Co-Branded & Coordinated: Inside the New Sister Slate Strategy to Win Western Kentucky

History is being made in Western Kentucky. For the first time since 2018, Daviess County has Democratic candidates on the ballot for all four state legislative races—and for the first time ever, all four candidates are women.

In this special candidate forum, Natalie MacDonald and Brian Koehl sit down with the "Sister State Slate," a coordinated, grassroots powerhouse of candidates who have decided to co-brand, co-campaign, and lift each other up on the trail to Frankfort.

We dive deep into their "WHY," their shared vision for Kentucky, and the specific policy priorities that set them apart from their opponents. From protecting public education and expanding universal pre-K to fighting for a livable wage and rural healthcare access, these four leaders are ready to represent YOU.

Meet the Candidates:

• Laurie Campbell (House District 7): Educator and small business owner fighting for teacher pay and housing stability.
• Reverend Rhondalyn Randolph (House District 13): The first woman ordained to pastor a Baptist church in Western Kentucky, focusing on poverty reduction and workforce protection.
• Donna Haynes (House District 14): A champion for labor unions, mental health resources, and fully funding rural schools.
• Vicki Quisenberry (Senate District 8): Small business owner and non-profit leader tackling childcare costs and protecting rural hospitals.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Blue Dot Northern Kentucky's Premier Political Podcast brought to you by the Kenton County Democratic Executive Committee. Welcome back to the Blue Dot Podcast, where we elevate the voices of those who want to represent you. And today we have a very special candidate forum coming to you from the historic sister state slate of candidates for state legislature in Davis County. Thanks so much for joining. I'm Natalie McDonald.

SPEAKER_06 0:27

And I'm Brian Cale. You're right, Natalie. We have so many amazing candidates running for office in Kentucky. And the first time since 2018, Davis County will have Democratic candidates on the ballot for all four state legislative races. And for the first time, all four candidates are women. And today we are fortunate enough to be joined by all of them. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. The Sister State Slate is a direct result of intentional grassroots organizing. You all talked to your community, you were listening to the issues and talking about how to solve problems that are facing your community. So what I'd like to do is introduce the panel, and then we'll talk to each of the candidates about why they're running and a little bit more about themselves. So we have Lori Campbell from Kentucky House District 7. And we'll also be joined by Reverend Ronaldo Randolph from Kentucky House District 13, Donna Haynes, House District 14, and Vicky Quinsberry from Kentucky Senate District 8. So how about we get to hear uh from each of you? So, Lori, do you want to kick it off and tell us a little bit more about you and what got you motivated to get into the race? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

So I'm Laurie Campbell. I'm running for Kentucky House District 7, which is a part of Davis County. The boundary lines changed a few years ago. Uh I'm an experienced educator, um, nonprofit leader and banker. I actually had a stint in corporate banking for 10 years, a long time ago, before my kiddos. The reason I'm running is because of public education. I've served on school-based decision-making councils for over 19 years. I know what it's like to, you know, represent all of those families and want to continue doing that. We've seen continued um attempts within the Kentucky state legislature, right, to come after those funding dollars and underfund public education. My dad is um, my dad grew up in poverty. He was the oldest of nine kids. He was the first to graduate from high school, first to go to college. Public education has always been really important and a lot of value placed on that in my family. We all graduated from college. My kids graduated and have gone on even for further education. It can be the great equalizer, but I feel like today it's become even harder for people just even getting their public education to even be able to achieve the American dream. It's become harder, less obtainable. So that's that's where I want to focus my priorities of once I go to Frankfurt.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Well, I guess I'm next. Hi, everybody. I'm Robin Rondolyn Randolph, and I'm running for Kentucky House District 13. And I'm running because everyday voices are not being heard. People that face challenges from daycare to trying to just make ends meet. And I feel like being in touch with everyday people that have everyday problems. I think our current representatives don't have that. It is a big disconnect between what everyday people are experiencing versus what they are advocating for when they're in Frankfurt, when they pass legislation that does not positively impact or change the change the lives of the people that they represent. It just angers me because of that disconnect. So it just really motivated me to make the decision to go ahead and take the chance, you know. If not me, then who? If not now, then when, you know, and I have kids that are young adults that are trying to, you know, just to make ends meet. And I see that they're having an even more difficult time than I had. And uh, I just want to make things better for them and for my grandchildren. So just looking at them made it even easier for me to make that decision.

