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Ruth Gao
Ruth Gao (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent Kentucky. She lost in the Democratic primary on May 17, 2022.
Gao completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ruth Gao lives in Louisville, Kentucky. She earned a bachelor's degree from Liberty University in 2011, a graduate degree from Appalachian State University in 2015, and a Ph.D. from Northwest Nazarene University in 2020. Her career experience includes working as a drive-through director at Chick-fil-A. Previously, she worked in enrollment at The Learning House.[1][2]
Elections
2022
See also: United States Senate election in Kentucky, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. Senate Kentucky
Incumbent Rand Paul defeated Charles Booker, Charles Lee Thomason, and Billy Ray Wilson in the general election for U.S. Senate Kentucky on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Rand Paul (R) | 61.8 | 913,326 |
 | Charles Booker (D)  | 38.2 | 564,311 | |
| Charles Lee Thomason (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 145 | ||
 | Billy Ray Wilson (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 48 | |
| Total votes: 1,477,830 | |||
| = 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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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- David Biery (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Kentucky
Charles Booker defeated Joshua Blanton Sr., John Merrill, and Ruth Gao in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Kentucky on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Charles Booker | 73.3 | 214,245 |
| Joshua Blanton Sr. | 10.6 | 30,980 | ||
 | John Merrill | 9.9 | 28,931 | |
 | Ruth Gao | 6.2 | 18,154 | |
| Total votes: 292,310 | |||
| = 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
Republican primary for U.S. Senate Kentucky
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Kentucky on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Rand Paul | 86.4 | 333,051 |
 | Val Fredrick | 3.6 | 14,018 | |
 | Paul Hamilton | 3.5 | 13,473 | |
| Arnold Blankenship | 2.6 | 10,092 | ||
 | Tami Stainfield | 2.5 | 9,526 | |
 | John Schiess | 1.4 | 5,538 | |
| Total votes: 385,698 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ruth Gao completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gao's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I live in Louisville, Kentucky with my husband Mengen. I have a background in education, and have worked in higher ed in enrollment. My interactions with students have built in her a passion for, and commitment to, quality education that is available to all at affordable costs. Most recently I worked as an essential worker as a drive-thru director at Chick-fil-A. There I honed skills of leading through empowerment and problem solving that are essential for being part of conversations around issues in our country.
I understand many of the struggles of the middle class American family through my own experiences. When young and newly married I experienced things like walking through the grocery store and putting items back on the shelf to stay within budget for the week. While in graduate school, I worked one full time job and a second part time job to cover school costs, while also taking care of my family.
I currently serve as the local Democratic chair for my precinct and is the vice chair for the Democrat Party in my legislative district. I believe in being part of the change and growth needed starting from the local level.
I would love to serve as a voice for the families of Kentucky. I strongly believe in listening to the voices of those I would be representing and bridging the polarization that exists through education and real solutions.
- It is time that America truly began treating all within its borders as created equal so as to be a true leader in the world and an example that other countries can follow. My campaign is about ensuring that in education, healthcare, income, and more, all Kentuckians are treated with dignity and ensured the resources they need to help build up our state into the great center for commerce and development I know it can be.
- My campaign is about creating conversations around real life issues issues to connect people across the state over shared struggles and needs. I believe that discussion around these issues so many face, will help us as a state find those areas of common ground where we can work forward to ensure a better tomorrow for the citizens of Kentucky. Our differences are important and should be celebrated and discussed, but the issues we all face provide us a common goal: ensuring that Kentucky becomes a leader in the 50 United States in education, infrastructure, business development and more.
- I believe in a strong focus on voting rights because we need to ensure that all Americans have a voice so that we can then ensure that our government is truly serving the people. To ensure that all Americans will have a vote and a voice, I will be pushing for the following: early voting every election, longer voting hours, mail-in voting, making election days national holidays, modernizing voting such as ranked choice voting to better give each American a voice.
I think that most Americans on both sides of the aisle can agree that our healthcare system must change. I absolutely support a path towards some form of universal healthcare. However, I believe that it will take time and conversations to determine the best method for our country. So, at the same time I will focus on actions that can provide for the more immediate healthcare needs of Kentuckians such as: funneling resources to rural communities to build hospitals, ensuring Americans in rural areas have access to hospitals and options such as telehealth for non-life-threatening situations, and fighting for prescription drug cost restrictions. No one should have to face a situation where they cannot afford care that their life literally depends on.
