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Kentucky Secretary of State election, 2023 (May 16 Republican primary)
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← 2019
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| Kentucky Secretary of State |
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| Democratic primary Republican primary General election |
| Election details |
| Filing deadline: January 6, 2023 |
| Primary: May 16, 2023 General: November 7, 2023 Pre-election incumbent(s): Michael Adams (Republican) |
| How to vote |
| Poll times: 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Voting in Kentucky |
| Ballotpedia analysis |
| Federal and state primary competitiveness State executive elections in 2023 Impact of term limits in 2023 State government trifectas State government triplexes Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2023 |
| Kentucky executive elections |
| Governor Lieutenant Governor |
Incumbent Michael Adams defeated two challengers—2015 Republican nominee Stephen Knipper and former state Rep. Allen Maricle—in the Republican primary for Kentucky secretary of state on May 16, 2023. Adams faced Democratic nominee Charles Wheatley in the general election on November 7, 2023.
Adams received a bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville and a law degree from Harvard University.[1] He previously worked in Gov. Ernie Fletcher's (R) administration, in the U.S. attorney general's office during George W. Bush's (R) presidency, and as an attorney specializing in election law.[1] Adams served on the Kentucky State Board of Elections from 2016 to 2020, and was elected secretary of state in 2019, defeating Heather French Henry (D), 52% to 48%.[1] He stated why he ran on his website: "We’ve done more in 3 years to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat than our predecessors were able to do in 200 years...I do not take this race for granted, nor should anyone who wants fair, free, accessible and secure elections."[2]
Knipper was the chief of staff for Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Jenean Hampton (R).[3] He was the Republican nominee for secretary of state in 2015, losing to Lundergan Grimes (D) in the general election, 51% to 49%. Knipper finished third in the Republican primary for the office in 2019. He received a bachelor's degree from Northern Kentucky University and previously worked as a business analyst and project manager for The Cincinnati Insurance Companies and Catholic Health Initiatives.[3] Knipper said he ran because "The election concerns I have had for nearly a decade are now recurring national news. The election topic is not going away this time, so I am dedicating myself once again to address it."[4]
Maricle was a consultant in the political and broadcast television industries and served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999.[5] Maricle received a bachelor's degree from Sullivan University and previously worked as a sales manager for a magazine and several local television stations.[5] Maricle said he would "bring his extensive knowledge of elections and campaign finance to the forefront, and will work tirelessly to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process.[6]
Adams supported changes to Kentucky's voting procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.[7] Politico's Zach Montellaro wrote that "Kentucky earned measured praise from voting rights advocates for how it largely sidestepped the missing ballots, long lines and other problems faced by many states amid coronavirus. The Democratic governor and Republican secretary of state reached bipartisan agreement on a massive expansion of absentee voting, leading to the highest primary turnout in Kentucky since the hard-fought 2008 presidential primary."[8]
Adams also supported election administration legislation that Kentucky's Republican-controlled General Assembly passed in 2021 and that Gov. Andy Beshear (D) signed into law.[9] "House Bill 564...creates additional in-person voting days, adds protections for poll workers, and codifies our existing policy of not connecting the voting machines to the internet."[9] "Senate Bill 216...doubling the number of counties subject to post-election audit, moving up the full transition to paper ballots, and placing voting machines under video surveillance when not being used."[9]
NBC News' Jane Timm wrote that in 2021, Knipper said "Donald Trump won the 2020 election and that he personally saw hackers manipulate U.S. election results online."[10] Timm also said Knipper "criticized the supercenters and early voting codified in the 2021 law and fought against the use of electronic voting machines.[10]
Maricle believed there was fraud in Kentucky's 2022 general election and said he would: "Clean up the voter rolls. Eliminate the ERIC system...look into the voter machine process and give counties more options to choose from. Give back local control to the county clerk's. Create an office called Election Integrity Task force to look into every election complaint and give prompt answers to the public."[11]
The state's membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) was also an issue in the campaign. According to Timm, Adams "doesn’t want to remove the state from ERIC...[and] said ERIC is a helpful tool in election administration."[10] Both Knipper and Maricle said Kentucky should withdraw from ERIC.[10] Click here for more information about ERIC.
According to the state's official website, the secretary of state is "responsible for business registration, preservation of state records, state election management, and other administrative, fiscal and personnel tasks."[12]
Adams succeeded Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), who served two terms in the position from 2012 to 2020. Grimes was unable to run in 2019 due to term limits. Before Adams, the previous Republican secretary of state was Trey Grayson (R), who served from 2005 until 2012.[13]
This page focuses on Kentucky's Republican Party Secretary of State primary. For more in-depth information on Kentucky's Democratic Secretary of State primary and the general election, see the following pages:
- Kentucky Secretary of State election, 2023 (May 16 Democratic primary)
- Kentucky Secretary of State election, 2023
Candidates and election results
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Kentucky Secretary of State
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Michael Adams | 63.9 | 171,391 |
 | Stephen L. Knipper | 26.5 | 70,991 | |
 | Allen Maricle | 9.6 | 25,771 | |
| Total votes: 268,153 | |||
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Voting information
- See also: Voting in Kentucky
State profile
| Demographic data for Kentucky | ||
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 4,424,611 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 39,486 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 87.6% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 7.9% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 1.3% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.2% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.1% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 3.3% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 84.2% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 22.3% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $43,740 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 22.7% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Kentucky. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
- See also: Presidential voting trends in Kentucky
Kentucky voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Pivot Counties (2016)
Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Kentucky, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.[14]
Pivot Counties (2020)
In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Kentucky had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More Kentucky coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in Kentucky
- United States congressional delegations from Kentucky
- Public policy in Kentucky
- Endorsers in Kentucky
- Kentucky fact checks
- More...
See also
| Kentucky | State Executive Elections | News and Analysis |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Secretary of State Michael G. Adams, "Biography," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ Michael Adams, Secretary of State, "Home," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 LinkedIn, "Stephen Knipper, PMP," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ VOTE Steve Knipper, "Steve Knipper Files to Run for Secretary of State," January 10, 2023
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 LinkedIn, "Allen Maricle," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ Allen Maricle, Secretary of State, "Meet Allen Maricle," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedSonka - ↑ Politico, "Coronavirus threatened to make a mess of Kentucky’s primary. It could be a model instead." July 4, 2020
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Secretary of State Michael G. Adams, "Election Law Updates," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 NBC News, "Election deniers seek to oust Kentucky Republican who expanded voting access," May 15, 2023
- ↑ Louisville Courier Journal, "Voter guide 2023: Here are candidates for Kentucky secretary of state," May 9, 2023
- ↑ Kentucky Secretary of State, "Overview of the Office," accessed January 18, 2021
- ↑ Secretary of State Michael G. Adams, "Secretaries of State," accessed May 16, 2023
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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