Political newcomer with no opponents wins Lexington council seat. Meet Amy Beasley

A Lexington pharmacy technician will soon become Lexington's 8th Council District council member.

Amy Beasley was the only candidate to run for the seat currently occupied by Lexington-Fayette County Councilman Fred Brown, who is retiring from council. Brown is in his fifth term on council.

The 8th Council District includes neighborhoods around the Tates Creek schools campus.

It's rare for a political newcomer to have no opposition in Lexington council races.

But Beasley is not new to politics.

The mother of four ran unsuccessfully for the 8th Council District seat in 2014 and for the Fayette County School Board in 2020.

A Lexington native, Beasley dropped out of high school but later went back to school to get her GED certificate. She eventually went on to get an associate's degree in criminal justice.

She is a pharmacy technician and has worked for Kroger for 20 years. She is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and has served as chief steward. She is also president of the Bluegrass Central Labor Council.

She is the president of the Tates Creek High School PTA. All four of her children graduated from Tates Creek High School.

Beasley said she wants to do more to tackle food insecurity in the 8th District and address mental health issues facing youth.

"I want to work on food insecurity and mental health of our kids," Beasley said.

The city needs to do more to address gun violence through outreach and programming targeting youth.

"I know the number of homicides are going down, but there's been 17 homicides so far this year," Beasley said. "That's 17 too many."

Making sure more people have access to affordable housing is also tops on Beasley's to-do list.

"I think we are going to have to have more conversations with landlords, tenants and builders," Beasley said. "Not everyone can afford to live in these mansions."

Because Beasley had no opposition and was guaranteed the seat, she has been able to talk and learn a lot from Brown before being sworn in come January. The two recently took a tour of all the district's parks, she said.

She also has shadowed council members to learn how the council works.

She's also not waited to meet the people she will serve.

"I've already started going to neighborhood association meetings," Beasley said.