Yeah.

Somerset Mayor Alan Keck was one of the dozen candidates in May's Republican gubernatorial primary.

He placed sixth, earning just 2.4% of the vote.

Mayor Keck talked to us yesterday about his first statewide run for office.

Any future political ambitions?

And if he was asked about being the running mate to Republican nominee Daniel Cameron, how do you assess how you performed in the primary?

What were the lessons you learned?

This was your first big race so wide.

So many lessons, candidly.

One is, you know, I made a pledge to be authentic.

I'm glad for that.

You know, I never deviated from that.

I made a promise to never pander.

And we didn't we talked about issues that mattered.

I think we're still talking about it.

You know, you get into elections to win, though.

And so while the compliment and across the state and people thank me for my messaging in the debates, I said, you know, it seems as if I did well at all of it, except the whole getting votes part.

I wish that I would have been more successful there.

But I am happy to see us talking about workforce and reentry, welfare reform, things that I think will move our state forward.

We're talking about public safety in a big way.

And so from that standpoint, it wasn't a failure at all.

So do you wish you had gotten in the game a little earlier to be able to raise the money to get a little higher?

I do.

You know, I was running for mayor while a lot of the folks were already out campaigning and having fundraisers in my community.

And that did make it challenging.

You know, as I reflected, you know, Commissioner Corales had been on the ballot that made number number five in Polaski County, General Kammerer, and that was the third time he had been on the ballot in our county.

You know, I'm the mayor and been elected twice in Polaski County.

It was the first time they'd ever seen Al and kick on the ballot, just like the other 120 counties.

And so I think that was perhaps more of an uphill battle than I realized.

I've been accused of being naive and being a dreamer.

That's okay.

I'm glad I did it.

You know, folks asked if I regret it, and the only thing I regret is not doing a little bit better.

But I loved the experience.

I loved getting to meet folks, being able to tell our story and then hearing theirs.

Were you disappointed at where you ranked in terms of the overall ranking?

Yeah, I was.

I was.

I mean, if you look at the KSR debate, most folks said that we won that at your debate or forum or Kentucky, whatever you want to call it.

The consensus feedback I got is that we had a great night and so that didn't translate into votes.

I think it did.

It morphed into a competition of who actually could win, and I think that hurt our overall finish.

I don't know that I was going to win regardless of that, but I think it probably stifled my numbers of folks saying, well, we really like we like his ideas, we like his approach, but he's not viable yet.

And so we maybe should go somewhere else for now.

Yet is the key word there.

Right.

Why did you get in when you got in?

I wanted to make sure that the issues that I cared about, you know, again, public safety, education, workforce development, we're going to get talked about.

I saw the potential for it to just become a a national issues discussion.

And I didn't think that was good for Kentucky.

It's easy for us to turn on Fox News or CNN and think that's what everyday Kentuckians care about.

I don't believe that as mayor, I'm living it every single day.

The struggle, the joys, the trials.

And I wanted to make sure that got talked about.

I think this became a very issue's focus.

We saw Commissioner Corales, obviously a brilliant guy, get a lot of degrees.

You know, come out with this this idea that he was the issues candidate.

I was okay with that.

Well, I thought we kind of had taken that mantle early.

He was then talking about things that really mattered.

It became a campaign about substance.

And maybe someday we'll shift the focus from personal attacks and tearing people down and talking about issues that can improve lives.

Well, oftentimes when political neophytes and that's not what you are because you've been a two term mayor, but those who were new to this state stayed.

Yes, right.

People get in knowing that, okay, my chances may not be all that good, but I'm building building the name recognition, building that profile.

So the question obviously, obviously, is what next?

Right.

I appreciate that.

I always tell folks I'm flattered when they ask, are you going to run for governor again?

Are you going to run for Congress?

You know, we've got a congressman who doesn't show any signs of stepping away.

You know, Congressman Rogers, the dean has done an incredible job for our region.

And I always want to be respectful of that.

And so right now, my focus truly is on Somerset.

It's been nice to get back on the horse as the chief executive of my hometown and start kicking butt again.

Will I seek higher office?

I'd say very likely.

I still think I have some skills to bring people together and get big things done, solve complex problems, cast a vision that I think is unique and that is not my town.

You know, I've pledged publicly that we're going to try to help General Cameron get over the hump.

It's going to be an incredibly tough election.

Governor Beshear still very popular and a lot of position, a lot of areas in the state.

And so my future is cemented for the next three and a half years, if you will.

You know, I'm going to be the mayor from there.

I don't know.

It's a it's a faith walk.

Tiffani and I have talked a lot about trusting the Lord in that process.

There's countless scriptures about not being anxious in that uncertainty.

And sometimes maybe that was the lesson is for the Lord to say, you know what?

I'm in control of your future, your destiny.

You just need to be a good steward day by day.

And so right now, that's the plan for me in Somerset.

You know, so many people talked about who was going to be the number two on the ticket with Daniel Cameron before he announced his state senator, Rob Mills, would be.

Did you ever have a conversation with Attorney General Cameron about being his running mate?

And the answer was, yeah.

And then actually, Smith started before I ever announced.

You know, I knew Daniel was thinking about it, and I think he had heard I was thinking about it.

And so we had a discussion.

Does it make sense to possibly I want to be candid, he never offered.

He never even said that I could be that person.

But we did have a conversation about, you know, what, it makes sense to set him up beforehand.

And so after the election that we didn't we never had a formal discussion about me running with him.

And a future broadcast of Kentucky Edition Macek, We'll share more about the future political post he could be eyeing and whether his message and policy platforms resonate with Republican voters.