SPEAKER_04 4:32

I'm Donna Haynes politics. My first campaign that I worked hard at was Martha Lane Collins. Gives you a little idea how long I've been doing it. But always on the other end. I was party chair for about 13 years. I thought I knew a lot about politics until I got on this side of it. I'm not gonna be a career politician, but I'm tired of people getting this position, working, supposedly working for me in Frankfurt and in Washington, D.C., who've never had a job interview. And that's what a campaign is in a job interview. People are not asking now, what are you gonna do when you get up there? Then they can do whatever they want to, and they are. There's no conscience, there's no common sense, there's no integrity in any of them offices anymore. That's wrong. I I watched a show today, I'm not gonna mention it, but I wasn't watching it, but I just heard somebody say, I remember when politicians worked for us. I remember when things were done, I remember when people reached across the aisle. Wendell Ford is one of my greatest idols, and I know how he handled politics, and that's what I'm trying to do. My priorities are the people who have can just been disconnected. I have a granddaughter who's intelligent, very intelligent, has her college degree, and is working at a just a little over minimum wage, just enough that she can't get any insurance. She can't get the state insurance because she got a a dollar an hour raise. That's$40 a week. Try to buy some insurance talk,$40 a week. Right. There's just no common sense, and that's what I'm working for. I want, I know everything can't be unionized, be nice if it was, but if you get pushed out just a little bit and force other people to keep up, this greed at the top and these people starving are ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

And I like I like what you I like what you said, how we can we can remember how there was a time when we could look up to our leaders, when we would have some way to work across the aisle when we had that integrity in politics. Yeah, back.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

I didn't like George WH much, but you had to respect him. I can't there's not very many of them out there today I can respect.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

And I would much rather have young man than what we got.

SPEAKER_06 6:44

Yeah, he's looking pretty good by comparison.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Don't get us on our soapboxes about that. Yes. All right, Vicki, how about you? Okay. I'm Vicky Chandler Quisenberry, and I am running for Senate District 8 in the state of Kentucky. I'm not a perpetual politician. The last time I ran for political office was in high school when I ran for student council secretary and won. So I'm hoping to keep that winning streak going here. I've had a wide variety of experiences. I I worked for the area development district here when I first got out of college. So to date myself, I actually helped them become computerized. So that tells you that yeah, I'm a little older. But I did graduate with an undergraduate degree from Murray State University and also got a master's in business administration from Murray as well. My husband and I have four children, uh, adult children. Two of them live here, two of them live elsewhere. Um, we have three and a half grandchildren, got one on the way due in May. I have always been very involved in what my children have done. From being PTO president to coaching recreational soccer to being involved in their swim teams and running high school swim meets and helping with the track meets and the cross-country meets and, you know, just a wide variety of things. I've never been afraid of taking on those leadership positions. I've never been afraid of volunteering for something. Fast forward when my kids were my baby was almost out of high school. I started working with the foundation for Davis County Public Schools. And I realized just how terrible it is in our schools when the legislature does not fully fund education. You think about something as basic as fifth graders going to Frankfurt and our schools can't afford buses. So I was working with the foundation, we had to raise a lot of money just to get private buses to take our students to something that should be a part of their education. Why are they not allowed to go to Frankfurt and see how our government works? You know, throughout the foundation, we did a lot of even simple things. We've got a lot of immigrants here in our community, and some of our schools have as many as 20-something languages spoken in those schools. Sometimes you can do something as simple as putting their nation of origin flag in the entry hall so that the parents and families begin to feel welcome in doing that. I've also been the founding board member of the Empowerment Academy, which is a long-term housing solution for our high school and young adult students who are continuing their education. And we've got employee staffed and we've got people who are actually living there now. So I think one of the reasons that I got involved with this is the fact that people see in me the ability to identify problems, to pull resources together and to solve problems. And when people see that in you and they encourage you that you need to be the one running for office, it's awfully difficult to turn them down. You know, when you realize that, you know what, I just might have the skills that might benefit people. So when people encourage you, that empowers you. And I did not know these three ladies very well until we got in this journey together. But I can tell you one thing. We all get along and we can make things happen. I know in all of the things I've done in the past, it's never mattered to me which way you lean politically. If we can all keep focused on the mission, that's what's important. And we all believe that the mission of what we're doing right here and right now is to represent the people of this district.

