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>> From State Farm to the state Capitol, Democrat and state Representative Erica Hancock shows how the insurance game has prepared her for public office.

Plus, her reflections on her first term in Frankfort as we continue our profiles of the freshman lawmakers of 2025.

♪ >> I've been a state farm agent here in Frankfort, Franklin County for 23 years.

And then one Derrick Graham announced his retirement and it just kind of put the opportunity presented itself to do something outside.

State Farm had a couple weeks to decide.

And I just want to head and just went for it.

My children are grown 17 and just turned.

21 this weekend.

So it's just a perfect time for me to give back to the community in a different way.

Being a state farm agent has absolutely helped me prepare for this role.

You know what would be having a tough conversations when when a claim is being denied.

We're having a tough conversations when the rates are being raised and those things I just I'm good at it because I care.

I care about the customer and I care about the company and its is bridging those 2.

Together.

You get to help them recover from horrible tragedies.

You get to help protect the things that they love and the people that they care down here.

It's the same thing.

It's just learning what the community needs and filling those needs through legislation.

So it's very similar and just building relationships, making sure people know that their needs are put first, not my own need.

So I it's it's it's pretty much the exact same thing when it comes here.

As far as relationship building.

I love it.

It's there's so much good that happens up here.

And 99% of what we do up here is not controversial.

I mean, clearly the night and thanks from not being in it and seeing it from the outside.

And finally coming into it.

You think that it's all this division and all these people don't like each other up here.

And that is the farthest thing from the truth.

I think a lot of us have different ways to get to the answer.

And it's just trying to compromise on those ways to get to what helps our Kentucky families.

All of us are up here to do the right thing for Kentucky families.

And it's just different ways to get there.

So I think that's been the biggest pleasant surprise is there's so many great resources available at the Legislative Research Commission.

The team up here is the smartest group of people I've ever been around and there is no reason Kentucky can't get it right.

My biggest constituent bases, state workers have Frankfort.

Franklin County has the largest concentration of state workers that live and work here in our community.

>> And Senate Bills, 79, there was an amendment put on it to make everybody go back to work full time.

And I do not believe that this is a way to go about how we get our state workers back to work.

So that's a huge priority.

Mind.

>> And keeping an eye on it and making sure to KET everybody informed that we're working on it and hear them and know that that we're going to do everything we can to make it as fair as possible.

I would really love for my bill 3.85.

To get past.

I'm I'm a aggressively optimistic but not naive.

This is the bill Athens Branscum has been trying to pass this bill.

>> Since he was 6 years old, it passed in the House in 2020 and its naming the state pet shelter, animal.

It's kind of full circle for me.

Uncle Hank was the state rep here from the Mid 70's, the Mid 90's.

And a couple weeks before he passed away, he told me the story of his first bill that he ever passed and it was naming the state tree.

So it's a full circle moment for me.

I'm hopeful that we can get some movement on it just because one of the things I ran on was civility and there's so many bills that we can agree upon.

This is just one that I felt like because of rain on civility.

It shows that I'm trying to reach across the aisle and build those relationships.

That is to me a no-brainer and a non partisan bill that we should be able to get past.

We are more than just one single issue.

All of us up here more than just one single issue.

Get to know U.S..

Call us come see us and learn how we are as a as a person.

And that's why I think bills like I even spent Bill.

It's just to say we are friends up here.

We are family up here.

We are all doing what's right for Kentuckians.

Just because we disagree how to get.

There does not mean we can't find middle ground to move Kentucky forward for all of Kentucky families.

Representative Hancock says Consumer protection is one of her specialties.

>> She serves on the House Banking and Insurance Committee