Kentucky Rep. Shane Baker wants to ban naturalized citizens and people with dual citizenship from holding local or state office. The Republican from Somerset told Kentucky Public Radio he’s proposing the legislation in order to block them from taking Kentucky in an unspecified “direction.”
“You can see the direction they're trying to take New York, and the problems that are there are on the front burner there, and we don't want to face those things in Kentucky,” Baker said. “We want to make sure to head things off before they get here.”
Baker is seemingly referring to the election of Democratic New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a naturalized citizen originally from Uganda and member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Baker introduced both a bill and a constitutional amendment this week. House Bill 186 would require people elected to local offices — county commissioner, mayor, city council, board of education, etc. — to be natural-born citizens and may not hold dual citizenship with another nation.
House Bill 259, meanwhile, would change the Kentucky Constitution to make the same new requirements for state offices, like governor, attorney general, Supreme Court justice or state lawmaker.
But there are already Kentucky politicians serving their communities who fall into the category of citizen that Baker is trying to block. Baker’s colleague, Democratic Rep. Nima Kulkarni from Louisville has served in the state House since 2019 — two years longer than Baker.
Kulkarni, who is an immigration attorney, was born in India but moved to the U.S. as a child. She was naturalized when she was 14 years old. Kulkarni said she believes legislation like this divides Kentuckians and is “antithetical to everything that we would consider essential to a healthy democracy.”
“We've just basically alienated millions of people — not just people running for office — but millions of voters, people who live in our communities, who don't feel safe, who don't feel included,” Kulkarni said. “Bills like this just serve to make that feeling and that sense of alienation even more.”
Kulkarni said, like everyone who becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen, that she swore an oath to defend the Constitution and U.S. laws and is as loyal to America as any natural born citizen.
“These are just bills that divide communities for no real reason,” Kulkarni said. “They don't have any actual bearing or impact on national security, on threats to our intelligence community, or anything like that.”
The measure would also bar at least one local politician, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported, from his office. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Vice Mayor Dan Wu, who was born in China before moving to the U.S. as a child, was elected in 2022 with the most votes as an at-large member of the Lexington City Council.
Wu did not immediately respond to a request from Kentucky Public Radio, but told the Herald-Leader that the legislation is a “distraction” and hoped lawmakers would focus on “real issues” impacting Kentuckians.
Baker said his legislation isn’t meant to “address specific people. It’s meant to address an issue.” He said he has not yet spoken to Republican leadership to see if there is appetite for his legislation.
Baker’s bill would also add a one-year residency requirement for city council and mayoral candidates.
While HB 186, which affects local elections, would require only simple majorities to pass both chambers, the constitutional amendment to change the requirements for state offices would need two-thirds of each chamber before going on the ballot for Kentucky voters to decide.
The state constitution, since 1891, has required all state representatives to be citizens of Kentucky, at least 24 years old, to reside in the state for at least two years and in their area for at least the last year. The rules are similar for state senators, although they must be at least 30 years old and have resided in the state for at least six years.
HB 186 has two co-sponsors in Republican Reps. DJ Johnson from Owensboro and John Hodgson from Fisherville.
