State Rep. Pamela Stevenson, a Louisville Democrat running to be Kentucky's attorney general, does not hold a license to practice law in the state of Kentucky.
According to the State Board of Elections, Kentucky candidates for attorney general must have been practicing lawyers for eight years before their election.
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“Her campaign is deceiving voters and making a mockery of Kentucky’s legal system,” spokesman Sean Southard of the Republican Party of Kentucky told the Washington Examiner.
Stevenson, who won her second term as a lawmaker in the 2023 midterm elections, is currently in good standing and was licensed by the Indiana State Bar Association in 1984, according to the association’s records.
“Pamela Stevenson is running around Kentucky saying she will be the 'People’s Lawyer,'" Southard said.
“She left out the ‘people’ she’s talking about will have to live in Indiana. One of two things must be true: Either she cannot practice law in Kentucky or she is a criminal who is practicing law without a license. Either way, she is the most unqualified candidate to ever run for this office,” he added.
Stevenson’s campaign told the Lexington Herald-Leader that she recently passed an ethics test to become a member, as required by the Kentucky Bar Association, which was not administered to Stevenson upon graduating from Indiana University School of Law in 1984. Stevenson reportedly scored a 98 out of 100 and is set to be admitted to the state bar by August.
Stevenson served 27 years as a judge advocate general with the U.S. Air Force, and her campaign team defended her career against Republicans attempting to discredit her qualifications.
“It’s pretty ironic that Kentucky Republican operatives have been pushing this story when Daniel Cameron had almost zero experience before he became AG. As we like to say — that dog won’t hunt,” Ashley Wolfeser, Stevenson’s campaign manager, told the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Only two candidates filed to run for attorney general, meaning both hopefuls advanced to the general election on Nov. 7, 2023.
“Kentuckians deserve an Attorney General who can walk into the courtroom to fight for them and win on Day One,” Southard said. "Russell Coleman is the most qualified candidate to ever run for Kentucky Attorney General, and he is the right choice in this race because—at a bare minimum—he has a Kentucky law license.”
Russell Coleman, a former U.S. prosecutor, is the Republican candidate. Coleman was appointed as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky by President Donald Trump in 2017.
Stevenson hopes to replace the current Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who isn’t seeking reelection and joined the packed race of Republicans trying to unseat Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), securing the Republican primary nominee in May.
As an attorney general candidate, Cameron faced scrutiny over his qualifications in 2019 but defeated state Sen. Wil Schroder in the Republican primary. Before his victory, Cameron won a lawsuit brought by a retired labor union leader who claimed he had not practiced law for eight years as required by the state constitution because some of those years were spent as a law clerk for a federal judge.
A Jefferson circuit Judge ruled in favor of Cameron, stating, “A federal judicial law clerk provides legal services to his or her judge requiring an extraordinary level of legal research and analysis.”
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Similar cases have occurred in different states, such as that of Lee Merritt, a civil rights lawyer who lost the race for Texas attorney general in 2020. Merritt was licensed in Pennsylvania but not licensed to practice in Texas. However, unlike Kentucky, the Texas Constitution does not require the attorney general to be licensed to practice law.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Stevenson's campaign for comment.