A key principles I believe is important for elected officials as they create legislation is to legislate in a way that ensures the freedoms of all. As elected officials, personal preferences and faith should not be used to control or restrict those who may be of other faiths or walks in life. Instead, elected officials should work to ensure that all people are free to be their authentic selves.
I have grit, and we need that in Washington. While I was getting my PhD there was a period of time where I was working two jobs while in school. I know how to buckle down and work hard and will carry this work ethic with me to Washington. I know that being a representative of the people can be hard work, and I will put my heart and soul into the job because it is about serving the people.
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.
Campaign website
Gao's campaign website stated the following:
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LIVABLE WAGE Minimum wage in Kentucky today is $7.25. This means that working a minimum wage job would provide a salary of less than $15,000 take home pay a year. The poverty line for a family of 2 is a salary of $17,420 a year. While minimum wage jobs are often entry level jobs not all are, and many people working minimum wage jobs still have families to provide for. This puts the American dream out of reach for so many Kentuckians. For those working minimum wage, or low wage, jobs this reality makes it difficult to create a better life for themselves and their families. Many are working 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet. This means they have less time to spend with their families. If they did want to pursue further education to improve their quality of life they would have to figure out where the time comes from as well as how to afford education which so often is so expensive. The following chart dives into how the minimum wage compares to living costs and how it is impossible to work a minimum wage job and make ends meet. This chart covers bare necessities and does not include other needs such as clothing. Most of these numbers are estimates using the resources found in the resource section. no accountability to keep the minimum wage up to a certain level. If we look at the history of the minimum wage it is often raised in spurts and then nothing happens again for 10 or so years. We are over 10 years now from the last minimum wage increase, and yet inflation has not stopped. Ruth would like to see action to index minimum wage to inflation so that as cost of living increases workers can be guaranteed livable wages. This will also ensure that years in the future, in our children's generation, a livable wage is something our citizens can still expect to have. If we look at where wages should be based on inflation we are close to that $15 an hour wage that many have suggested. However, if wage is connected to productivity, we would be looking at an even higher wage at around $24 an hour. This means that most workers are not paid on par with their productivity. Companies are profiting from this productivity, but workers are not seeing the level of compensation fitting to the effort they put in. While indexing minimum wage to inflation does not solve all issues, it does two main things. First, it ensures that minimum wage is constantly following inflation so that even our children can be guaranteed a livable wage. Second, this type of increase will make it easier on businesses. Currently I know that many businesses are worried about a wage increase to $15 because that is more than double the minimum wage and will push up all their costs. However, every year due to inflation businesses are already paying more for products they purchase. Now labor would become one item they can account for as also going up with inflation, but this way it would be smaller increments and easier for businesses to adjust to. CLEAN WATER In the last number of years we have seen numerous examples in America where citizens do not have access to clean water. Clean water is foundational to a healthy life. Without clean water people are drinking contaminants that very often harm their bodies and may lead to severe illnesses such as cancer. Clean water should be a right that every American has access to and is guaranteed. Flint, Michigan, is an example of how the water infrastructures throughout America can fail communities. Across the country, many other communities have similar safety issues with their water, but have not made the news. Over the years, Kentucky has been no stranger to this struggle for clean water. While Kentucky has seen efforts to ensure clean water for all, such as the Logan Todd Regional Water Commission, much still needs to be done to ensure clean water for Kentuckians for years to come.
All this, and more, paints a clear picture that we need change in Kentucky so that our people can be assured of clean water. We need to replace old pipes and renew our infrastructure so that Kentuckians feel safer, spend less money, and are able to ensure their children are not getting poisoned by tap water. Smaller, rural counties tend to have the most violations in their public water. Rural communities do not deserve to suffer just because politicians are leaving them behind. Yet, the practicalities of seeing change are daunting. It is estimated that updating water infrastructure in Kentucky will cost over $8 billion dollars. This is a key and practical area where Kentucky can benefit from the infrastructure bills being discussed in Washington. I believe that if we do not begin now to spend the time and money to update our water infrastructure, it will only continue to deteriorate and take more time and money in the future to fix and update. However, while updating infrastructure is vital to ensure a better tomorrow, it is not something that will happen overnight. Because of this there are two steps I believe we can take now to seek to ensure all Kentuckians have access to clean water.
