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Grayson Vandegrift

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Grayson Vandegrift
Image of Grayson Vandegrift

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 8, 2022

Personal
Birthplace
Frankfort, Ky.
Religion
Presbyterian
Profession
Restaurateur
Contact

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Grayson Vandegrift (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Kentucky House of Representatives to represent District 56. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Vandegrift completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Grayson Vandegrift was born in Frankfort, Kentucky. His career experience includes working as a restaurateur.[1]

Elections

2022

See also: Kentucky House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 56

Incumbent Daniel Fister defeated Grayson Vandegrift in the general election for Kentucky House of Representatives District 56 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Daniel Fister
Daniel Fister (R)
 
56.1
 
10,284
Image of Grayson Vandegrift
Grayson Vandegrift (D) Candidate Connection
 
43.9
 
8,041

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 18,325
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 56

Grayson Vandegrift defeated Benjamin Nolan in the Democratic primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 56 on May 17, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Grayson Vandegrift
Grayson Vandegrift Candidate Connection
 
65.2
 
3,005
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Benjamin Nolan
 
34.8
 
1,604

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 4,609
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Daniel Fister advanced from the Republican primary for Kentucky House of Representatives District 56.

Endorsements

To view Vandegrift's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Grayson Vandegrift completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Vandegrift's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I’ve been a business owner, a council member, and am now in the final year of my 2nd term as mayor of Midway, Kentucky. In my tenure as mayor, we increased city revenue by 325% through job creation, and used our surplus to invest in infrastructure, services, and public parks. We were even able to cut property taxes 40% and reduce sewer rates by 25%, which helped working families and those who struggle the most.

I believe in public education and find it a travesty that our teachers often spend hundreds of dollars of their own money every year to meet the needs of educating the students they prepare for this young century. That they aren’t paid what they deserve while our commonwealth sits on its largest surplus ever is unacceptable, and as a state representative I will fight to correct that. I believe that we must have a pension system that provides enough stability to attract new teachers and state employees before we have a crisis of employee shortages. I believe in government transparency and I will always return calls, emails, and texts of constituents.

I’ve been appointed by Governor Beshear to the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council and I’m proud to be endorsed by at least two previous state representatives of the 56th District. I live in Woodford County with my wife, Katie, and our two children.
  • I have a proven track record as a mayor of getting things done, of tackling problems no matter how vexing, and of always being available to my constituents.
  • I will fight for public education, for improving pensions, and for transparency and good government.
  • I am the only candidate in this race who has served on the local level, and I believe it’s of enormous advantage. I understand government on an intimate level and know how to work with people of differing view points and backgrounds.
I’m passionate about good governance, public education, improving our pension system, transparency, and KLEPF funding and how we can include EMS first responders to that important incentive program so we can prevent a crisis in our local communities of waning numbers of EMT’s.
I’m passionate about people and am always open to new ideas, and I’ve always said that it doesn’t matter who has the idea, it only matters which idea is best.
I’ve always been intrigued by the leadership of Abraham Lincoln. The way he could include previous rivals in his cabinet, the way he was patient with disputing parties, the way he used language to best communicate ideas with the people.

He was magnanimous with those who were less than that with him, but it became a great advantage for him as many of those people would later become trusted allies of his, rather than rivals.

While he was far from perfect, he operated with a grace and forgiveness that is much too scarce in today’s politics.
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Honesty, integrity, and transparency.
I’m a hard worker, a listener, and having children has made me a much more patient person. When I see a problem I don’t rest until the problem is fixed. I have a track record of getting difficult things done and I’m very excited for the opportunity to earn the votes of the people of the 56th District.
To do what you believe is right, to do what you believe will truly help - not just because it might be of political advantage, and to always be there for your constituents no matter who they are or what party they may identify with.
There must be good faith again in government and politics. It is important that we work together, and that will be much easier when we agree that grandstanding for political gain has no place in good governance.
Stemming the tide of teacher shortages and shortages of many state employee positions because of a weakened pension package for new hires. We cannot wait to fix this ticking time bomb.
I see very few benefits. It may allow for quicker passage of legislation at times, but our government was founded on the idea of checks and balances, and I’m glad Kentucky is a bicameral legislature.
I believe it’s beneficial because legislators are part time, and serve only two year terms, so there isn’t much time for learning curves. That’s especially true given than in our commonwealth, the legislature meets less than two months after an election.
I absolutely do. Government functioned better when legislators talked to one another more. Communication breaks down barriers and makes people see each other as humans rather than adversaries. We may still disagree at the end of the day, but it could lead to legislation that better serves our people if we don’t see each other as enemies all the time.
A non-partisan commission.
I am happy serve wherever I am tasked, if elected. I would however particularly like to sit on committees such as local government and agriculture.
I was contacted once by one of my constituents in the city where I serve as mayor. She is very poor and struggles to get by. She was temporarily laid off from her dishwashing job at a local restaurant because of the pandemic, and she asked me to contact our state representative for her. I did so, and passed along her information and phone number. A week later she saw me on the street and I could tell she was upset. She said, “that representative never called me.” She didn’t get the help she needed, and that was a factor in my decision to run for state representative.
No. Playing politics with deadly situations that affect people’s lives forever is shameful. Our constitution gave the governor those temporary powers for a reason.
I think that compromise must never be abandoned, but there will be times when one must stand on principle, especially when those they would compromise with don’t act in good faith.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2022 Elections

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External links

Candidate

Kentucky House of Representatives District 56
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 28, 2022


    Current members of the Kentucky House of Representatives
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