In a Facebook post, Patti Minter, history professor and former faculty regent on the WKU Board of Regents, said she plans to file to run for State Representative for the 20th House District of Kentucky, a position previously held by Rep. Jody Richards (D).

Earlier today, Richards announced he would not seek re-election for the 20th district seat following a 42-year long career in the legislature. 

“Thank you to Representative Jody Richards for his long and distinguished service to the people of our district. I will work hard to serve and to fight for the people of Warren County,” Minter said on Facebook. “I’ll share more ideas and listen to yours in the coming days, and I ask for your support as we fight for a better Kentucky.”

According to her WKU bio, Minter serves on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Legal History and on the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.

She served as the inaugural chair of the WKU University Senate from 2000-2001 and from 2007 to 2014 served as the elected Faculty Regent on the WKU Board of Regents.

Minter is also a a founding member of Bowling Green Fairness, a group which has been lobbying the Bowling Green City Commission to adopt a fairness ordinance making sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories to existing civil rights laws. 

BG Fairness also hosted the first Pride Festival in Bowling Green last October. 

“It will be a historic day in the history of Bowling Green and the LGBTQ community,” Minter said to a Herald reporter at the time. 

The Herald reached out to Minter but has yet to hear back. The Herald will update this story as more information becomes available.