(Grady Amick edited and condensed this conversation for length and clarity. He wrote a summary of the interview, found here.)

How long have you been chair of the Louisville Democrats? 

Since May of 2024. 

Had you been involved with them before then? 

I finished up my graduate school [at the University of Louisville] in 2014 and then started talking to some people about how to get engaged in politics, because I’d done young Democrats at U of L previously. And it was just a time constraint going through grad school; I just didn’t have time to really do anything. And it wasn’t a really hectic time in terms of politics. You’re in between, you know? It was the midterms, 2013, 2014. Obama just got elected for a second term. So 2014, 2015 rolls around and I’m going to some Democratic clubs in the area and just reaching out to folks. And I was terrified at the time because I was like, am I allowed to be in the club? 

And so the one that I went to was like the most unintimidating group of people of all time. It was a bunch of old folks for the most part. But they were super welcoming and they got me connected to a few folks. So then I started in the Young Democrats. I was secretary, then president, then went to Kentucky Young Democrats and was vice president there. So that was 2016 to 2019. And then in 2020 and 2021, we do something called a party reorganization. Every four years, we tear the whole thing down and we rebuild it. It starts from electing precinct leadership to legislative district leadership, which is the state house seats. That’s the boundaries of those. Then you do county leadership, which is me. And then you do state and then national. So like, It starts at the precinct level and then you elect the DNC chair. 

Do you ever find that it’s hard to maintain some kind of continuity with that, or does it all flow pretty well? 

It’s interesting. So when I first got engaged and tried to be a part of the process, it was 2016. 

You picked quite a year. 

Oh, yeah. (Laughs.) I tried to get engaged, but the process is designed to be so convoluted and complex that only people that have been on the inside for a while are able to figure out the system. And then in 2020, there was a lot of virtual reorganization. I saw that we actually got some more people engaged, but it still wasn’t that much. There’s 627 precincts in Louisville. And each one of those has three leadership positions: a man, woman, and youth. That’s 1,881 total positions. 

And I think after the 2020 reorganization, we had 170-ish precinct positions filled, which is really bad. Less than 10%. And so seeing how well it went virtually, I was like, listen, there’s too many precincts to do this all within everyone doing their own things. They’ll say, oh, yeah, we had our precinct convention at Jim Bob’s house at 10 p.m. on a Sunday. “Sorry, you missed it. You’re not in anymore.” So I’m like, everything’s going to be virtual, at least at the precinct level, so that people know, “okay, I can sign up for this. got like a month to sign up as well.” We were pushing it out to everyone that we possibly could. All you have to do is be a registered Democrat over the age of 18 and you’re good. 

And so we got about 340 people signed up. So basically double what we had last time, which is fantastic. I mean, this executive committee that we have this year, which is two people from every legislative district. There’s 18 in the city, so that’s 36, plus 18 countywide at-large, for a total of 54. It’s about 70% new people, which is not common. And that just goes to opening up the whole process again. 

We did lose a lot of historical knowledge, but most of the people that either did not run for their seats or lost their seats are still engaged. And that was what I was telling people. Yeah, that happens. It’s the way politics work. But at the end of the day, we’re all still Democrats rowing the same direction, I hope. At the end of the day, I want to see new people engaged. Because if we keep ourselves silent, we’ll never expand what we can do as a party. 

You said that when you started off, there were demographic requirements. Do you still have those? 

Yeah, that’s a DNC bylaw. 

We can work around those, if there’s any sort of issue that we run into. We typically are as flexible as possible, but at the end of the day, I know it’s an archaic sort of language in this day and age, but it’s man, woman, and youth. 

I kind of want to get to the reason why you reached out to me. In my article, I kind of went after Democrats for losing a couple of House seats last November. I’m just wanting to know out of curiosity, what does that mobilization look like? 

Yeah, good question. Also, I enjoyed the article. We can’t afford to be in an echo chamber patting ourselves on the back, which is what we’ve done in the past. We lost. Why are we congratulating ourselves? 

You came in May 2024 (laughs). It’s okay. 

I know, that’s the thing. I posted on Reddit about our reorganization process: “Hey, everyone, if you’re on Reddit and actively involved and want to do a little bit more in an official capacity with the party, please, sign up.” And someone came after me on it. “You lost three Metro Council seats under your leadership load. Why should we trust you?” I mean, I genuinely had about four months of my tenure before the election in November happened. I was like, I’m sorry I couldn’t solve all of the foundational issues that we had within the party within those four months. I would love the opportunity to try and do more. 

