LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Republican Michael Adams will be Kentucky’s next secretary of state after beating Democrat Heather French Henry 4.4 percentage points Tuesday.
Adams, who carried 52.2% of the vote, will succeed Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat who is term-limited.
The office has become a point of controversy recently amid a rocky relationship between Grimes and the Kentucky State Board of Elections as well as allegations that she pushed through a no-bid contract for a campaign donor and that her staff inappropriately accessed voter data, charges she has denied.
Lawmakers stripped most of the secretary of state’s authority over the state elections board during this year’s legislative session.
Adams, an attorney and former state elections board member, said he would be the best candidate to clean up the office after Grimes’s second term expires.
Henry, a former Miss America and former commissioner of the state Department of Veteran Affairs, has said legislators erred in that move. She’s also touted her work with veterans groups in the run-up to the election.
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