SPEAKER_06 10:21

Yeah, that's great. Uh one thing that one of the themes that's running across all four of your uh kind of introductions is you know public schools and public education, how important it is. And if there's one thing that we've discovered in uh all of the candidate interviews we've done so far this year in almost every, especially in um some of the more uh I don't want to say rural counties, but outside of the metro areas of, say, Lexington, Louisville, and northern Kentucky, is you know, the public school system is much more than just the school system. It is a really uh the center of the community in many respects. And when you underfund public education, you're really just tearing at the fabric of the community and it hurts and it goes deep. And I think a lot of uh a lot of those sitting in Frankfurt maybe don't appreciate that or don't understand that or maybe don't care. So, you know, we talk a little bit more about that maybe. Lori, going back to you, um priorities that you've listed. I know that uh public education was one of the you know the top priorities, and uh could you go into a little bit more detail maybe on specifically around public education in schools and what would you you would like to focus on, and then as well, maybe a couple of the other priorities um you know that you feel you would be focusing on as uh the representative.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

When we canvassed as a party last fall and we asked voters about what was important to them, we mostly heard health care, cost of living issues. And when I would ask them about public education, they were like, No, all 120 counties voted no on that. That's been put to rest. That's not an issue, right? And that's the way the voters are feeling, and now they're seeing with this legislative session, oh, they're still at it. Uh so it's you know, so it was kind of hard for me back in the fall when I'm saying I'm running on a public education platform. They're like, but we've we've done that, we've taken care of that. Yeah, so here we are, right?

SPEAKER_06 12:21

They're not done yet. They're still trying.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