Our goal has always been, how do we get back down to what actually works when it comes to campaigns? And that is being on the doors. I think you can find many instances where people had been outmatched financially in local races, but ended up victorious in the election itself. And that’s because they knocked on more doors. I think that’s the reason that some of the Republicans won in formerly Democratic-held seats last year. I think it’s the reason that you saw an incumbent Democrat or two lose as well. You could have 100,000 bucks in your bank account, but if you don’t knock on anyone’s door? The impact of digital and marketing and mail pieces are all supplementary to what you’re doing on the doors. People have to see you, they have to understand that you’re the candidate running and then reinforced by the alternative pieces that are coming out, through radio, TV, or mail, or whatever it might be. 

So that’s been our plan first and foremost, is how do we get out there and reintroduce ourselves as a party? We’ve started doing that already. We’ve done things called deep canvassing. We’re not going out to doors to ask people to vote a certain way or to give money or anything else that you would expect us to be talking about. We’re just going out and having conversations with Democrats and being like, hey, we just want to learn about what issues really mean the most to you. So that’s one of those areas where we’re finding opportunities to gather feedback from folks, but to also show that we care about what they want. And ultimately, we want to take that information, develop local messaging, a local platform, and then just push that out as far as we can. Because I’m sure that you would agree one of the things that we are terrible on is messaging. 

Yes. 

I mean, it’s just so convoluted oftentimes. People ask the question: what does the Democratic Party stand for? You could go a million different directions, which is fine with a big-tent party, but at the end of the day, you need one or two things that you can really push. Republicans have that. It’s lower taxes and anti-abortion and Donald Trump. 

That’s about right. 

That’s what they care about. That’s how I define the Republican Party. I’m sure that’s how they would define themselves, too. And so for us, what are the pieces that really make sense for us as far as the broad appeal? Not discounting any of the other pieces that are obviously important, but how can we strike that balance of broad appeal while also understanding that we have many groups of people that we have to try and support through our messaging and through our legislation as well? 

I mean, that’s an enormous question. You’re enlisting door knockers to try to help answer it. You’re doing canvassing. A couple of questions. One, where have you gotten in trying to answer that question? And is there anything that surprised you? And two, when you enlist door knockers, are those folks from any given community? And do they only knock on doors of fellow registered Democrats or do they just go down the line? 

We have tools to obviously target Democrats only. And as far as deep canvassing, that’s what we want to do, because there are more Democrats than Republicans. So if we can turn out the Democrats, then we win. 

Right. 

There’s only really a few Metro Council districts where we’re at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. Even the ones that are held by Republicans, it’s even. at the very least, and there’s a couple where we’re obviously not doing super well. That’s not saying that everyone that’s registered a Democrat is going to vote for a Democrat, obviously. I’m not that naive. But we should be talking more and more with people, especially in areas and with people that are lower propensity voters, but really high fidelity. Like, hey, you’re a good Democrat, but you haven’t voted in three or four elections. Like, what’s the deal? And typically, when you’re running a campaign, you’re knocking on the people that are three out of five, the super voters. Which sounds terrible, just voting three out of the last five elections. I expect super voters to be 5 out of five, but no. And so, like, the thing is, how do we get people to move from one or two out of five to three, four or five out of five. And that’s sort of like the big thing for us is like, what’s really causing you to just all of a sudden one year say, I don’t feel like voting? 

Yeah. 

And we often find it’s lack of interest at the top of the ticket or they don’t relate to any of the candidates. So that’s obviously the issue with midterms and especially like right now with a primary election, my big concern was we’re not going to have a good race for the U.S. Senate race on the Democratic side, which means a low Democratic turnout. And in nonpartisan races in Metro Council and Mayor, that means more Republicans than Democrats show up, which skews things. And you could have an instance where two Republicans run against each other in a general because of the new jungle primary process. And so I’m very thankful that more and more people are jumping into the Senate race on the Democratic side, because I need people to want to go out and vote. Because to be honest, there’s not a whole lot else that is going to be competitive for people to vote for. So why go out? 

