Gretchen Hunt, Emerge Kentucky Class 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014 3:12 pm

The beginning.

Twenty-three women. A businesswomen, a lawyer, a farmer, one who grew up desegregating the schools in the south, a world traveler, a home birthing advocate, an advocate for children with disabilities, a public health expert, a future jailer, a Circuit Court Clerk, a daughter, a mother, an advocate for educational equality, two beauty pageant stars, an artist, a veteran, a singer, an equestrian, a teacher, a prosecutor. Hailing from east, west, north and south. All focused on a single goal: to serve this vast and diverse Commonwealth through public office.

This is the Emerge class of 2014. We arrived, undeterred by icy snowy roads and the 20mph speed of cars on the highway to complete a demanding first day of training. Within an hour or so of just meeting one another, we were asked to perform an impromptu stump speech and life story and to receive feedback and criticism. It was terrifying. And exhilarating. And, immensely helpful to this new candidate. Being among such amazing and brilliant and capable leaders for just eight hours was both humbling and inspiring, and already worth every penny I paid for this course. Our collective and individual power at the end of this journey will be mighty. I have no doubt. We will make the number of Kentucky Democratic women in elected office rise, and rise, and rise.

Gretchen Hunt is a member of the 2014 Emerge Kentucky class and a candidate for the 48th State House District in Jefferson and Oldham Counties. 

2014 Program Members

Amy Bales, Union
Bettye Brookfield, Springfield
Denise Brown, Louisville
Chrysanthia Carr-Seals, Lexington
Anne Delahanty, Louisville
Breonna Douglas, Hazard
Donna Crain Drury, Lawrenceburg
Brandi Harless, Paducah
Sarah Holland, Paducah
Regan Hunt, Louisville
Gretchen Hunt, Louisville
Ashley Miller, Louisville
Jessica Moore, Louisville
Natasha Murray, Lexington
Serena Owen, Elsmere
Katie Reisz, Louisville
Kathy Ryan, Lexington
Julie Scott Jernigan, Williamstown
Lori Shelburne, Lexington
Darlene Snyder, Richmond
Pamela Stevenson, Louisville
Djuan Trent, Lexington
Jackie Weathers, Elkton