No, I mean, they're just gonna come at it at a different from a different angle, a different way, you know, and I try to tell voters too, it's not that the money's not there, it's very much there. You know, we have the you know, they keep putting away money in the reserve trust fund, you know, our state income tax level that they want to, that they are just so bent on reducing. And it's like, you know, the money is there to fully fund public education. So it's not about not having funding, it's about making it a choice. And the thing is, is like with during COVID, it became really, really clear. I mean, we would think, right, that COVID really shone a bright light on the importance of public schools and what they do in our communities. We know certain things happen that we just kind of do like on the side of teaching math and reading, you know, like identifying child abuse, right? And those rates dropped like 60% during COVID, where they weren't getting the reports of child abuse because kids weren't in the classroom and brought up teachers and administrators. So priorities, fully funding public education, transportation, which has been so so severely underfunded, which by state constitution, legislature is supposed to fund. I know back when I was teaching, preschool had fully funded bus transportation both ways. That's been cut back here, where you only get one way. You pick either you're gonna take your kid to preschool or pick them up, but you have to provide transportation on the other side of that. So we have reduced your preschool rates of kids attending preschool. So also funding preschool for all. I have been involved in education for well over 30 years. Have always heard, like if you could get what's your wish list, preschool for all has always been at the top of that list. Rates here in Davis County have dropped about 46% kindergarten readiness. Our local Head Start program, get a number in your mind of what you think what their kindergarten readiness rates are. They're around 85%. So we know preschool works. And then also it just makes common sense that there is that preschool is a workforce support, right? Because if your kids are being taken care of, that allows you to be able to go out into the workforce. It's important for workforce. When I had my kids over 30 years ago, I remember childcare being expensive. I remember preschool was not even available for for free or for even at a public schools back when my kids were little. And I remember thinking, oh, things will be better when my kids start having their kids. And it's not, it is less affordable. Everything is harder for our kids. Um, and I want to change that. I like to make life more affordable and the American dream more attainable for our young families. I know what it takes to raise three kids. My husband and I have have done that. It's gotten harder, unlike the current supermajority. I would rather fund sales tax exemptions or approved sales tax exemptions for diapers, not for gold bars. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Those are my priorities. And sales tax exemptions on personal care products for women is important as well, because women, you know, they they make what 75 cents to every dollar of a man doing the same work. So, you know, the quality of life is very important. And whenever you start to think about the importance of school and fully funding public schools, it's important for struggling families. It's important for families that are just trying to make a better life for the next generation. And public schools has been a very big and important component to that. So when you don't fund or fully fund public schools, it hinders and hampers the local economic system. You have less people that are in the workforce when you don't have people that have the opportunity to send their kids to preschool because they're worried about the cost of it. You take away people's options to be able to add to their quality of life. So that's that's very important, but also ensuring that people have different opportunities in regard to um having different ways of creating income for themselves, like supporting small businesses, entrepreneurship, allowing for people to be creative and setting their own schedules that will help those struggling families that may not have the option to go out because they're not going to make enough to pay for that daycare. Well, maybe they can start a business in their home, uh giving people options to be able to take care of themselves. And it just seems as if they're taking away safety nets for people to be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It's hard to do it when the straps are gone.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Yeah, and I think what we're going to hear is well, you all have your individual campaigns, the common thread is what all of the people of Kentucky, what your community is feeling and what your community needs. And what Brian and I have heard as well from talking to different people across the state is it's like you said, it's education, it's health care and you know, affordable housing. I mean, these things just keep coming up. And the fact that you're able to shine a light on these and give that personal perspective because you've all been there, you've been in the classroom, or you've or you've been the one who's out there trying to get the healthcare or to pay for the groceries for God's sakes. Everything's so expensive. So it's it's interesting, and I think it's amazing that you've come together with this sister state slate and you've co-branded. And I think it's a really unique approach that I've never seen before. And I've been kind of playing politics for a long time on the sidelines. I think it's really I think it's I don't know. I know. Um, Vicky, I think you said you did some of the outreach to try to bring this whole sister state slate uh to fruition. I don't know if you want to talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Well, it was even bigger than just this group going to Frankfurt, listening, again, listening to people, what do you want? The main thing we kept hearing is do not let us see another ballot with no choice on it, because we had one party that was filling all the slots, and our party was not. So that was our main goal was to make sure that our city, our county, and our state representation that we had people in those positions. Um, and and we have been successful in getting that. And that's kind of how this came about. We all reached this decision in different manners. Rondolyn and Laurie participated in Emerge Kentucky. They knew they wanted to be a part of this. Okay. And Rondolan is just the best person to have in your back pocket when you're recruiting candidates because she's like, I run against any of them. It's like OD. And you know, Laurie knew where she wanted to be, Donna knew where she wanted to be eventually. So it kind of came down to Rondolyn lived in district 13, but I did not. So I did live in Senate District 8. So that's kind of how we decided to basically divide and conquer. It has been very rewarding finding people willing to step up. And one thing I keep finding is that people in this community feel like they're out there by themselves. I can't tell you when we started talking to people, and the majority of them were women, to identify candidates that you would vote for. Overwhelmingly said, just give us some people with common sense, give us with people, people who care about us.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah. Somebody they can relate to. And it was like a breath of fresh air just to see us working together, to see everybody on the same page. Um, because it has not been at the forefront for a long time. The teamwork, being able to be a support to one another. So just to have that coming out out of the gate, I think gives us an advantage too.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

And I think that shows when you see who p who goes the boat. I mean, the voter percentage is pathetic. I have oh yeah. Two counties, including Davis County, I have Ohio County. The last record I got, they had a 16% voter turnout. And the people there, they want to have them want taxes. They do pay for private education. They don't even have a private school in the whole county. But nobody's talking to them. We've got to get out there, let our face be knowing that if our ideas and our ideals have been showing to help these people. The job rate in that county is horrendous. It's a tough county to get into. It's been a trip, but I'm trying I'm making it this.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

All four of us are not career politicians. Right. All four of us have been leaders within different areas, segments within the community, um, and have led in different ways. When we were out looking for candidates, and we would hear from people saying, Well, my I want to someday, but my kids are too little. Right. And we looked at each other going, Well, our kids are wrong. We can't see. Or somebody would say, Well, I can't because of my work consideration. And we were all at a point where also that those that was not a constriction for us. So we got to the point where we realized, like Ronaldin was saying, either earlier, if not me, then who? And so that's that's how it kind of came about.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Because we were trying to reach out to younger people, you know, to encourage them to run so that we can encourage younger people to vote, to get out and participate. But for all the reasons that Lori just mentioned, a lot of the younger people could not do it because of their job constraints or because their schedules were just so busy.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

So going to Frankfurt from here, you know, that's a two and a half hour drive and a time change. You know, I have friends that are current legislators that live in Louisville and Lexington, and you know, they go same day. It's it's a little harder when you're coming from this side of the state.