But as far as topics that we’re hearing, our Senate candidate in the special election, Gary Clemons, talked a lot about the issues that typically popped up in our post-election research about the topics that people really, really cared about. And it’s inflation, it’s about cost of goods. Believe me, I understand you’re probably well aware that the president doesn’t control gas prices, but gas prices. And all this basic affordability stuff. At the end of the day, it’s dollars and cents that people care about. And that’s just continuously what we hear from people: cost of living, cost of living, cost of living. Now, there are tons of people that obviously care about immigration issues, health care, civil rights, et cetera. But I think all of those tie back to dollars and cents. Kitchen table issues, if you will. I think when we’re talking about developing a local party platform, which is something that we’re doing, like we understand there are groups of individuals that we need to obviously call out those folks whose civil rights are being infringed upon and have those being protected. But there’s just the standard: inflation’s high. We need to curb it. Health care is out of control and the costs are out of control and care is subpar relative to our neighbor countries. So how do we get back to let’s pay people good wages, let’s make sure that they can afford health care and be healthy and live longer, and make sure that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in this country, which honestly is not the case at this point?

Those are good questions. Sure, getting people elected and getting them in office is one thing, but when I wrote that article about Greenberg, and in most of the conversations I have, it’s not like I’m upset that Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, got elected. It seems like people turned out for that. I’m upset about the policy. I’m upset about what actually happened when he got there. And I think that’s at the root of a lot of the frustration that folks are feeling. So what specifically are you guys pushing? What specifically do you guys have in mind for the next couple of elections for policies that will actually happen to lower the cost of living when Democrats get in office? 

At the core of it is affordability of housing. Typically, that’s going to be the greatest expense that people face in their lives, and it’s going to be the greatest expense from now, probably until the day that I die, because you’re spending a lot of money on this piece of property, or someone’s paying a lot of money to develop a property, and therefore they have to charge rents commensurate with how much money they put into projects. And so the housing question is one that is obviously important to us. I don’t speak for Mayor Greenberg. I’ll just put that out there. The My Louisville Home Plan that he put together is a great start. We look at our pure cities and we see them just developing housing and housing and housing all over the place and we think to ourselves, why can’t we do that here? It’s a lot of zoning restrictions. It’s a lot of land development code issues that we have. And a lot of that is ultimately controlled by the state. We can do things here locally, but the state can then just turn around and say, Well, we don’t like that, so we’re going to cancel what you did, or we’ll put a moratorium on land development code updates so you can’t do anything. 

It’s funny, I had this conversation with someone the other day. They said, “What has Greenberg done?” And, like, you know, Craig and I have worked together on certain projects professionally, and there are obviously things that I disagreed with him on, but I think what Craig has done has always been, his successes have been a little bit more behind the scenes, Working with Frankfort to pull a lot of money back from the state to the city, I think that’s a big success. Specifically, the economic development projects that he’s working on around small business development and housing, those are things where you’re going to see progress over a few years and ultimately come to like this, final conclusion within maybe a couple of years. And it might be past his election time. So I think that good work is being done. It’s just that you’re probably not going to see it for a little while, at least on the economic front. And then as it relates to some other things, you know, I’m sure that you have questions that I could probably answer about that. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think everyone agrees public safety is an issue, economics is an issue, and health is an issue. 

Right. 

And so those big three are going to be the main thing that we’re pushing moving forward. Now, the specifics of those, we’ll figure it out. But I think progress is being made. You know, it’s Louisville. We always move a little bit slowly compared to other cities. 

Not a bad thing, necessarily. 

Yeah, it’s like that’s what kind of allows us to keep our culture and our sense of identity. But we’ve got a lot of speed bumps that have been put in front of us from state interference, federal interference. So that’s probably a cause for the speed in which we can get things accomplished. But I think we’re on the right path. I genuinely do. It’s just — we just need to have a more direct plan moving forward. I think we’re getting there. 

I was going to ask about a plan for one more thing, because you say those things about Greenberg, those are great things. I didn’t see those on this campaign website. I couldn’t really find much about them on press releases. And that’s someone who’s trying to dig for Greenberg’s accomplishments and is trying to see, okay, what has this guy done right? So do you guys have a plan to actually take credit for those things? And how is that going to look when you’re [campaigning]?

Yeah, that’s a good question. Again, like I don’t speak for Craig. He’s got his own campaign staff. I’m not affiliated with the campaign in any way. 

Alright. Sorry if that was a misguided question. 

