Patti Minter started her campaign for Bowling Green mayor Thursday night, gathering citizens from across the city to rally support for the upcoming election.

Minter, a WKU history professor, served as the District 20 State Representative in the Kentucky House from January 2019 until January 2023. In November 2022, she lost reelection for the seat to Republican Kevin Jackson. 

She announced her candidacy for mayor in January, in which she will campaign to defeat current mayor Todd Alcott in the race for office. Alcott has served as mayor of Bowling Green since 2021.

As a state representative, Minter assisted in lowering the cost of insulin, creating financial support for tornado recovery, putting federal dollars into the Bowling Green Veterans Center and securing over 3 million dollars to support Bowling Green’s roads. Now, she’s prioritizing improving city infrastructure and working with the Fairness Campaign to pass a Fairness Ordinance in Bowling Green.

By her side was former mayor of Bowling Green and secretary of state Elaine Walker, who opened the kickoff supporting Minter’s election.

“It’s not a democratic campaign, it’s not a Republican campaign, it’s a Bowling Green campaign,” Walker said.

Those words were the foundation of Minter’s message through the night as she consistently emphasized themes of being inclusive and transparent with all the city’s people.

“To me, what you do as mayor is listen, learn and find out what’s really going on in your community for all of the people. Not just some of them,” Minter said. “What makes our community beautiful and strong is that it’s a wonderful place to live. It has an excellent quality of life that we need to make sure everyone has.”

Minter was born and raised in East Tennessee. Still, when she began working in the WKU history department and forging her family with her husband, Michael Minter, and son, Alex, she found a home that couldn’t be left behind.

Throughout her time here, Minter has made many friends who have played a crucial role in her career as a politician. Initially, those supporters persuaded her to train as a politician in the Emerge program, an organization that recruits, trains and networks women in politics. Lucinda Anderson, director of special events at WKU, was one of the friends on her side since the beginning.

“I’ve been working with Patti ever since I’ve known her. She preaches an inclusive environment. Everyone needs to be invited to the same table,” Anderson said.

Minter remarked on how much credit she had to give to her campaign manager, Jason Lowe. 

The kickoff occurred in Pushin Building Artist Studio, which lies along Fountain Square Park in the center of Bowling Green. For Lowe, there was no better place to hold the assembly.

“We wanted to have it somewhere downtown that folks could easily access. We hope that folks who came here will volunteer to speak with others in the community,” Lowe said.

Minter will continue her campaign for the coming months until the mayoral election on Nov. 5.

“I want to work towards decisions that are the best for all of our community. That can absolutely be done. You can build consensus in ways that leave no one left out,” Minter said. “We need to make decisions that we know are the right ones. Decisions that will benefit the community twenty-five or fifty years down the road.”

News Reporter Larkin Ivory can be reached at [email protected].