SPEAKER_06 22:27

Yeah. I was wondering when you said a breath of fresh air earlier, one of the things that came to mind that we found out is a lot of the candidates we've talked to and a lot of the canvassing and work we've done in northern Kentucky is it's a breath of fresh air when you find out there's actually a Democrat that lives right on your street because we've all kind of been you know, we've all been hiding out under covers. You know, we've heard had people say, Oh my gosh, I just found out that so-and-so, two houses down as a Democrat, and I had no idea. And you're it's kind of like this secret society now that's coming to light. So, I mean, did you discover that as well?

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Trying to decide about whether I wanted to run or not, that's also when the local indivisible chapter here was coming back into uh activity. Uh, started getting involved, and I thought our community needs to see just how many of us there are, how many blue dots are here. Here in Davis County, it's like 48% Republican, uh, or sorry, six percent Republican, 42 to 43% Democrat. So it's not as red as people might think. And I felt like our community really needed to see that. So we have had quite a few rallies that have let people connect, and it's been just like that, where people had no idea and are now feeling very much more connected and feeling like maybe it it is time for a change here.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Yeah, I know mine came to light when there were issues as far as uh banning of books in our local libraries and the attacks to our local school system libraries. And at that time I was president of the NAACP. And when we started attending the library meetings, their board meetings to voice our concerns, I looked around in the room and it was like the same organizations: AAUW, Nonviolent Onsborough, the NAACP. These are people that were really concerned about access to information, to books, making sure people had a choice. So I'm like, we all need to come together. We got some like minds here in the room, and maybe we're not as divided as what we think. And if we put our heads together, we can really make some inroads into this opposition against our library. It was something as simple as that. And from that, we formed a coalition of like-minded people to work together and provide support for our local library and also to each organization.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yeah, and you mentioned you had some of the like the different groups that are showing up. I know, Donna, you have a really close connection to the labor unions and you're part of that. I don't know if you'd like to speak to how maybe that short shapes your priorities.

SPEAKER_04 25:16

Several years ago, there was an organization called CLEAR. It was out of the University of Kentucky, and they did labor classes. Uh, when they first started, so this has been almost 40 years ago. I worked at a power plant and I worked swing shift, and I started taking those, but they would have them every Wednesday for seven weeks. Well, I could go to the first one, but I couldn't go to the second one because I was working second shift. I would try to get to the third one, and I uh this is not right. So I called the administration. I said, You got somebody here, they're gonna spend the night because they're from Lexington, they're gonna teach a class at seven o'clock. Why can't they teach another one the next morning before they go home? So that's what they started doing, and I I could paper this wall with my certificates. I didn't get a raise from it, but I learned it. But one class I remember had the biggest effect on me is the history of labor in film. And this is back in the early numbers and the coal miners and how what they went through, how they they were killed. They were actually killed. I have had several business agents since then, and I it's always been my feeling that before you get your union card, you should have to take that class to realize what had to happen for us to be organized. People have forgotten that. Same people are I was vice president of our union for I don't know, I think about nine elections, nine three years time, maybe more than that. And it got to where we did people weren't even showing up to the union meetings unless they were pissed off about something, and then they show up. I mean, mad about something just looking at that now, and so many of these union members are voting Republican. I had a president of a local here in town show up at our Central Labor Council meeting. The first time he showed up, he just kind of gave me the snotty look. Found out this guy's a big Trump supporter, just waiting for me to say something. And his idea is that Trump has done more for labor than any other president. And I thought, have you ever read about FDR? And and that's our fault. That's our fault. Now my kids know, my granddaughter will tell you all about a union, but we have let these people believe that, and we've got to get back. I mean, they want to make Rand Paul. We have a Democrat in this county who was an elected Democrat for years, right before that election, when Rand Paul ran the last time. I was out of town when I got home. My husband says, You better not look at the papers. Because this man I had supported for years was supporting Rand Paul. This man that I had given the late uh J.R. Great Labor Person of the Year award at the Labor Day picnic was supporting Rand Paul. Rand Paul's first piece of legislative legislation every year is to make the whole country a right to work state. It took me a long time to talk about that guy. But we've got to teach people what is going on. We've got to protect our jobs. And it's not just union jobs. Uh we had the Raghu plan out here. I went to work there one time, paid me double times because of two jobs before. I had worked union, and they called me in to tell me that they would never be union. But they paid well. Yeah. They paid well, they're benefiting because right down the road was a couple of union places. People have got to have benefits. People have got to have access to health insurance. People have got to have a way to save retirement. People have got to know you got you can ask for all the information about the company you're working for. You can find out the CEO is making$150 million bonuses. You've got rights. People have to know they've got rights.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

