MORGANTOWN – Kentucky’s new Democratic Party executive director, Morgan Eaves, spoke in Morgantown on Saturday about the need to overhaul how voters are informed throughout the year.

Eaves, who took over in February, spoke at a meeting with the Butler County Democratic Party and Butler Country Democratic Woman’s Club to highlight the role of rural counties in the party’s future.

She said the party has “waited until September, October to start talking to voters about what’s happening” for a “really long time.”

“And by then, it’s too late to talk to your neighbors and convince them,” Eaves said.

The solution, she hopes, is providing “candidates, county parties, state central executive committee members and other leaders across Kentucky” with updates from Frankfort “in real-time.”

She pointed to several pieces of legislation that demand attention, including House Bill 2, a recently approved constitutional amendment vote that will determine whether public funding can be provided to private educational institutions, currently forbidden under the state constitution.

“People need to have that information in their back pocket so that when they see (leaders) at home, they can hold them accountable,” Eaves said. “And not only that, they can explain to their neighbors why these decisions are hurting our communities, particularly right here in rural Kentucky.”

She added year-round voter education, especially beyond election years, is an “elementary” plan, but a vital step to breaking up the overwhelming Republican supermajority in the General Assembly.

Eaves, as well as local candidates, said more needs to be done to help rural counties understand how Republican legislation will ultimately go against their interests.

“Most counties in rural Kentucky have public education as their number one employer,” Eaves told the Daily News. “So talking to folks and making sure they understand how defunding public schools via constitutional amendment impacts their county, their economy and their kids – that’s really important.”

Eaves was joined by Hank Lindermann and William Compton, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives 2nd District, as well as Jamie Skudlarek, candidate for Kentucky Senate 5th District.

Lindermann, chair of the Rural Council for the Kentucky Democratic Party, has proposed “The Contract for Rural and Working America” – a set of governmental goals aimed at increasing opportunity and economic security across rural counties, available in-full at c4rwa.org.

It features 11 points including improved access to health care, education and child care, livable wages, broadband internet, drug abuse support services, union representation and renewable energy through water, wind and solar.

Lindermann also calls for the legalization of cannabis as a means of improving rural economies and eliminating the disproportional enforcement of the law on people of color. He also advocates for a new cabinet-level position, the “Secretary of Rural Affairs,” to focus on improving rural quality of life statewide.

Lindermann said the Democratic Party has long focused on the “Golden Triangle of Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort.” He said it’s “understandable” when candidates must me careful with the limited resources they have, but it is not a winning strategy.

“While this strategy may have made sense in the short term, in the long run it has been disastrous,” Lindermann said. “We have gone from being the majority in the State House to now having only 20 members. An organizer friend of mine says get ready for 10.”

He said the party needs a grassroots campaign to reconnect with rural Kentucky – “a fundamental reconsideration of the relationship between rural America and the rest of the country.”

“It’s time to come home, to once again be unequivocally the party of working people, and to become the champions of rural America,” Lindermann said.

Compton, a city councilman in Plum Springs, is an educator in Warren County Public Schools and helped uncover a wire fraud scheme wherein former Mayor Shedrick Johnson stole roughly $38,000 from the city, for which he pleaded guilty in January.

Compton said Kentuckians deserve representatives willing to fully support public education and labor unions, also calling for a codification of abortion rights after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

“Seeing all of the people in this room, it brings me so much hope for change on the horizon, and it is time that we start fighting for that change,” Compton said.

Finally, Skudlarek, running against Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, criticized her opponent’s opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion measures, abortion and women’s rights and efforts to implement private school voucher programs across Kentucky.

“We’re just so focused on even keeping an eye on women’s rights and gay rights and things like that, that we can’t even focus on these everyday things that would make our community so much better,” Skudlarek said.

Deborah Givens, president of the Democratic Women’s Club, said the organization was formed roughly a year ago to foster community engagement with Democratic ideals.

“We are outnumbered here, but that’s part of it,” Givens said. “We have to all work together and find a way to do that and let people know what our priorities are, and that we’re willing to work for them and for the communities on what’s important.”