni started an information technology business which later gained federal government contracts.
When he turned 60, he felt that “there’s got to be something more in life,” so he turned to public service. He joined former Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration and founded the Office for Globalization, which is now called the Office for Immigrant Affairs.
Kulkarni said that there are “so many more benefits being a cohesive community as opposed to being an exclusive community” and he wants the next generation to have those benefits.
“This is America — the land of opportunity, the land of possibilities, the land where people can come when people can work hard, achieve what they can do,” he said. “The American Dream — it’s not all economic, it’s social, it’s the mingling of cultures, it’s the strengthening of the gene pool.”
The incumbent Republican in the 48th House District is Rep. Ken Fleming, who is seeking reelection. Another Democratic candidate, Nathan Bellows, filed to run in the district last month. The district includes parts of Jefferson County.
Democrats and Republicans gear up for 2026
Ahead of the 4 p.m. deadline, Kentucky candidates vying for offices across the state were whisked through the secretary of state’s office Friday to put the final signatures on their paperwork.
Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, said his office had received 437 net new filings since the filing period opened in November, including candidates for state and federal office.
Adams said this year’s deadline day was “pretty slow.” Looking over the list of candidates, he said he noticed a lot of Republican primaries in Northern Kentucky this time around and his office had also seen “a real uptick” in Democrats filing for the state House this week.
“I’m guessing KDP (the Kentucky Democratic Party) really worked it, or the caucus really worked it to get people to file for a lot of these seats that had been unopposed previously,” Adams said.
Ahead of the filing deadline, House Democratic leaders were hopeful of growing their caucus this election cycle. During a press conference Thursday morning, House Democratic Floor Leader Rep. Pamela Stevenson, of Louisville, said Democrats would have more contested races outside of Lexington and Louisville this year.
“You will see more contested races,” she said. “We will grow this caucus, and we will make sure that what stays at the center of who we are the people.”
KDP spokesperson Nat Turner told the Lantern in a statement Friday that the party was “thrilled to have more than 700 Democrats running for local offices all over Kentucky and nearly 100 running for seats in the General Assembly.”
“This excitement is a testament to the energy we are building around our common goal of reinforcing the American Dream, so Kentuckians in every county have good-paying jobs, access to quality health care and education and the opportunity to build a better life for their families,” she said.
On the GOP side, Republicans remained confident that they will maintain their caucus numbers in the legislature. At present, Republicans have 80 seats to the Democrats’ 20 in the House, and 32 seats to the Democrats’ 6 in the Senate.
In a press release after the deadline, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, highlighted that eight members of his caucus are seeking reelection unopposed.
“This is more than just a political milestone. It is a strong vote of confidence from Kentuckians in the direction our commonwealth is heading,” Stivers said. “That level of confidence reflects the strength of the conservative, responsible policies the Senate majority has championed for the past decade, which have delivered results and earned the trust of Kentuckians.”
Sen. Max Wise, the Republican floor leader in the Senate, told reporters Friday morning that the caucus had been “very aggressive in fundraising to make sure that we’ve got our resources available for members who may have challenging opponents.”
“We look forward to any challenges that come our way,” he said. We feel very strong with our supermajority of who we’ve got to be there to protect them, to hold their seats when it comes either May or November.”
Who’s filed?
In the legislature, all seats in the Kentucky House of Representatives will be on the ballot, as well as about a third of Senate seats. Some lawmakers have announced they will not seek reelection in 2026, paving the way for candidates to run for a few open seats, while some incumbents will be challenged. More than 50 general elections in the legislature—out of 119 seats up for grabs this year—will be contested, according to filings as of Friday afternoon.
In Louisville, three Democrats are challenging Democratic state Rep. Danield Grossberg. They are Jefferson County Public Schools teacher Cassie Lyles, former JCPS teacher and political adviser Max Morley and Mitra Subedi, who narrowly lost the 2024 primary to Grossberg by 50 votes before allegations of inappropriate behavior towards women last year against Grossberg were made public. Grossberg faced no opposing candidate in the 2024 general election.
Democratic Rep. Adam Moore of the 45th House District in central Kentucky, is being challenged by a former Republican lawmaker, Killian Timoney, who was defeated in the 2024 primary. Moore won the election later that fall. Both had filed their election paperwork ahead of Friday. Jeffrey D. Thompson, a Republican, filed Wednesday.
In the 93rd House District, Democratic Rep. Adrielle Camuel is being challenged by Hannah Rivera, a Republican who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Kentucky Community and Technical College System in 2024. Rivera had worked at KCTCS in several capacities over a decade, including as chief of staff. The lawsuit is still pending in Franklin Circuit Court, according to court records.
Those that aren’t seeking reelection include Republicans Rep. Ryan Dotson of the 73rd House District, Rep. David Hale of the 74th House District, Sen. Jimmy Higdon of the 14th Senate District and Democratic Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty of the 95th House District. Dotson is running in the GOP primary for the 6th Congressional District.
Laferty is the last remaining eastern Kentucky Democrat in the House at present. The race for her seat will be contested, as two Republicans, Willie Crase Jr. and Tanner Hesterberg, and a Democrat, former state Sen. Johnny Ray Turner, have filed for the seat.
In judicial races, Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Chief Debra Lambert is up for reelection, and has filed to run again for the state’s high court. She faces no opponent. Lambert, who became Kentucky’s first female chief justice in 2025, represents the 3rd Judicial District, which includes parts of Central and Southeastern Kentucky.
A seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals is open after Supreme Court Justice Pamela Goodwine won election to the high court in 2024. The seat covers the 5th Appellate District in Central Kentucky. Those who have filed to run for the seat are Fayette County Circuit Judge Lucy Ferguson Van Meter and Judge Will Moynahan, who was appointed to fill Goodwine’s vacancy on the appellate court by Gov. Andy Beshear.
Twelve Republicans and seven Democrats have filed to run for the seat currently held by longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell who announced last year that he would not seek reelection.
Kentucky’s six congressional seats are also on the ballot, and all incumbent U.S. representatives have filed for reelection with the exception of Republican Andy Barr, who is running for the open Senate seat.
All candidate filings can be found on the Kentucky Secretary of State’s website.