And that gets back to all this visibility and you guys out here talking and you guys doing this, and that it's gonna make a difference. We're gonna flip seats.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

I don't know if the people in Ohio realize their taxes are going to private schools that they never have access to. You've got rights.

SPEAKER_06 29:27

Well, uh a friend of ours who was a teacher for 40 years said you just can't throw money at public education. That's true, but you can't just say you can't throw money at public education and just try off the spigot and not come up with any alternative solutions. Okay, you think there are problems. What are the solutions? We need to have that conversation, and maybe it's not all money, it's not all funding, but it needs to become a priority. And again, going back to especially smaller communities across Kentucky, it is such an integral part of the community. It needs to be lifted up. I like your comment about the unions because to me, having unions present lifts everyone up, whether they're union or not, just as exactly as you said, and that is a great example of that.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

That's what I was gonna uh comment on too, because both of my parents were in unions. And I remember when my mom worked for the phone company, and every year they would negotiate their contracts. And I remember her putting money back. I remember it when we got close to having to pick it, having to make signs, you know, in case they had to sit out until they got what they wanted out of their contract. And I don't think people understand that when they started busting up unions, that's when around the country wages started to go down. Absolutely. Because you had those that were on the front lines advocating for a better quality of life. You had that voice in the forefront and it gave the workers a voice, you know. So I think it needs to be further education about the importance of unions and what they meant to our country and not just for wages, but also for safety. Because after my dad retired, left the the mines when they shut them all down and then they rehired them with all the unions shut out because they shut the mines down, changed the names, and then hired them all back in a non-union way, it put them at risk. Their safety standards went down. Yeah. Which meant that people were getting hurt, you know? And what does that do to a family?

SPEAKER_06 31:43

Absolutely right.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Yeah, and Vic, and and Vicky, you you have a little bit of a different seat that you're running for because you're running for the Senate district eight. So it's a little bit bigger. Um, do you are any of those priorities different, or are there a couple of prior priorities there that you'd like to speak about that we haven't touched on?

SPEAKER_03 32:01

Well, I mean, I'm definitely going to work towards fully funding public education. It just absolutely amazes me. Our hospitals and our school systems are typically the biggest employer in each county. And to me, when the constitution says you're supposed to fully fund the common school, and then you've also got a law that legislators put upon themselves to fund the transportation, why are they doing all of these unconstitutional things? In addition to that, and the two lost 120 to nothing. 120 to nothing, my statistics are right, only one county was not double digits. And that was nine points. So when the entire Commonwealth is saying we believe in funding our public schools, why are the people we electing, why are they ignoring this? Why are they ignoring the constitution? There's a court case now, I believe, in Frankfurt that students are actually filing. They've lost four court cases already. A fifth one is in the courts right now. So why? Why are our legislators not following the constitution? Why are they not following what the voters want? They're not listening. And that's one thing that we've done. We all are connected to different segments of our society, and we feel like we can all pull together and work on that mission, like I discussed before. The mission is is representing our constituents. We've got to put things in place in the legislature to help protect against some of these things that the federal government is doing right now. Hopefully they're short-term, hopefully they're short-lived, but we still have to make sure that our our state is protected. And I don't see that that's happening anywhere unless you're at catfish in the Ohio River.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Right, right. Yeah, whatever the man's name is. We won't get into catfish. We won't get into that. But I think to back up what Vicky is saying, I think that it goes back to what we were saying about them being disconnected and far removed from the everyday interactions of living of everyday people. And it's almost like they would rather fall in step with like the National Republican Party and push their agenda, even though their constituents don't want to have anything to do with it. Because Kentucky, I mean, we depend on our public schools for so much. And to vote against something that is helping your community or the most vulnerable in your community, I think that that shows that they're just not connected to everyday people and more importantly, the people that they represent. They don't represent us, they're supposed to work for us.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

