Joseph Wayne Prather /ref> (born 1939) was the Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KY_TRANSPORTATION_SECRETARY_KYOL-?SITE=KYLOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT He is a
Democrat
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.
A resident of
Vine Grove, Kentucky
Vine Grove is a home rule-class city in Hardin County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 6,559 as of the 2020 Census, up from 4,520 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Elizabethtown–Fort Knox Metropolitan Statistical Area.
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, Prather was a State Senator and received the nomination for
lieutenant governor
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in 1976.
He is, however, probably best known as an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Representative from the Kentucky's 2nd district in the special election on May 24, 1994, after longtime
incumbent
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and a fellow Democrat William Huston Natcher died in office after over 40 years of service in the House.
The district was thought to be a safe Democratic Party seat. Everyone elected since 1865 were Democrats.
George Stephanopoulos
George Robert Stephanopoulos (born February 10, 1961) is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos currently is a news presenter, coanchor with Robin Roberts (newscaster), Robin Roberts and M ...
, ''All Too Human: A Political Education''
Despite this Prather faced a strong challenge from the Republican candidate Ron Lewis, who got support from numerous national Republican sources and many religious conservative groups.
Lewis often compared and tied Prather to then-unpopular (this was before the 1994 midterm election, when Democrats lost control in both houses of Congress for the first time since 40 years)
President
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Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
. One of his commercials said: ''If you like Bill Clinton, you will love Joe Prather''. In results, Prather had lost by ten points.
A portion of Kentucky Route 313 is named the Joe Prather Highway in his honor.