Richard Heath (born August 9, 1955) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

from 2012 to 2025. He represented Kentucky's 2nd House district, which included Graves County and part of McCracken County.

Background

Heath graduated from Cuba High School in 1973. He went on to earn a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

agricultural education Agricultural education is the systematic and organized teaching, instruction and training (theoretical as well as hands-on, real-world fieldwork-based) available to students, farmers or individuals interested in the science, business and technol ...

in 1984, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

in 1989, both from

Murray State University Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky, in the Southern United States. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper-level an ...

. Heath is the owner of Heath Building Materials, located in

Mayfield, Kentucky Mayfield is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule–class city and the county seat of Graves County, Kentucky, Graves County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 10,017 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census. Hi ...

. He identifies as a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

, and is currently a member of the Graves County

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

, Graves County

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

National Rifle Association of America The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...

(NRA),

Associated General Contractors of America The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) is a trade association in the United States construction industry,About us
AGC. Acce ...

, National Frame Building Association, and Home Builders Association.

Elections

*2012 On May 31, 2012, Kentucky's 2nd House district incumbent Fred Nesler resigned to accept a position with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Subsequently, Governor Steve Beshear called for a special election to be held on November 6, 2012, the same day as the general election. Heath won the 2012 Republican Primary with 752 votes (78.6%) and won the November 6, 2012 General election with 9,681 votes (54.8%) against Democratic nominee Kelly Whitaker. He also won the special election for the remaining two months of Nesler's term. *2014 Heath was unopposed in the 2014 republican primary, and won the 2014 general election with 9,181 votes against Democratic candidate Jesse Wright. *2015 Heath was defeated by Ryan Quarles in the 2015 republican primary for Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture by a margin of 1,427 votes. *2016 Heath was unopposed in the 2016 republican primary, and won the 2016 general election with 11,699 votes against Democratic candidate Jesse Wright. *2018 Heath was unopposed in the 2018 republican primary, and won the 2018 general election with 10,880 votes against Democratic candidate Charlotte Goddard. *2020 Heath was unopposed in the 2020 republican primary, and won the 2020 general election with 15,484 votes against Libertarian candidate Joshua Gilpin. *2022 Heath was challenged in the 2022 republican primary by Kim Holloway, however Holloway was disqualified from the ballot due to one of her signatories for her campaign filing not being a registered republican. Holloway chose to continue her campaign as a write-in candidate during the 2022 general election, which Heath would win with 10,922 votes. *2023 Heath was defeated by Jonathan Shell in the 2023 republican primary for Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture by a margin of 33,802 votes. *2024 Heath was defeated in the 2024 Republican primary, garnering garnering 1,743 votes (47.8%) against Kim Holloway.

References

External links

Official page
at the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in th ...

*
Richard Heath
at

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

Richard Heath
at

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying, including a revolving door database which documents the individuals who have worked in both the public sector an ...

Place of birth missing (living people) 1955 births Living people Republican Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly Murray State University alumni People from Mayfield, Kentucky {{Kentucky-politician-stub