Right. That's who they're working for. I did my job like that, I've been fired a long time ago.

SPEAKER_06 34:58

No kidding. I know.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Well, what makes this all unique with you is you guys are working together. And thankfully, you don't have primary challengers. So you're not running against each other. So it's it's fantastic. But each of you are facing either an incumbent or a Republican challenger. So I don't know if you if you want to speak a little bit about, I think you really hit a lot on it, is that they're not they're not in lockstep with the community, right? They're not standing up for the priority. So I don't know if if any of you have anything specifically that you can say really sets you apart from that challenger on that Republican side of the aisle, other than what you just said, you know, they're out of touch, they're not feeling it. They're working on national.

SPEAKER_06 35:38

Other than the obvious.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

Other than the obvious. Vicky kind of touched on, you know, the the legislation, you know, the passing unconstitutional bills. And that's let's talk about wasteful spending. I'm not interested in unconstitutional legislation that lands in court systems. That's wasteful spending. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars. So that's one thing that sets me apart because I'm not interested in that kind of legislation. I do not have any other position, so I can spend 100% of my time working in Frankfurt. I have family members that live in Louisville and Lexington. I'm headed that way. Most of weekends are a lot of weekends anyway. So I can, you know, that's not an a hard thing for me. Uh I've served over 19 years serving thousands of kids and families. I know how to represent all people, not just certain segments of our population. And I also know how to reach across the aisle and talk to people that have differences of opinion.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Well, just to piggyback on what Vicki had said about the fish legislation, it was proposed by my opponent, and it just is a further demonstration of how out of touch he is to everyday working people. When I go, um, I'm gonna represent people and represent their needs. I'm going to listen. Uh, a lot of times, who we have representing us, they're only around when election time comes. And throughout the rest of their year, they're missing in action. And then when they get home, they throw money around and thinking that the money is gonna talk and garner support. But I think that you need to be visible year-round, you need to listen year-round, and you need to be a good steward of the time and the resources of the constituents that you represent, which means that legislation that's not beneficial for our community or legislation that is not constitutional. I'm not going to be in support of that because, like my sister said, it's a waste of money. But I will propose common sense legislation that will help working families, that will fully fund our public schools, and that will further provide support networks and systems for struggling businesses, entrepreneurs, and just everyday people.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

And I the first thing I'm going to propel is just quit calling these people aliens. I have not seen a spaceship like an or why they keep pathetic things that say is a guy told me he's uh in Hackarth County. He's saying, You mean you're okay with feeding illegal aliens in school? Well, if if an alien's hungry, however he is. But I am labor, but I'm pro-family. We have got elected officials in this county and in this city that have never showed up. I do the Labor Day picnic every year. I've been doing the Labor Day picnic for 25 years. The mayor of this town has never showed up. One city commissioner does because they're Democrat. That's it. I work. I also do, and I always say the word I, but the workers' memorial every year. I worked really hard on that for a long time. We had to do it down on the river. I went to fiscal court several years ago and they give me the land by the courthouse to erect a workers' memorial. Every April we have what's called the Workers' Memorial. If you read the name of any Kentuckian who was killed on the job the previous year, that's important to me because I the place I work at, we have three totalities. Two of those people are just really good friends of mine. And more important, my brother was killed on the job. Oh wow. 22 years old. These people need to be honored, but there has never been a city official show up at our workers' memorial. Either the police department, the mayor's office, the fire department, the county usually does, has someone there. But people need to go to work and come home the same way. Tired, but all the pieces where there should be. I know how these teachers do it. They got way too many kids. You want to put money in there. Let's put money in there and get more teachers. Help teachers learn. Help help teachers learn how to teach. Let teachers teach. I know what to do. I've got some common sense and by God. We need to teach those other people. We we need to work for the people.