As we seek to ensure that America remains a leading nation in the world, I believe we must ensure our citizens have access to basic human rights, such as water. Updating our water infrastructure will take time and money, but it is worth it as doing so will save lives, protect the health of people throughout America, and ensure that for years to come people will not have to worry about having clean water to drink. ACCESSIBLE EDUCATION Quality education should be accessible to children from birth through college. This involves creating a system for free preschool for children so that parents have access to care without needing to sacrifice their jobs which often are key to providing food and necessities for their children. In K-12 education we need a focus on improving public education so that all children across Kentucky have access to equal quality of education. This includes ensuring that public funding stays in the school system and is not used via loopholes to pay for private education. It also includes ensuring that the key leaders in K-12 education, our teachers, are compensated as professionals who are training up the next generation. Looking at higher education in our country today we desperately need new ideas to help reshape how higher education is done. Higher education should be affordable so that students are not graduating with staggering debt that many carry for much of their adult life. This includes looking at solutions to reduce the debts students and graduates already have, as well as creating policies to guide future education costs so that new students are not faced with the need to take out life-crippling loans. Another solution would involve making high demand degrees available for low cost or free so that students can gain a quality education while also providing Kentucky with an educated workforce in degree fields that will ensure our growth as a state. COVID-19 COVID-19 has been a deeply divisive issue in Washington DC and with the surge of cases across the country will, most likely, continue to be a source of conflict for the rest of this year. In DC we have seen Rand Paul, among others, specifically spread misinformation as he seeks to encourage Kentuckians to not get vaccinated and not wear masks. He has called for people to resist government regulations and guidelines relating to COVID arguing that these guidelines are unscientific based on a few studies he cites. As a researcher myself, I know that no matter what issues you are studying, if you look hard enough you can nearly always find opposing evidence. Rand Paul is risking people’s lives on a few opposing articles he has found that fit his bias. Instead he should be listening to the overwhelming evidence of science that points to the success of vaccines and the ability of cautions, such as masks and social distancing, to drastically reduce the spread of COVID. If you live in Kentucky and need assistance covering utilities, rent, etc. please scroll to the end of this page and you will find links to resources. With his proactive and caring action against COVID-19, Governor Beshear helped Kentucky face the initial wave of infection. However, as we see new variants of the virus begin to spread around our state and nation I believe there are several actions we can take to save lives and help control the spread of the virus:
As we continue, as a nation, to face the brutal effects of COVID, I support the following to provide support for people who have faced loss of jobs, and other life challenges, due to COVID:
VOTING RIGHTS Throughout our country we are seeing sad examples of the right to vote being suppressed and taken away from citizens who have the right to vote and have a voice in who represents them in government. Kentucky has seen legislation that has sought to expand voting rights in some ways. However, we still need conversations to ensure that all citizens in Kentucky have equal access to vote. Here are some of the methods we have seen used to restrict people’s rights:
These restrictions, and more, mean that citizens throughout our country are unable to make their voices heard through the process of voting that is so fundamental to our democracy. I firmly believe that ensuring equal access to voting is foundational to our democracy. Here are steps I believe are vital to take to protect voting rights. Many of these would appear in various proposed legislation at state and federal levels. As one of the most developed countries in the world, we should have an election system that sets an example of how a democracy should function. If elected Senator, I would fight to ensure these protections are in any legislation passed:
LGBTQ+ EQUALITY While America was founded on the belief in freedom and liberty for all, sadly history has shown this ideal is often only applied to a specific group of people in this country. For many years, people in the LGBTQ+ community (often our own friends and family) have been ostracized and discriminated against for who they are. This discrimination has included being subjected to converstion therapy, forced out from housing, fired from jobs, and more. Kentucky is one of 27 states that does not not protect those in the LGBTQ+ community in non-discrimination laws that affect areas such as housing and public accommodations. In a survey across the country, Williams Institute found that 21% of the LGBTQ+ respondents in the study have been treated unfairly in some way by an employer. Not only are those in the LGBTQ+ community not protected from discrimination, but converstion therapy is currently still legal throughout most of the state. Only 25% of the population in one city, and two counties, is currently legally protected against conversion therapy. As a Senator I will always seek to uphold and protect the human dignity and freedoms of every citizen in Kentucky, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. I believe this can be pursued in two ways:
INFRASTRUCTURE Throughout Kentucky, our transportation systems need updating and replacing. Much of the infrastructure was built in the 1950s and 1960 and around 1,000 bridges and 1,200 miles of highway are in desperate need of being rebuilt. The latest White House infrastructure report gave Kentucky a grade of C-. Quality roads and bridges are vital to connecting our state and encouraging businesses to choose Kentucky as a location for them to build and grow. This is something we need to build together today so that generations to come have safe transportation routes across the state and the nation. Currently in Washington infrastructure bills are being discussed that would provide funds for infrastructure repair and development across the country. While definitely costly, the writers of these proposed bills have worked hard to detail where the money will come from in taxes. We must be willing to put in the effort and money now before it is too late and we fall even more behind as a nation in our infrastructure. These bills, if passed, would allow Kentucky to update stretches of interstate that are over 60 years old, to repair and replace bridges that are aging, completion of highways in Appalachia, and more. Natural disasters, such as hurricane Ida, vividly remind us of the damage climate change can have on infrastructure, and thus of our need to upgrade infrastructure across America so we are ready for future storms and natural disasters. In addition to having been built many years ago, much of the infrastructure across America was not designed to withstand the storms and environmental stressors that we are seeing today. Updating infrastructure across America is a daunting task, and the need to build new infrastructure in addition to the updates adds layers of complexity to the challenge. However, I support taking action now, specifically focused on the following areas, to ensure Americans are able to travel throughout their country easily and cheaply.
Infrastructure across America is sadly in need of much work. What needs to be accomplished will not be done through one bill alone or one solution. However, I believe that we need to start now with intentional and aggressive solutions so that we can see more effective and reliable infrastructure across America to serve the people. If elected I will fight to see infrastructure improved so that America can ensure our country is well connected and people have access to affordable transportation no matter where they live and where they want to go. GUN REFORM Gun violence and gun related deaths have been on the rise over the last number of years. In 2014 in America there were around 12,500 gun related deaths (not counting suicides). This year, there are already around 16,000 gun related deaths and we still have several months of the year left. In Louisville specifically, there were 41 gun related deaths in 2014, this year there are already 155 gun related deaths. One cannot look at these growing numbers and refuse to act to see better gun regulation and steps to save lives. Those against gun reform argue law abiding citizens should not have their freedom to bear arms restricted in any way. However, not all citizens are law abiding, and as a society we need methods to protect ourselves and ensure those who are not law abiding citizens do not have access to guns with which they can kill others. Also, those who argue against gun reform ignore the fact that in other areas of life we restrict access to certain functions. Think about driving for example, one must study, pass a written test, and pass a road test to obtain a license. We accept this as a society because we all know how dangerous it is to have people driving without knowing how to drive, and we also need a method to keep track of drivers and hold them accountable if needed. This same logic applies to guns. Guns can actually be even more deadly than cars in the hands of a wrong person. If we care about saving lives, we need to do everything we can to ensure guns do not find their way into the wrong hands. If law abiding citizens truly want a gun for self protection, then just like getting a license, they should be happy to jump through any and all hoops to be part of ensuring that we stay safe as a society. Yet, sadly not enough action being taken to enact gun reform laws that will protect people in our cities. In Kentucky alone, there are laws that make it hard, if not impossible, for cities to pass meaningful gun reform laws. This is an issue we should address at the Federal level so people in all states are protected. If elected Senator, I will fight for restrictions and regulations similar to these ideas that others have brought forward.
Steps such as these are vital to the conversation around guns in America. Massachusetts has set an example of the type of gun reform we should be seeking to have throughout our country. While steps such as these will slow down the process to purchase a gun, I would challenge all law abiding citizens to appreciate that these laws keep us safe and do not restrict their ability to obtain a gun once they have completed all required steps.[3] |
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| —Ruth Gao's campaign website (2022)[4] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. Senate Kentucky |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 18, 2022
- ↑ Ruth Gao for KY, "About," accessed February 19, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ruth Gao, “Issues,” accessed February 23, 2022