No, it’s totally fine. But it’s a good point that you make. Like, are we pushing the things that we’re doing? We’re not. Have we laid out a goal that we’re going to accomplish around it? Have we accomplished it? And once we have accomplished it, have we cheerleaded? And the answer is oftentimes not really. What’s really disappointing for me is when I see all 12 Republican Metro Council people all standing together for a press conference around public safety that’s already been solved, but they just want to make a show of it. And Democrats are off doing a million different things in a million different spots. And I would love for us to do a joint press conference. That sounds fantastic. Just to show cohesion, shared goals, things that we can all work on together. And like I think when we move into the election, we should have a little bit more of a plan around, you know, how we’re actually showing what we’re doing and how we’ve been effective as legislators. The whole non-partisan thing is just making everything more complicated, because it’s open primaries and open generals, obviously, so people have been sort of scrambling and understanding, okay, what’s our process here? It’s truly unprecedented, moving from a partisan to non-partisan race. 

Is that why there’s such an emphasis on door knocking from what you’re talking about? Just getting someone’s name out there and letting people know who they actually are? 

Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, if you’re a Democrat and you’re running in one of those East End Metro Council races, there’s usually not going to be a primary. And so it’s just going to be the general. Republicans might have primaries out there. But hey, if there’s three people running now, you don’t have the luxury of just coasting by the Democratic primary unopposed. You’ve got to be top two out of those three in the primary, and then you’ve got to be top one out of two in the general. 

So it’s going to be more work for everyone. Assuming that there is actually a primary. Some people might get lucky and not have to worry about a primary. But my assumption is, given how everything’s going on partisan now, people are going to look at it as an opportunity to move beyond, “it’s going to be R versus D, and I’m not going to get involved as an independent.” I think everyone’s going to say, “hey, we’re all independents now.” We have to be independent. Time for me to get in and shake things up. It’s going to be a unique experience. We’re figuring out how we, as a party, get involved in that process, either through endorsements or some other mechanism. So there’s going to be a path forward. I’m still trying to figure it out. 

Alright. I know that you aren’t connected to his campaign. Are there any conversations going on about the 2026 mayoral race other than assuming that Craig Greenberg is going to run again as the incumbent? Because like I’ve said, and like I’m sure you know, the political landscape in [2022] was all about repairing from the catastrophe of Trump’s first term and COVID and everything. Now it’s a bit different, a bit more populistic. Are there any conversations happening about a change in leadership or messaging or style? 

No, we really won’t know how the whole landscape is going to play out until the filing deadline on January 9th, I think it is this year. You know, ultimately we want to have a Democrat as mayor, of course. Craig Greenberg ran as a Democrat, and as of right now, he is the guy. If there are multiple people that are running in this race, we’re going to go through our process of trying to find a candidate that we think best aligns with what the Democratic Party locally wants to do and then move forward there. So, I mean, this whole process is very much fluid. I wish I could give you more concrete answers around what we’re going to do. But we realize that we’re going to have to get involved in some way in the mayor’s race to ensure that there’s a Democrat. 

If Craig runs against nobody, easy, he’s going to be the mayor for the next four years. But that’s not going to happen. Like, there’s going to be someone that gets in there and runs the race. So we’ll just kind of have to see who that is and then plan accordingly. My assumption is it’s going to be a Republican versus Craig as the Democrat. And if that’s the case, then we will have to get behind Craig and support him as the candidate.

A lot of my other questions are platform-based, but I think that, as you said, that’s kind of something that is changing and I think it’s something that needs to change. Do you have any timeline for making those changes? Have you guys already begun making changes to your platform? I know you’re still talking to people, but is it still kind of in the larva stages or do you have a Democratic platform? 

So we presented a preliminary platform and a preliminary endorsement process at our October executive committee meeting for the executive committee to review. Ultimately we changed the bylaws last month as well to allow for the Louisville Democratic Party to endorse in nonpartisan races and to establish a local party platform. We have not done that in the past, but it was, in my opinion, and of the opinion of the Executive Committee, the right thing to do for us to ensure that Democrats won races. When the city and the county merged 20 some-odd years ago, the decision was made by the people to have our council races be partisan. And interestingly enough, that was pushed by Mitch McConnell because he assumed that all the places out in the suburbs are going to carry and we’ll have more Republicans than Democrats. That did not happen. It wasn’t even close to what happened. 