SPEAKER_00 40:17

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 40:17

I want to be a career politician. I don't know how enough years. They don't want me up there along the case.

SPEAKER_06 40:25

Well, I think that uh that passion and that lived experience and your willingness to to be open about it and also for it to lead along with your values and help everyone. I mean, I think it's so important it's probably going to like just turn that legislature upside down. If we're able to get some of these good, good, hardworking, passionate Democrats in there, they're not even going to know what hit them. I mean, that's I mean, that's our our goal, that's our dream. So Heck yeah. You know, that that lived experience is so important, and uh we really appreciate you sharing that with us.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Natalie and Brian, if I can going back, just want to add one point and a difference between myself and the incumbent. Just one. It's an important it's an important so one of the differences is that I do have decades in public school advocacy. My opponent was the sponsor, the lead sponsor of adding amendment two to your last ballot to change the state constitution about public education. So again, that is not something that I would have any kind of support over doing. We need to keep public money in public school.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

Where to find where to find more information about your campaign and and where to where we can where people get in get involved.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

My website is very creative. It's VickyQuisenberry.com. That's Vicky with an I.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

I'm on Facebook, I'm working on other social media. My email is Vicky for Kentucky. Again, V-I-C-K-I. People keep trying to add extra letters to it, but it's very simple. That's how people can get in touch with me. It's perfect. Great.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Mine is super simple. It's Laurieccampbell.com and all my social media is on there. I'm on multiple platforms. I do want to point out on our graphics that we have behind us that if we did something different, we each have the same basic general design, but with a different colored background. I also added books for my E for education. Rondolyn added a blue bridge to your bridging community. We have a blue bridge here in Allensboro. Donna has the yellow hard hat for an O. And then Vicky's name was too long, so she didn't get to educate it. But what we're helping to do is to provide like a graphic. So as we put out our yard signs that we have, since we're all new to politics, hopefully that helps us with name recognition and brand recognition and using that same thing. When we talk to marketing people, they're like, nobody's ever done that. And I said, I don't know. Why are we gonna do it?

SPEAKER_04 42:57

And I'm Donna I'm Donna for the 14th, my website, everything Donna for the 14th.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

Simple. I'm used Rondolyn Randolph for Kentucky. Rondolyn Randolph for Kentucky at Yahoo.com. And uh that is also my website address, and I'm on Facebook as well. And um, I do want to say one more thing about the legislation. They just passed legislation to allow for children or 18 and over to pack concealed and carried weapons. Yeah, and we're having a forum tonight uh because there is a spike in gun violence amongst youth in our community. Um, so I just think that is furthermore. Um, 19 year old killed about four miles from my house. Yes, yes, it's affecting everybody, wrench core, rural in the city, you know. So that's that's something to keep in mind about us being in touch.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

Hey, and I wanted to say one thing about your branding, because I was I was researching before the pod. I noticed that uh right away how all the uh the branding, how all the names, you know, the signs looked exactly the same, and I was like, that's slick, I like it. So it works. I mean, I picked up on it right away, and I'm not the sharpest guy, you know, I'm not the sharpest mic in the door.

SPEAKER_02 44:20

So it's cat it's catching your eye. We had a friend that made us these little acrylic pins with sister state slates, so we've kind of logoed that is they all have the state of Kentucky. So trying something different. Nobody's ever done that. We don't know if it works. So I'm like, well, you know, why not try something new? This is the time to do it. Well, when you flip those seats, we're gonna know.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

That's it. Nice to have that, everyone. Yeah, thank you for your time. Thank you for all this. We really appreciate it. And thank you for running. Yeah, thank you for having me. Nice to meet you. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_06 44:52

Take care.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

And thank you for joining this special edition of the Blue Dot Podcast, where we were able to speak to the candidates who are making up the sister slate in Kentucky. I hope that you take some time to check them out and get behind them, help support them a little bit. Until next time, stay curious, keep the facts in focus, and never stop fighting for what matters. Peace out, everybody.