This story first appeared in the Kentucky Lantern, an outlet of States Newsroom. It is republished here as part of a reporting partnership with WUKY to strengthen Kentucky journalism.
It started as an idea years ago among his buddies: Why not be the mayor?
Thirty-year-old Herbie Hardin has lived near Nelson County’s city of Fairfield his entire life, riding his bike as a kid down the street to visit his aunt. It was an easy decision for him to move there, a city with a little more than 100 people, when a friend wanted to sell a home in 2021.
“I kind of always liked the vibe that it gives off. You know, it’s just a little one-caution light town. It’s got a little gas station,” Hardin said. “I just knew it was a place that I wanted to live.”
On the last day to do so this summer, he decided to try to make the youthful idea a reality by filing to run for mayor. But he’s taken on the role even sooner: when the longtime mayor of Fairfield died in July and the city clerk asked him to step in as interim mayor, he accepted.
Hardin said he hasn’t really done any campaigning or put out any yard signs; he’s unopposed in this fall’s general election. But he said word-of-mouth spreads quickly in a small town — especially at the local gas station and deli, Fairfield Grocery.
“I think that’s where a lot of people found out that I was the mayor,” Hardin said. “I go in there quite a bit, and, you know, it’s a small town. People talk. People know what goes on.”
On Kentuckians’ ballots this fall are not only highly watched races for U.S. Senate and Congressional seats but also races for city mayor, city council and city commission — including several incorporated cities across the state with around 200 people or fewer.
Some of the leaders of these very small towns say politics is nowhere near akin to the politics of larger races, with people voting for who they know in town, and some local officials having served for a long time. But it can also be difficult to find people to run for local office.
Two people have filed as write-in candidates for the four-person city commission in Fairfield, meaning that Hardin would have to appoint local residents to the commission. Under state law, the governor would have the power to make appointments if the city doesn’t take action within 30 days of a vacancy.
Since becoming mayor, he’s had to deal with calls of “little goofy stuff” such as people complaining about barking dogs or cars blocking the road. But he finds it rewarding.
“This also makes me feel good about myself knowing that people know, ‘Hey I have a problem, I’m gonna call Herbie and I know he can get it taken care of,’” he said.
A community identity
Fairfield isn’t the only small city with few or no candidates having filed to run for office.
In the Owen County city of Gratz, with around 70 people, only one candidate for mayor is also on the ballot. In the Muhlenberg County city of South Carrollton, with about 140 people, no one has signed up to run for office.
The Webster County community of Slaughters, with about 190 people, has only Mayor Chris Winstead on the ballot. Winstead told the Lantern the entire city commission is running as write-in candidates because the former city clerk forgot to remind the commission about the filing deadline to appear on the ballot.
“There’s no drama involved in it,” Winstead said about his local elections. “We don’t have a lot of money for people to mismanage, or we don’t get a lot of attention or anything like that.”
He said it can be hard to encourage people to run for local office given the population loss small, rural cities are already dealing with; the local elementary school closed in 2012.
But he believes maintaining a city government, with people dedicated to solving local issues, is key to the community’s identity and cohesion. He said one of those issues is frequent flooding from the East Fork of Deer Creek that floods the main road in town.
“We’re trying to keep the town from just going away, and you know, just being a part of history. We want to make it better,” Winstead said.
On the other side of Webster County, the city of Wheatcroft, with about 90 residents, is asking its residents to vote on whether to dissolve the city entirely and become a part of the county after more than a century as an incorporated community. No one is on the ballot for mayor or city council in Wheatcroft.
Republican Webster County Judge-Executive Steve Henry told the Lantern he has mixed feelings about the dissolution vote after discussing the possibility with Wheatcroft leadership in past months. Every couple of months, he has a meeting with the various mayors of small cities in his county of about 13,000 people, each city having somewhat different needs and its “own culture.”
He said Wheatcroft was potentially looking at raising property taxes to meet the requirements of a state law passed in 2022, leading to the dissolution vote being put on the ballot.
“They’ve always had trouble getting people to serve on the city council,” Henry said about Wheatcroft. “When you lose the interests of the government within the city, that’s when you start seeing the overall decline.”
Even with the pending vote on dissolution, Henry said Wheatcroft’s identity will still remain.
“I know there were some people concerned that it wasn’t going to be Wheatcroft anymore. It will always be Wheatcroft,” Henry said.
