BY PHILLIP M. BAILEY, LEO

Since childhood, 29-year-old Candace Klein has planned on running for governor of Kentucky.

The upbeat Newport, Ky.-native officially declared her gubernatorial candidacy eight years ago, then a 22-year-old junior at Northern Kentucky University.

The aspiring leader called a press conference on campus and, with only one reporter in the audience, announced plans to run in 2027. The headline that ran in the student newspaper the next day: “What a precocious young woman.”

In the meantime, the overachiever was on target to graduate with a quadruple major in four years and already was applying to law schools.

“When I was 5, that was when I first announced to my mom,” says Klein, now an attorney in Northern Kentucky, representing small businesses and corporate clients in civil cases.

Klein’s first foray into politics came in college, where she spent three years as a student advocate with Team 2000, a group created by the NKU student government association, lobbying state lawmakers on post-secondary education issues. After spending several weeks in Frankfort, Klein was more energized than ever, realizing her desire to pursue a life of public service was more than just a childhood fantasy.

After launching a 25-year campaign, Klein received a mix of encouraging words, condescending pats on the head and blank stares.

“For the first few years, people would giggle,” she says. “Recently, the reaction has changed from a laugh to a viable goal people respect. I think that’s because people see I’ve been sticking to that plan since 2002.”

But Klein realizes pursuing a political career will not be easy, a road made all the more difficult due to the simple fact that she is a woman in Kentucky, a state that ranks shamefully low when it comes to electing women to public office.

Although Kentucky was the third state to elect a female governor— Martha Layne Collins — in 1983, the historic election did not exactly spur momentum in the bluegrass, where the number of female politicians lags well behind other states.

Kentucky ranks 45th among states in terms of women in the state legislature. Only 15 percent of the General Assembly is female, well below the national average of 24 percent in state legislatures around the country, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The commonwealth also is among 19 states without a single female member of Congress.

But in recent years, an increasing number of ambitious women like Klein have set out to buck this long-standing, patriarchal political trend. In response, seasoned female politicians and a handful of activist groups have joined forces to help more women infiltrate boys’ clubs in all levels of government — from small-town city halls to Frankfort and beyond.

Although any real campaigning for governor is still years away, Klein already is working to sharpen her campaign skills and enhance her political acumen with the help of one such group — Emerge Kentucky.

In February, Klein joined Emerge Kentucky’s first 25-member class, embarking on a seven-month training program.

Click here to read the full article in the LEO.