And so, when that work didn’t work out, they went to the state and the state said, oh yeah, Louisville, you’re not going to do partisan races anymore. Of course, a majority of people from Louisville on our state delegation did not agree with that, but who cares what we say, apparently? 

Right. 

So people not from Louisville made the decision on how Louisville should run their elections. We’re dealing with it. When you look at how people make decisions on who to vote for, the research says that people will make decisions based on party first and foremost. And so our thinking is, okay, it’s not going to be partisan races officially. We will make it as partisan as possible so that people understand the people that they’re voting for. We’re not going to let Republicans cosplay as Democrats on certain issues and then run to the right to court those Republican votes. They’re going to have to be true stewards of the Democratic Party platform in order to receive support and to court the votes of Democrats, in my opinion. So our job is to make sure that people have the most informed decision-making apparatus in front of them as possible so that they can ultimately pick the Democrats in those races. 

Do you have a plan for letting the public know, besides, I assume, your website and some press releases, exactly whom your party has endorsed? 

We’ve discussed doing a voter guide that essentially says, “here’s a list of everyone that’s running that’s a Democrat, and then here’s the Democratic Party endorsed candidate if there is one.” So, that’s in preliminary stages still, we’re still working through that, but we’re going to be pushing out as much as we possibly can. 

In the media, I assume? 

Yeah, social media as much as we can. We’re trying to do a mailer or two as well, depending on how the budget works. Fundraising has been difficult because things are more expensive now. People have less disposable income to put into the local party and candidates and other causes. As someone that works in a non-profit, I know how tight funding is. So, my hope is that people realize, things have changed, but ultimately I can have the same, basic information provided to me so that I can ensure that my decision is the one that best represents my viewpoints across the board. 

I have questions about what specifically a local government could do to change the cost of living. And I know that in New York City right now, for the mayor’s race, we’re seeing a tectonic shift in how a party can advertise its changes to cost of living. [This interview was recorded on Oct. 28, before Zohran Mamdani was announced the next mayor of New York City, but when polling showed him with an enormous lead.] I don’t really know how to get that into a question.

When we look at what the major expenses are for people, it’s their transit budget and it’s their housing budget. And then obviously like food and things like that as well. So what really creates affordable housing? Without trying to go and reverse 40 years of the commoditization of the housing market, it’s creating density, it’s creating those economies of scale that will ultimately lower the cost per unit for people. It’s trying to do new things like modular housing, and building up, not out. You lower the overall cost running a city because you don’t have to spread the services out far and wide. You can kind of localize them where needed. So I think that’s one piece of it. 

We obviously have to discuss our public transit system as well. Louisville has some of the highest car insurance rates and cars are becoming more and more expensive. How to create multimodal transit options that allow people to bike safely. As someone that bikes to work, I’ve been hit by a car while riding my bike. It’s not fun. I don’t want anyone to get hit by a car at all. And I think, again, we’re getting there, because it used to be that I would ride my bike from my house on 3rd Street up to my office on 3rd and Main. It’s a straight shot for me, but there were bike lanes in certain areas, but not in others. And the road was all bumpy and it did not feel good to ride a bike. And I don’t know if you’ve been down Main Street recently, but they’ve limited the number of lanes. 

Yeah. 

They’re adding two-way streets just to slow traffic down. So I think that’s a good start. Again, nothing is going to make the cost of living go down immediately. It’s going to take a little bit of time, but I’m glad we’re making the infrastructure improvements to make sure that it’s more cost effective for people to live here and to give them other opportunities. If we could expand TARC services, that’d be fantastic. And then from a housing standpoint, you’ve got a lot of vacant and abandoned properties. How do we do urban infill? How do we allow people to develop these properties? because it makes sense to build these giant 300-unit apartment buildings. Oftentimes it doesn’t make sense for people to just build one home. So how do you actually make it profitable and financially viable for people to build one home and sell it? So those are all the things that we’re kind of working on. And I think the tax lien forgiveness program is a good idea. That was passed recently. Having all these non-profit developers come in, and have the ability to redevelop some of these properties that have been foreclosed on, is a good idea. Just alternates to the land bank are good opportunities to make sure that we’re building the housing stock, which will lower the cost of housing and ultimately the cost of living. Yeah, that’s my economics nerd pitch to you. 

I can appreciate that. Okay. Those are really all the questions I have. We’ve covered most of this. So thank you very much. 

Yeah, it was great talking with you.